Israeli camouflage tech makes soldiers 'invisible'

• Author: MAYA MARGIT/THE MEDIA LINE
• Published date: 15 June 2021
• Date: 15 June 2021
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

In cooperation with the Defense Ministry, the company recently unveiled Kit 300, an innovative camouflage sheet made out of a material that provides multispectral concealment.

According to Polaris Solutions, nothing else like its camouflage sheet exists on the market today.

"As far as we know, or as far as we saw in other armies around the world, we are very unique," Asaf Picciotto, co-founder and CEO of Polaris Solutions, told The Media Line. "To establish that, we actually registered a patent on it in many countries around the world."

The lightweight sheet is made out of a special thermal visual concealment (TVC) material, comprised of metals, polymers and microfibers. Thanks to TVC, soldiers are much more difficult to see both with the naked eye and with thermal imaging equipment.

Thus, it can be used for counter-surveillance in a wide variety of military scenarios.

The idea for the technology was born in 2006 during the Second Lebanon War. At the time, Picciotto was in a special IDF unit and saw firsthand that soldiers on the ground required better protection from their enemies' thermal cameras and night-vision equipment.

"You have to be better than the enemy and we understood that there were big gaps in the survivability part," Picciotto recalled.

Polaris Solutions was founded a few years later, in 2010, and is now headquartered in the Israeli port city of Caesarea. Several former IDF soldiers with special forces training have lent their expertise to the company, which also produces a range of tough and durable tactical textiles and patented military products.

Kit 300 was specifically developed to counter new and ever-evolving challenges on the battlefield.

"Camouflage nets haven't changed too much in the past 50 year," Yonatan Pinkas, director of marketing at Polaris Solutions, told The Media Line.

"We wanted to bring in a new type of material," he added. "So TVC was born."

Each sheet comes with different coloration on each side: one for dense vegetation and the other for more desert-like landscapes. In addition, the company customizes patterns and coloring based on client needs and geographic region.

The sturdy material can be molded into...