For over a century, stealth has been one of the defining aspects of modern warfare. Being able to hide from the enemy or at least introduce a strong element of doubt in their minds gives a fighting force an obvious advantage, which can range from the invisibility of the submarine to simply breaking up the outline of a soldier against a background.

However, sometimes stealth can be counterproductive. One example is a recent trend that resulted in Saab's original version of the ULCAS camouflage net, which had a problem because it did too good a job.

As you'd expect, the ULCAS has a color pattern and a 3D surface structure that allows a squad of soldiers under it to blend into the foliage, along with blocking infrared to foil heat seeking sensors. But it also has a clever twist. The material and its lattice pattern are designed to absorb and attenuate radar signals from ground, air, and space-based systems, making it harder to detect or identify what's under the net.