RE: Smoke Generators

Glover, spake thusly upon matters weighty: 

> OK, so doe we need to consider that the vehicle using the "smoke" is
> effectively blind in return?? Smoke is a two edged weapon even if it
is
> advanced smoke.
 
As I understand such things, there are advanced aerosols which block 
visible light spectrum, IR, TI, and (I assume in the future) you will 
expect them to block some of the EM band with suspended particulates. 
This blindness is a two way blindness as Owen points out, but I was 
pretty sure this was deployed out the rear of a vehicle. As long as 
the vehicle wasn't stationary, it wouldn't be blind, but would lay 
smoke in line behind it. You might have a flanker on each wing doing 
this to prevent flank fire by blocking LOS during an advance - but 
that flanker itself will be quite vulnerable. 

Another tactic I have seen armour perform for their own defence is to 
activate the generators and back through the smoke. This blind them, 
but they exit LOS of the enemy, which in some cases is more 
important. 

Remember with smoke you have the following concerns:

1. Who can see through my smoke? What spectra does it block?
If I'm fighting partisans with poor equipment, normal smoke may blind 
them but I may be able to see through it just great (If I'm a sealed 
tank, I'd even think of using something nastier than plain old smoke 
like a chem agent.... but I'm nasty). If I'm fighting modern forces, 
my smoke better blind all spectra and that means it'll blind me too, 
but if I deploy it smart, that can help make it more effective for me 
than my enemy. But I'd better keep recce forces that can see past it 
because I'll be blinding myself to enemy actions otherwise.

2. What's the wind like? How fast does the smoke drift or disperse? 
This can be a real problem with chem weapons as well. 

Just my 0.02 as usual. 

Tom.