No, not a charge-coupled device. Camouflage, concealment and deception.
Check this out for an amazing (even if slightly paranoid, given the distances involved) example.
When I was a young lieutenant I was assigned a training mission to execute a simulated Walleye strike on a target complex in Fallon, Nevada. My target was a long building in a “terrorist training complex.” The local aviators from Strike University had done a pretty impressive job of creating a shadow-fall to make the long building in the center of the compound look like two buildings instead instead of one, hoping of confounding my target acquisition.
The instructors reviewed my weapons system video after the strike, confirming that I had struck the right target. “How did you see through the CCD?” they asked. The answers was that I had never even noticed it. I had done my target study and there was only one building in the middle of that compound. Sometimes you get lucky.
Now I guess we just thank God for GPS.
(H/T to David K. for the link.)
Reminds me of a cartoon I saw back at Lejeune. An officer walks into a classroom through a door marked “Advanced Urban Camoflauge Tactics” to see only empty desks. The caption says, “Well done, men!”
But sometimes, the best laid plans…(you know).
“Well aware that the Lockheed aircraft plant in Burbank, just blocks from his studio, was certain to be a high-value target, he was horrified one day to have someone point out that, from the air, a Japanese bomber might not be able to tell the difference. Warner promptly visited the studio’s paint shop and ordered the erection of an enormous sign on the roof of one of the Warner soundstages. The result? A twenty-foot arrow pointing to Burbank, along with the words: LOCKHEED – THAT-A-WAY!”
http://la.curbed.com/archives/2007/08/suburban_subdiv.php
When I was very young my dad moved us to a subdivision near LAX. It was Los Angeles National Airport then. We got there in September of 45. They were just starting to take down the same type cammo that covered the Douglas and North American plants. It was really impressive to a 7 year old.
The brits did something like this as well. They hired a magician to create the illusions to hide tanks and buildings around the Suez canal.
If you are interested,
http://www.magictricks.com/library/war.htm
it’s monty python… and it’s sort of relevant.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=zekiZYSVdeQ
Hey r t, Mrs. B.J. Smegma !!!! oh the glory of…John Cleese the master of cheezy comments…thanks for the bellylaughs. Best