Nature is full of master deceivers. Animals, insects, and even plants use colours, patterns, and clever tricks to blend into their surroundings. Such adaptations serve to hide their location, identity, and movements. This allows them to avoid predators or catch prey. Inspired by these natural tricks, humans have used similar methods in warfare to stay hidden and confuse enemies.
The French word for this deception is camouflage. It comes from the verb camoufler, meaning ‘to disguise’. The term became widely used during the First World War (1914–1918). Innovations like aerial surveillance and underwater torpedoes increased the need for effective camouflage. This led to new ways to hide military equipment and soldiers. Camouflage netting and disruptive patterns hid artillery and aircraft. Ships featured bold patterns known as dazzle. The people who designed these methods were called camofleurs. They included naturalists, artists, and scientists.
Camouflage can be classified into two primary strategies:
- Crypsis: Using colours, patterns, and shading to make objects blend into their surroundings, making them hard to see.
- Mimicry: Creating decoys and disguises to trick enemies into seeing something that isn’t really there.
Military camouflage blends these strategies with science and artistic design. Scientists study how light, colour, and shadow affect visibility. They also explore the use of multi-spectral camouflage to evade electromagnetic sensors. Artists create patterns that deceive the eye. Nature remains their inspiration. By studying the colour change in octopus, active camouflage was developed. This type of camouflage allows adaptation to the environment.
From nature to the battlefield, camouflage continues to evolve, shaping how we see—and don’t see—the world around us.
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