title: Rapier (missile)

text: Some of the Australian staff at Woomera began development of a simulator system in 1965 in order to understand and tune the manual guidance system. This consisted of a joystick from the Rapier optical tracker which caused the projected image of the missile to move about. Models of the missile and various target aircraft were constructed and shot using stop motion filming techniques to make a selection of films of various target attack sequences across the Woomera sky. The system was completed in 1968 and in initial testing, it seemed tracking was a serious problem, and it appeared the British Army was concerned that the system would simply be beyond the capabilities of the average gunner. However, some of the problems were ultimately solved by adjusting the mechanical feedback in the joystick so it more closely matched the difficulty the missile would have responding to various inputs, and with that solved, many of the remaining issues were worked out through a massive simulation run and data processing on an IBM 7090. Complete systems were tested in 1968, which led to a production contract being issued in 1969.


title: Rapier (missile)

text: On a parallel track, the RAF Regiment had been looking for a short-range weapon for airfield defense. Eventually, this led to the development of the Tigercat system in 1967, an adaptation of the Seacat naval surface-to-air missile system. Tigercat was similar to Rapier in basic concept, but based on older technologies and thus somewhat larger and heavier while offering lower performance. Tigercat was introduced into service with No 48 Squadron RAF Regiment in 1968, giving the RAF Regiment the UK's first effective fully air portable low-level SAM system and valuable experience in operating systems of this type. In 1972 a trials unit known as the Rapier Pilot Battery was formed jointly by No 63 Squadron RAF Regiment and 9 (Plassey) Light Air Defence Battery Royal Artillery. Comprehensive trials ended in 1973 and the first Rapier unit in British service, No. 63 Squadron, deployed to its operational station in Germany in mid-1974.


title: Rapier (missile)

text: In the 1980s, a new training simulator system was constructed in Stevenage. This consisted of a radius hemispherical dome whose inside surface was used as a movie screen onto which terrain images were projected. A copper vapor laser projected images of targets and the missiles in-flight on top of the background imagery, while a smaller helium-neon laser simulated the Rapier's tracking flare. A complete Rapier targeting unit was placed in the center of the dome, and its guidance signals were captured and sent to the simulator to update the position of the missile. The projected laser imagery was bright enough that it could be tracked by IR imagers and seekers, allowing it to be used with the updated Darkfire versions of the Rapier with their IR cameras, or other IR seeking missiles like the Stinger. This system was sold separately for use with other missile systems under the name British Aerospace Microdome.


title: Rapier (missile)

text: The original Rapier took the form of a two-wheeled launcher carrying four missiles, an optical tracker unit, a generator, and a trailer of reserve missiles. The launcher consists of a vertical cylindrical unit carrying two missiles on each side, the surveillance radar dish and "Identification Friend or Foe" (IFF) system under a radome on top, the guidance computer and radar electronics at the bottom, and a prominent parabolic antenna for sending guidance commands to the missiles on the front.


title: Rapier (missile)

text: The search radar was of the pulsed Doppler type with a range of about . The aerial, located at the top of the launcher, rotated about once a second, looking for moving targets through their doppler shift. When one was located, a lamp would light up on the Selector Engagement Zone (SEZ), a box containing 32 orange lamps arranged in a circle about the size of an automobile steering wheel. The radar operator could also use switches to blank out returns from other directions, providing jamming resistance.


title: Rapier (missile)

text: The optical tracker unit was made up of a stationary lower section and a rotating upper section. The lower section housed the operator controls, while the upper section housed the tracking optics. The operator's optical system is a modified telescope containing a Dove prism to prevent the image 'toppling' as the optics rotate in azimuth. Using this system means that, unlike a periscope, the operator does not have to move in order to track the target. The upper section also contains a separate missile tracking system that follows the operator's optics, based on a television camera optimized for the IR band.


title: Rapier (missile)

text: Upon detection of a target, the optical tracking system is slewed to target azimuth fed to it from the SEZ and the operator then searches for the target in elevation. The operator's field of view is selected based on the target's range: "wide" at about 20 degrees or "track" at about 4.8 degrees. When the target is found, the operator switches to "track" and uses a joystick to keep the target centred in the telescope. Once a steady track is established the missile is fired. The TV camera on the tracker is tuned to track four flares on the missile's tail. Like the operator's telescope, the TV system has two views, one about 11 degrees wide for the initial "capture", and another at 0.55 degrees for midcourse tracking.


