#1757: Camoufoliage

It’s been a while since I indulged my boyish enthusiasm for things military, so here goes…

Today’s invention is an extra-tall periscope for armoured vehicles.

This would normally be clamped flat to the machine’s upper hull. When required, the turret would rotate, attach the periscope tube (yellow) to the gun mantle and slowly raise the scope until it was nearly vertical.

This would provide the commander with a good view of the surrounding territory, especially when fitted with infra-red imaging equipment. It would also isolate the optics from the main weapon’s normal impacts and vibrations.

The periscope would be stored with local foliage attached so as to give a good impression of a tree.

The rate at which this periscope would be raised, when not in a rush, could be controlled by computer so as to be too slow to be perceived by a human observer.