Under the conditions of modern warfare, in response to the requirements of high-tech warfare for individual combat, the high-tech use of individual equipment has become an inevitable choice. As the "eyes" of individual soldiers, they must have universal visibility during day and night and in low visibility conditions, which makes thermal imaging cameras the first choice for high-tech equipment for individual soldiers.
At present, infantry operations have developed from the traditional modes of coordination between infantry combat units, between individual soldiers, infantry artillery and infantry tanks, simple air-ground coordination, and individual soldiers fighting independently, to joint operations with the air force, navy, army aviation, armored forces, artillery, and other services and arms. The infantry has also been transformed from a unit that directly conducts fire operations into an information-acquisition and firepower combat unit. To this end, the United States, Europe, and other countries are developing and equipping individual thermal imaging equipment with more functions and more advanced performance; in addition to improving the day and night combat capability of individual soldiers, they are also realizing joint operations with other services, arms, and friendly neighbors through individual soldier information systems and tactical networks. In order to meet the requirements of joint operations, individual thermal imaging equipment has also been limited to observation, search, and aiming in the past
As shown in Figure 2: The infrared/thermal imager has the ability to penetrate the haze. The buildings in front of and behind the Tower at 4.9 km in the fog are faintly visible in the visible image (left), but are clearly visible in the mid-wave infrared image taken with a 640 × 480 indium antimonide (InSb) camera at the same time and scene (right).
Figure 3 Infrared/thermal imagers have the ability to penetrate smoke
As shown in Figure 3, an infrared/thermal imager has the ability to penetrate smoke. In a visible image of smoke coming out of a room facing the door (left), only smoke and smoke outside the house can be seen; However, in the LWIR image at the same time and scene (right), you can see the details of the person standing in the room and the left side of the house obscured by thick smoke in the visible image, and it can be seen that the LWIR radiation can penetrate the smoke and make the scene blocked by smoke "transparent".
2) Passively receive the infrared radiation signal formed by the temperature difference, emissivity difference or reflectivity difference of the scene (including the target and the background) in different infrared bands or wavelengths, and have the ability to identify camouflaged targets, perceive the target state, and detect stealth targets.
As shown in Figure 4: infrared / thermal imaging technology has the ability to identify camouflaged targets. The mechanism of low-light imaging is the visible light imaging of the reflection of the scene and the surface of the object, which is difficult to identify as long as the surface reflection of the scene and the object is the same (left), but the mechanism of thermal imaging is that the scene and the object themselves emit infrared radiation imaging, as long as the temperature and surface emission of the scene and the object are different, it can be detected and identified, and in the long-wave infrared image of the scene at the same time and scene, it can be clearly identified that there is a person wearing camouflage clothing (right) standing in the woods, because the camouflage suit cannot replicate the temperature and surface emissivity of the scene.