title: Rapier (missile)

text: The location of the missile relative to the line-of-sight is measured using a system identical to the "chopper" system used in early infrared homing missiles. Instead of being mounted on the missile, the chopper was inside the launcher, and fed an image from the tracking camera which passes through the light from the flares. The chopper generates signals that encode the angle of the missile relative to "up" and the angle out from the centre, or "error off". The simple computer in the base then calculates the control inputs needed to bring the missile into the line-of-sight and sends them to the missile through the transmitter on the launcher platform and received on small antennas on the rear of the mid-body fins. The operator simply keeps the telescope's crosshairs on the target using the joystick, and the missile automatically flies into the line-of-sight. The basic concept is very similar to the one used by most anti-tank missiles, with the exception that those systems normally use small wires to send guidance information to the missile, rather than a radio link.


title: Rapier (missile)

text: The missile contains a warhead with a contact fuze and a single-stage solid-rocket motor that accelerates the missile to about , about Mach 2. Engagement time to the maximum effective range is about 13 seconds. Response time from the start of the target detection to missile launch is about six seconds, which has been repeatedly confirmed in live firing.


title: Rapier (missile)

text: The whole system and its crew are delivered by two Land Rovers designated the "Fire Unit Truck" (FUT) and the "Detachment Support Vehicle" (DSV). Royal Artillery batteries comprised three troops each of four fire units, while RAF Regiment squadrons had eight fire units. By 1980, each Royal Artillery fire unit consisted of a 24-volt, 101 FC 1 tonne Land Rover towing the Rapier Launcher and carrying four missiles on board, a , 3/4 ton, 24 V FFR (Fitted For Radio) Land Rover towing a 1-ton Missile Supply Trailer (MST), containing up to 10 further missiles. Blindfire radar (see below) was only provided for a third of fire units in British Army service, but for all fire units in the RAF Regiment.


title: Rapier (missile)

text: Although accurate and simple to use, the original Rapier system clearly suffered from a lack of all-weather capability. To address this need, BAC started work on a separate radar guidance unit, primarily to improve foreign sales. This led to the introduction of the Marconi DN 181 "Blindfire" radar in 1970, the first examples being sold to the Iranian Army in 1973.


title: Rapier (missile)

text: The British Army did not purchase the Blindfire system until 1979, entering service with Rapier "Field Standard A" (FSA). The RAF Regiment had 27 Squadron operational with Blindfire at RAF Leuchars by 1979, and was in the process of bringing all the RAF Regiment GBAD (Ground Based Air Defence) Squadrons into line. By 1997 more than 350 Blindfire radars had been produced.


title: Rapier (missile)

text: To ensure accuracy, Blindfire used a very narrow "pencil" beam and tracks both the target and missile. To allow the operator to monitor the Blindfire system when it was tracking the target, the existing optical tracker follows the Blindfire radar, although it is possible for the optical tracker to be manually "laid on" a second target whilst the Blindfire engages the first. The Blindfire trailer carries its own generator unit, and is towed by a third Land Rover (a 12 V winch-equipped 101 FC) with the designation "Tracking Radar Tractor" (TRT).


title: Rapier (missile)

text: With sales to Iran came the additional requirement for a fully-mobile version of Rapier to protect the Chieftain tanks being supplied on a UK MOD contract. BAC responded by adapting the Rapier system to fit on the M548, a cargo-carrier version of the ubiquitous M113. Development started in 1974 as "Tracked Rapier", with the first public showing at the 1977 Paris Air Show as a static display unit.


title: Rapier (missile)

text: The initial proposal for the system was to simply mount the towed launcher, less its running gear, and its petrol generator set on the flatbed of the M548 carrier. When this was shown to Mr. G.R. Jefferson, the GW Managing Director, he was not very impressed. Aware of the amount of money available, he required a much more extensive change. Greville Beale and Adrian Pollicutt led the development of a significantly different arrangement which was produced in a short period.


