Being in the theater of war as a soldier can be quite a harrowing experience, especially when you are thrown headlong into a hot zone. Hence, making sure that you and your buddies are well camouflaged would play to your advantage. Apparently, the Pentagon did commission a new kind of camouflage make-up which is said to be able to offer protection to the human skin on which it was applied on from intense thermal blasts of heat, all the way north to 15 seconds. In the line of fire, this could eventually mean a difference of between 2nd or 3rd degree burns, depending on your proximity to the explosion at that particular point in time.
Known as “bomb burn”, it is a serious and yet common injury among soldiers in combat situations. A bomb blast is capable of sending waves of highly compressed wind away from the explosion, where a two-second thermal blast would then follow, heating anywhere in its vicinity all the way to 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit. This is deadly to humans as those caught up in the explosion have a high chance of suffering from potentially fatal third-degree burns.
The new camouflage face paint will be made out of a silicone base that will not be as flammable compared to traditional wax-based camouflage. In an event of a bomb blast, it will not only offer protection for your skin to a certain degree, it also doubles up as some sort of insect repellent.
Filed in . Read more about Science.