# SHTF - Forest Base - Space Blankets



## IcemanUnlimited (Apr 12, 2012)

Let's say USA is invaded by China or Russia or something crazy. All out war, or even revolution within the country. You decide to take up shelter in the woods.

Would using Space Blankets as a tent roof keep you hidden from overhead thermal vision by recon aircraft?


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## echo1432 (May 16, 2012)

IcemanUnlimited said:


> Let's say USA is invaded by China or Russia or something crazy. All out war, or even revolution within the country. You decide to take up shelter in the woods.
> 
> Would using Space Blankets as a tent roof keep you hidden from overhead thermal vision by recon aircraft?


No, in fact you would stand out. Good thermal imaging these days, the blanket would act like a mirror. It would stick out like you wouldn't believe. Your best bet would be to try to the match the surrounding terrain. I would suggest building a roof using logs and covering it with dirt and the natural vegetation that surrounds the area (if there is moss, cover it with moss and so on).


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## OldCootHillbilly (Jul 9, 2010)

Key word here be "Thermal". Ya either gotta be the same temp as yer surrondins er make the surrondins the same temp as yall. Then ya gotta change yer shape a bit to. Not easy ta do.

We use thermal imagin at work alot an it be quite a impressive tool, even the lower end units what we have will show so much. The stuff the goobernuts an enforcement have would be much more refined. Perty hard ta defeat.


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## IcemanUnlimited (Apr 12, 2012)

echo1432 said:


> No, in fact you would stand out. Good thermal imaging these days, the blanket would act like a mirror. It would stick out like you wouldn't believe. Your best bet would be to try to the match the surrounding terrain. I would suggest building a roof using logs and covering it with dirt and the natural vegetation that surrounds the area (if there is moss, cover it with moss and so on).


Ah, interesting. I read an article earlier today saying the Taliban sometimes wrap themselves in space blankets, making them very hard to detect with thermal vision. That's how they infiltrated some base or something a while ago.

Anyways, it's good to know that the tent idea won't work. lol


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## echo1432 (May 16, 2012)

Its an excellent question, unfortunately until you get to play with a good thermal camera its hard to understand (at least it was for me).

Since tents can be a simple USGI wool blank held up by sticks or a high speed nylon material it's hard to say exactly how well it would blend in. Making a simple lean to and covering it with earth would be your best bet. Not sure why the government would be looking for people with thermal in a forest, unless thats like your Half-Life style resistance 'white forest' base.


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## weedygarden (Apr 27, 2011)

*In one word: camouflage*

I saw photos of someone's retreat that was virtually invisible to people driving right by it. It blended right into the surroundings and looked like the rest of the surrounding area.

If you have a building, a green roof is much more likely to blend in than a red one.

In Vietnam, our soldiers would walk right over tunnel entrances and they were so well disguised they wouldn't even see them.

So if you were to build or want to take cover, avoiding symmetrical and shiny would be best. Natural materials are best.


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## Elinor0987 (May 28, 2010)

IcemanUnlimited said:


> Would using Space Blankets as a tent roof keep you hidden from overhead thermal vision by recon aircraft?


A space blanket would probably help, but like others have said it's best to blend in with your surroundings. Covering up the space blanket with some type of camouflage would be better than just leaving the foil exposed. I've seen aerial photos of landscapes taken with infrared cameras and I think it would probably be better to pitch a tent under a tree because the leaves and branches would help cover and conceal you.



echo1432 said:


> Not sure why the government would be looking for people with thermal in a forest, unless thats like your Half-Life style resistance 'white forest' base.


Some of the spy drone planes are equipped with thermal imaging cameras.


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## echo1432 (May 16, 2012)

Elinor0987 said:


> A space blanket would probably help, but like others have said it's best to blend in with your surroundings. Covering up the space blanket with some type of camouflage would be better than just leaving the foil exposed. I've seen aerial photos of landscapes taken with infrared cameras and I think it would probably be better to pitch a tent under a tree because the leaves and branches would help cover and conceal you.
> 
> Some of the spy drone planes are equipped with thermal imaging cameras.


Oh that I a aware, I guess I don't know in what situation you think you will find yourself on the run from the government and need to hide from ariel platforms


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## Tjaway6 (Mar 1, 2012)

*Thermal camo*

One point to consider is insulation. Imagine standing 5 feet away from a red hot anvil. You'd feel the heat on your face. Now put some fiberglass insulation between yourself and the anvil. You can't feel that heat anymore. The more material between you and the detector the less of your signature will show. That's one reason the bad guys in Afganistan hide in caves.

Let's hope we never have to put this kind of info to actual use!


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## stayingthegame (Mar 22, 2011)

our fire department has a thermal imaging device. it can detect where a person has touched a place for several minutes after depending on the ambient air temp. so if you were running we could possibly follow your heat trail.


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## VUnder (Sep 1, 2011)

Really, the best bet is to set everything you see on fire. Every private citizen needs to have this plan. Burn houses, vehicles, burn it all. The only way I think you can have a chance to survive is to fill the atmosphere with so much smoke that you can offer yourself some protection. Maybe if we are lucky an asteroid or meteor strike will happen, or maybe a volcano will start belching, along with the earthquakes that are already in The Book. Look up homeland security // blimps. Eleven blimps, each one is seventeen times larger than the goodyear blimp, with cameras that cover 650 miles, and are hovering over us right now, running on solar power, un-manned. Now, why did they give law enforcement all the old tv system?