title: Rapier (missile)

text: This included significant changes to the M548 vehicle to armour the vehicle, now designated RCM 748, and to incorporate a new diesel-powered generator set using the Coventry Climax H 30 engine, also used as the auxiliary power unit in the Chieftain tank. The majority of the electronic equipment in the launcher was not changed significantly from that used in the towed version. However, a completely redesigned armoured launcher with the capability of loading eight missiles was produced which was mounted via anti-vibration mounts to the flatbed of the vehicle. The armoured cab was provided with pan-climatic heating/cooling and NBC protection.


title: Rapier (missile)

text: The optical tracker was placed inside the armoured cab of the vehicle, elevating through the roof for operation. The tracker was operated from the right side of the crew cabin, while on the left were the driver and tactical controller who was also provided with a helmet-mounted sight, allowing him to lay on the tracker to a visual target.


title: Rapier (missile)

text: From moving to firing took only 30 seconds, a tremendous improvement over Towed Rapier, which required at least 15 minutes to unlimber, cable-up and align. A further difference between Towed and Tracked Rapier was that the Tracked Rapier launcher had eight (protected) missile rails compared with the four of the towed system, enhancing firepower and reducing re-supply requirements. It was also air-portable, ready to deploy on landing, in C-130 aircraft.


title: Rapier (missile)

text: There was no room for Blindfire on a single RCM748 vehicle, so this was instead towed or was to be carried on a separate modified M548/RCM748. Feeding data to the control system in the firing unit again required setup time to connect the two pieces of equipment.


title: Rapier (missile)

text: The system had not yet been fully developed when the Shah fell from power in 1978. The vehicles were later purchased by the British Army as part of a Fixed-price Develop and Supply contract. The first production Tracked Rapier was accepted on time and to cost at Wellington Barracks in early 1981, and entered service with "11 (Sphinx) Air Defence Battery", of 22 Air Defence Regiment, Royal Artillery in 1983 in Napier Barracks near Dortmund.


title: Rapier (missile)

text: After initially entering service at Towed FSB1 standard, with planar array radar and the 'Pointing Stick', the Tracked Rapiers were upgraded, with the latest version included a Thermal-imaging enhanced tracker which enabled single vehicle 24 hour operation without the need for the Blindfire unit.


title: Rapier (missile)

text: A modified M548 Missile Resupply Vehicle carried replacement missiles, a relief crew, and additional field kits, rations and water. A further M548 was configured as a REME Forward Area Support team with test facilities and spares.


title: Rapier (missile)

text: During the Gulf War, 12 and 16 Regiment Royal Artillery tracked batteries, quickly fitted with sat-nav for desert use, combined to provide Tracked Rapier support to deployed armoured regiments.


title: Rapier (missile)

text: Tracked Rapier was retired in the early 1990s, due to manning limitations when the Towed FSC version entered service. It has since been replaced by Starstreak missile launchers mounted on the Alvis Stormer.


title: Rapier (missile)

text: Shortly after introducing FSA, "Field Standard B" (FSB) added a number of basic upgrades. Additionally, the search radar was upgraded to be easily shut down in case of an anti-radiation missile attack. FSB included lessons from the Falklands campaign, notable the 'pointing stick' that enabled the detachment commander of a fire unit to point the aiming unit at a target.


title: Rapier (missile)

text: With the range of upgrades and new components, the original low-cost Rapier system was gone. In order to address international market requirements for a lower-cost system, BAC started development of the "Rapier Laserfire" in 1982. Laserfire replaced the original optical tracker unit with a new lidar (laser radar) illuminating system that is considerably smaller, allowing the entire system to be mounted on a single pallet that could itself be mounted on a truck or other flatbed vehicle.


title: Rapier (missile)

text: Laserfire used a millimetric Doppler radar. Due to its very high frequency of operation and ability to transform its beamshape from narrow azimuth and high elevation to wide azimuth and narrow elevation, Laserfire was able to detect helicopters hovering or travelling at low altitude and in areas of high clutter by detecting the movement of the helicopter's rotor blades.


