Camouflage for the win
As drones have increased in number and sophistication in the Ukraine conflict, so too has the need for effective camouflage. Swedish officer and academic Daniel Smith argues that good signature management solutions – including Barracuda camouflage – are crucial to maintain combat effectiveness.
Daniel Smith’s PhD research took him from the halls of Swedish academia right to the frontline of the Ukraine conflict. A captain with the Swedish Armed Forces, Smith was intrigued by why some combat units hold together and fight effectively under intense pressure, while others fall apart. To try to find out and complete his doctorate at Swedish Defence University, he spent 55 days at the conflict’s frontline, interviewing more than 50 active warfighters serving with the Ukrainian forces about their experiences.
In September 2025, he publicly defended his thesis Focalizing Warfighters: Combat Cohesion from Below. While Smith’s work primarily focused on the motivation of soldiers, his interviews also shone a light on how the war has progressed from a tactical and technological perspective and the important role played by camouflage. Speaking to a panel, he recently explained why camouflage is now needed further behind the frontline than ever before and how smart decoys are playing strategic role.
The growing danger zone
Smith says in Ukraine, as in prior conflicts, camouflage is playing a key role in ensuring troops survive to carry out their missions. While it doesn’t make for exciting viral videos in the way that an exploding munition does, it’s highly effective at saving lives.
“Camouflage, deception and signature management are probably the best ways of stopping a kill chain entirely, because the chain never gets the chance to start”
“But the experience of successful camouflage isn’t really an emotional one. It's a rational, intellectual experience for warfighters who understand they can’t be seen, and so gain that confidence.” Smith says that as technology has evolved throughout the Ukraine conflict, so too have camouflage needs. For example, a huge surge in the number of drones in use by both sides has extended the danger zone on each side of the frontline. “There’s a proliferation of cheap drones and loitering munitions like Shahed and that means you simply cannot afford to stop worrying about signature management,” he says. “For soldiers, the distance from the frontline that you need to travel to feel safe has increased from a few kilometres just a few decades ago to something between 30 and 40 kilometres today.” While travelling in this grey zone, soldiers need to ensure they minimise their visibility to the enemy in order to stay alive.
Thermal sensors now standard
Another major change is the proliferation thermal sensors. While at the start of the war most drones only had optical sensors, today thermal sensors are more or less standard equipment, making unprotected soldiers stand out a mile. While Barracuda systems for personal and vehicles gives a multispectral protection for the warfighters offer thermal protection and are in use in Ukraine, many soldiers have only optical camouflage systems. “In terms of signature management, a lot of Ukrainian warfighters expressed the need for something to protect them against thermal imagers,” Smith says. “They also wanted something to help them to remain undetected in their headquarters, so better signature management overall.”
Another learning from Smith’s interviews is the important role that deception is playing in the conflict. Increasingly sophisticated decoys are being used to waste enemy resources and divert attention from troops’ true intentions and motivations. “The use of decoys is increasing with the regrettable difficulty in staffing the Ukrainian armed forces,” says Smith. “You have to sometimes leave certain sections of the defensive line unprotected – and it’s the same on the Russian side.” Unlike the simple decoys used in WW2, the decoys used in Ukraine replicate the noise, activity and heat signature of true military assets.
“These things emit the same kind of signatures as proper forces,” Smith says. “They are visible from a distance to be discovered, and then when an attack drone is dispatched, they might discover that this is not real. They will destroy it anyway.”
Deceive to win
Smith says the explosion in sensors in the battlefield in Ukraine means that camouflage and deception will play an important role in any attempt to break the current stalemate. “If you even want to have a chance of conducting a breakthrough operation in this kind of environment, you need to first be able to mass the necessary forces,” Smith says. “And to do that you need to camouflage everything: the preparations, all the depots, logistics bases, hubs, roads, even forming-up points and training areas. You need to remain reasonably undetected without the enemy asking why are there so many more forces and so much ammunition and food trucks and fuel trucks going to a particular area.”
The challenge with avoiding detection on such a scale is that if one individual or unit is lax about signature management, it can draw the attention of the enemy, “Camouflage can definitely be successful on a large scale,” says Smith. “But it's harder because we're all people, and people make mistakes. We are imperfect.” Smith says the key to increasing mission success in such circumstances is ensuring every warfighter knows what is expected of them in terms of signature management. “It's not difficult, but it requires discipline. And discipline comes from, among other things, training to do things right. If you achieve that it's absolutely possible to camouflage the entire system.”
‘When we have this, we're invisible in the night. The thermal optics will not see us"
Smith says his work in Ukraine has confirmed the belief that having effective camouflage boosts the confidence of soldiers. “I met some warfighters who talked about their Barracuda products,” he says. “They said, ‘When we have this, we're invisible in the night. The thermal optics will not see us.’, and that gives them a whole lot of confidence. Now, they can actually dare to go to the front line, they can do their job properly without being overly concerned about their own safety.”