The Little World

Or how to survive on the battlefield.

See them before they see you – then run away. This also works with blind dating.

The almost universal adoption of low-vis paint scheme and insignia by the world’s air forces has been founded on a number of assumptions – but not all of them seem logical:

a. You will be seen if you have bright national colours in your insignia – and a dogfight will ensue.

Dog fights these days occur at about 80 km distance and are fought with missiles that look for heat or radar reflection – not colour. And the speed of ground attack aircraft is such that if a ground defender saw any colour at all, they would be under a hail of fire anyway.

b. You will be seen from the air if you are not camouflaged.

You were seen by a satellite this morning when you got out of bed and went to the mess hall and it likely counted the eggs on your plate. No matter how many colours of green you put on the top of your airplane, something sees through the foliage and counts your rivets.

Hell, we have people in the modelling club that do that wearing anoraks…

c. Your national prestige or hulking persona are enhanced by painting things grey.

If you want something grey, buy a Toyota.

Quite frankly, I suspect they could paint modern fighter planes like a WW1 Jasta and get just as good results. Plus the pilots would be poncing about like guardsmen. Bright paint is the same price as grey.,