Retro-reflective Projection Technology (RPT)

Retro-reflective Projection Technology (RPT)
-Optical Camouflage-

-the Gleipnir mid-way thorough its RPT activation process-

The optical camouflage system had been researched through various methods by the Leasath Air Force New Weapon Laboratory, until a final successful system was created.

This system is well known as Retro-reflective Projection Technology (RPT) but also called Digital Optical Stealth (DOS). RPT employs a technology known as the Relative Camera System, which takes in the background imagery of the terrain around the fuselage of an aircraft with the receiving optical equipment of CCD and the like and then converts all recorded images into a luminous organic element, EL, that is projected on image panels (“Chart-Surface Panels”) on the fuselage surface. The surface of the image panels and various prisms on these panels are covered in crystallized deflection lenses made of ceramics. The optical camouflage is actualized only when the projected side of the fuselage is seen.

The concept is relatively simple, but it reveals another big problem. When it starts projecting the image of the background around the fuselage, and the emitter is at full capacity, it requires a mass amount of energy which can only be provided by a system of electrical generators. The generator weight combined with the weight of the many chart-surface panels pushed the gross weight of an aircraft’s airframe. The first fully operational Retro-reflective Projection Technology system was successfully applied onto the Democratic-Republic of Leasath’s Gleipnir. Initially, the Gleipnir was the only aircraft to deploy a fully-operational RPT system because it had the size and weight limits that would allow it to operate RPT.

Because the system was of a large scale, system devices deviated if one function or section within the system suddenly ceased to function. That fault in the RPT would become the weak point of the Gleipnir. In addition, the meta substance (operating the nano-structure like molecular structure in method of optical camouflage, the artificial compound which can adjust electromagnetic quality such as reflection and crookedness of radio wave and light etc.) uses electric magnetic radiation, such as the visible light that traverses around the object.

From the outside, Retro-reflective Projection Technology seems to be perfect, but when an object is within close proximity to the system, there is a slight disruption of the imagery projected on the fuselage, which could give away the position of the optically camouflaged vehicle.

With actual combat testing of RPT on the Gleipnir during the Leasath-Aurelia War, a smaller version of the Gleipnir’s RPT was produced on the Fenrir, which made it the second aircraft and the first fighter to use Retro-reflective Projection Technology. This smaller version of RPT, like the Gleipnir and Fenrir aircraft, was destroyed by the war’s end and was never recovered intact. Officially, there is not a single operational system of RPT in service or intact. The Aurelian Military did requisition a Confidential Document of the Leasath Military containing vital information about RPT and other technologies seen on the Gleipnir and Fenrir, meaning that the reproduction of an RPT system may be possible.

Sources
Ace Combat X: Skies of Deception
Official Ace Combat X Website
NamcoCH. ACX Website