Effectiveness of TI (thermal imaging)

[Imp]

As far as I know degrades slightly but its really down to the TI system, if its kept cool enough it can still do its job.

[PPoS]

OK. I just thought that ground such as sand having been heated during the day should be warmer than a human. I mean, you can more or less burn your feet on sand.

[gingertanker]

The TI shows hotter objects as brighter, so if the temperature of the terrain is warmer than a human, the terrain will be brighter. but you would still see the human because of him being in a different shade than the terrain.

As far as IDing AFVs, I think for a trained gunner at decent contact ranges (1500-2000) telling western and eastern designs apart is quite easy. telling the exact variant can be very hard but than again telling the exact variant of tanks (for instance T-55 or T-62) at 2000 meters with the regular sights in broad day light is not that easy either....

[gingertanker]

Regarding AFV recognition with tank sights:
finally tracked down this photo...as far as identification goes:

2008, Lebanese Border:From the sight of my Merkava Mk2b, At a range of roughly 2300 meters, these two UN white painted(!) Leclercs are not so easy to tell apart from any other western tank. BTW they were impossible to see on thermal, which I still cant explain to this day.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...0/SANY0168.jpg

[Aeraaa]

Did they have IR coatings?

[gingertanker]

That is one explanation...But if you are painting a tank bright white why would you bother with thermal coating?

BTW just to make things clear we were only using their tank to practice fire drills(without shooting of course),we in way intended to shoot at them or harm them. Switches for main gun and coax were down. I just wanted to let my gunner get a feel for tank size targets after a few months without a decent gun range.

[gingertanker]

*in no way

[PPoS]

Thanks for the information, and for the cool image !