Fighter Combat - Tactics and Maneuvering

TACTICAL INTERCEPTS 381
general, these shadow patterns can change very rapidly and would be very
difficult to predict accurately under real-time operational conditions, but
if a camouflage scheme is to be effective, it must make allowance for these
shadow effects.
One means of achieving this objective is to use fairly light colors overall,
since a large portion of the aircraft is likely to appear uarker anyway
because of shadows. If the remainder of the surface is a lighter color, there
is greater chance that either the light or the dark portions will blend well
with the background at a given instant, which reduces the apparent size of
the aircraft. If the entire aircraft is a darker shade it may be very difficult to
see against a dark background, but it will stick out like a sore thumb when
it is viewed against lighter areas. Lighter colors overall tend to offer a better
compromise.
The actual color is not nearly as important as the shade. Bright colors
should be avoided, however, since they rarely occur in nature and tend to
attract attention. Dull, flat, pastel grays, blues, tans, and greens, although
not highly inspirational, are much more effective for camouflage purposes.
The actual colors are usually chosen to blend with the normal surface
tones for better effect while the aircraft is on the ground or at low altitudes.
High-gloss paint and shiny bare metal have no place on combat aircraft
because of their tendency to reflect sun flashes. The actual colors chosen
are not so important for two reasons. First, a large portion of the aircraft is
likely to be in shadow and appear gray regardless of its real color. Second,
colors cannot be distinguished at great distances. Even with the rather
large size of many of today's fighters, it is usually impossible to distinguish
between aircraft painted in muted pastel colors of the same reflectance
(shade) at distances greater than two or three miles under optimum lighting
and aspect conditions. (This is not very far in today's terms, since
fighter turn diameters may exceed one mile, and even "short-range" missiles
can be lethal from several miles.) Very bright colors, however, might
be recognizable under the same conditions at distances greater than ten
miles. The general rule is to avoid the use of colors that are distinguishable
at normal visual ranges.
Weapons should be hardy rather than decorative.
Miyamoto Musashi
The most effective camouflage technique for fighter aircraft seems to
involve the use of two or three different shades of paint of either the same
or different colors (but all flat, light pastels). The camouflage scheme
should be designed so that each view of the aircraft is composed of approximately
equal percentages of each shade. The intent of this method is for
one of the various shades to blend well with a given background, making
that portion of the aircraft difficult to see and effectively reducing the
apparent size of the fighter. A greater variety of paint shades increases
the probability that one will blend well with the background but reduces
the percentage of total area covered by each shade, and therefore the effect
of blending is also reduced. This factor leads to a tradeoff in determining
the optimum number of shades. Generally speaking, two shades seem to