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## LongRider (May 8, 2012)

stayingthegame said:


> our fire department has a thermal imaging device. it can detect where a person has touched a place for several minutes after depending on the ambient air temp. so if you were running we could possibly follow your heat trail.


Interesting. We built an enclosed heated porch around our house. One of the things I was told was the heated space would help mask/blur our heat signature inside the house. That was incorrect?


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## OldCootHillbilly (Jul 9, 2010)

Our thermal camera's be good ta a tenth of a degree. The closer yer body temp be ta the ambient temp the less of yer heat signature will show. But there ain't much a anythin what will make ya invisible ta them camera's.

Yeah, ya can see foot prints on carpet, hand prints on walls. There a neat tool an perty hard ta fool.


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## eldarbeast (Mar 28, 2011)

Cover your shelter with six inches of water. Reflects radar, defeats thermal and provides limited protection from radiation. Can be used to sustain life, water your garden and your livestock.

eldar


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## md1911 (Feb 9, 2012)

eldarbeast said:


> Cover your shelter with six inches of water. Reflects radar, defeats thermal and provides limited protection from radiation. Can be used to sustain life, water your garden and your livestock.
> 
> eldar


Sounds like a good idea.


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## Jezcruzen (Oct 21, 2008)

Materials reflect and radiate heat at different rates. Even the leaves of different species of trees radiate heat at different rates. 

Erecting a space blanket and attempting to hide your heat signature underneath it doesn't work. Your heat will radiate out the sides. If the blanket is touching you, a hot spot will show where it touches. Even if no heat is radiated, being that different materials radiate at different levels, the rectangle shape of your blanket can be picked up by a good IR operator. Even disturbed earth will show.

Out foxing the goon squad and their latest generation IR capability will be very difficult for most, if not impossible.


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## stayingthegame (Mar 22, 2011)

we use our device during and after a fire to find hot spots. we have found some spot still "hot after putting 1000's of gallons of water on the house. even water will absorb the heat around it.masking against these devices means to enlarge the heat area to the point that it does seem out place or looks to large to be a single person. to me the best place would be a hollow tree.


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## Ration-AL (Apr 18, 2012)

Jezcruzen said:


> Materials reflect and radiate heat at different rates. Even the leaves of different species of trees radiate heat at different rates.
> 
> Erecting a space blanket and attempting to hide your heat signature underneath it doesn't work. Your heat will radiate out the sides. If the blanket is touching you, a hot spot will show where it touches. Even if no heat is radiated, being that different materials radiate at different levels, the rectangle shape of your blanket can be picked up by a good IR operator. Even disturbed earth will show.
> 
> Out foxing the goon squad and their latest generation IR capability will be very difficult for most, if not impossible.


you make a mouse trap they just make a better mouse, try and get your hands on this stuff
http://www.defensereview.com/bluche...mouflage-for-21st-century-warfare-operations/

and use it with a space blanket, space blankets must be mylar one side, tarp material on the other, this slows down the heat sinking through.

layer, space blanket followed by ghost suit material if you can get it, if not use the material found in ghillie suits and put a spacer of some sort between the ghillie and the space blanket, this allows for air to flow between the two and keeps heat sig's down, the trick to this is to deploy it right when you need it, no sooner as heat transfer begins to happen and it's only a matter of time until anything you do becomes a white hot beacon for them to track.

that's what i've come up with in my research on this topic at least.

without









nothing but space blanket








also this for some reason


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## d_saum (Jan 17, 2012)

Ration-AL said:


> you make a mouse trap they just make a better mouse, try and get your hands on this stuff
> http://www.defensereview.com/bluche...mouflage-for-21st-century-warfare-operations/
> 
> and use it with a space blanket, space blankets must be mylar one side, tarp material on the other, this slows down the heat sinking through.
> ...


I dont care who you are... that's FUNNY!


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## IcemanUnlimited (Apr 12, 2012)

Forgot about this thread. lol

Yeah, well the thermal pics show that it seems to help, but not totally rid you of your heat signature.


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## kejmack (May 17, 2011)

One time at our house in VA, I smelled the faint smell of something burning. I called the FD. They came but couldn't smell anything. They brought in the thermal camera that StayingintheGame is talking about. Sure enough, they could see the heat signature going up the wall. Turns out it was an electric wire that was smoldering. It was amazing technology. There is no doubt the government has cameras that even superior to what the FD has.


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## invision (Aug 14, 2012)

Those fire department cams are amazing, a charity I work with bought two for the local FDs... We got to play with them some... Very cool


And if the FD has those, I can only imagine what the eyes in the sky's capabilities are really like.


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## Magus (Dec 1, 2008)

There was a product called "red out" that blocked thermal signatures back some years ago, don't know if it's still around though.they had tarps and ghille type suits.


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## IcemanUnlimited (Apr 12, 2012)

Wish I could change the name of this thread to be a bit more relevant lol


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