Russia Keeps Sending Penguin Troopers To Get Droned In Broad Daylight
Some regiment is deploying thermal camouflage in all the wrong ways
A third Russian has been droned while wearing “penguin” camouflage
The heat-trapping camo can hide the wearer from thermal drones that see heat
But it’s ineffective against optical drones that see in the visible spectrum
For the third time in six days, Ukrainian drone operators have spotted, and struck, solitary Russian troops trying to sneak along the snow-covered front line in Ukraine while wearing white thermal camouflage.
Camouflage that makes the wearer look a lot like a giant penguin.
Don’t blame the camo, however. Apparently made of heat-trapping Oxford 210D fabric—popular in camping gear—the roughly $200 ponchos should help the wearer blend in on a snowy landscape. But only when viewed through the heat-sensing infrared sensors on Ukraine’s thermal drones.
Viewed through the daylight sensor on an optical drone, a thermally camouflaged “penguin trooper” is no more invisible than any white-clad soldier. Whichever Russian regiment bulk-purchased the penguin ponchos has erred in sending its penguin troopers across the treeless no-man’s-land in broad daylight.
More alarmingly for the Russians, the regiment keeps repeating its mistake—and persists in sending more penguin troopers on suicidal treks across the winter landscape.