title: Rapier (missile)

text: Initial engagement is similar to the original Rapier, but the target was illuminated and automatically tracked by a high power YAG:Nd laser. After the missile was launched the laser alternately illuminated the target and missile to determine their locations, and guidance was sent to the missile as normal (see laser guidance). Laserfire thus represented a fairly major upgrade to the original optical system, allowing semi-automatic engagements, and greatly reducing operator skill and training requirements.


title: Rapier (missile)

text: On the downside, Laserfire no longer has the optical system of the original, which served an important second duty by allowing the aircraft to be visually identified at long range. Additionally, while the Laserfire tracking system was capable of being operated at night, target acquisition was optical, like the original Rapier.


title: Rapier (missile)

text: In 1985 development started on a new tracker that replaced the original optical system with a new IR thermal imager system to improve its abilities, especially at night. This version was known as "Rapier Darkfire" for this reason. Trials of the new system started in 1987, and were deployed operationally in 1990 as "Field Standard B2" (FSB2), the earlier upgrades retroactively becoming FSB1. This system was also known as "Rapier 90". Cooling for the imager was provided by bottles of compressed gas.


title: Rapier (missile)

text: FSB2 also introduced a number of improvements that greatly improved Rapier capabilities. First and foremost was the Tactical Control Console that allowed four Rapier launchers to be controlled from a central location. The launchers themselves were upgraded to carry six missiles instead of four, improving battery capacity. Finally, the search radar was updated to use a new planar array radar, although its capabilities remained generally the same as the earlier model.


title: Rapier (missile)

text: In 1988 tests started on an improved warhead using a proximity fuze, in order to give Rapier capability against smaller targets that would be difficult to hit directly, notably high-speed remotely piloted vehicles. Serial production of Mk. 1E began in 1989.


title: Rapier (missile)

text: In 1992 the Army signed a contract to upgrade all Rapier systems to an enhanced version. A Mark 2 missile variant commenced development in 1986 culminating in a complete re-design which entered service in the mid-1990s. Along with a further upgrade of the proximity fuze, the new missile incorporated (then) state-of-art technologies including:


title: Rapier (missile)

text: Von Karman supersonic aerodynamic profile; composite propellant, with a two-stage shaped burn and laminated body solid rocket motor; ceramic substrate surface mount PCBs; completely new electronic systems and software; both analogue and digital proprietary ASICs; highly ECM resistant front end and command link with redundant encoding; fully Digital Autopilot incorporating Kalman state filtering; inertial navigation comprising ring-laser roll and rate gyroscope; Kapton ribbon cabling.


title: Rapier (missile)

text: The missile warhead is available in two versions, the Mk. 2A for the normal anti-aircraft role, and the Mk. 2B, which includes a shaped charge warhead and dual fuzes, and which is useful against light armour as well.


title: Rapier (missile)

text: In 1992, shortly after the introduction of Rapier 90, another major upgrade series started at MBDA (previously Matra BAe Dynamics). Emerging as "Rapier 2000", or "Field Standard C" (FSC) in British service, the system reached its ultimate form. Development of the FSC system began at the end of the 1980s and the systems first entered service in 1996. By this time the Cold War was over and British air defence capabilities were significantly reduced, with fewer and smaller batteries, albeit every fire unit with Blindfire. There is also an export version of this version, known as "Jernas". Malaysia is the first export customer for Jernas.


title: Rapier (missile)

text: FSC was effectively a new system, although Blindfire was little changed and it could fire both Mk 1 and Mk 2 missiles. The Surveillance radar was removed from the launcher and became a separate element and each launcher now carried eight missiles.


title: Rapier (missile)

text: With the missiles increasingly relying on radar guidance since the introduction of Blindfire, it made sense to upgrade the original search radar to something much more modern. This was supplied by the Alenia Marconi "Dagger", a 3D pulse doppler radar with an integrated Cossor IFF Mark 10 system. Dagger is mounted on its own trailer, so the radome on top of the launcher unit was no longer needed. In its place, a much more modern optical tracking system was added. The new tracker used a Stirling-cycle cooler instead of compressed gas bottles. The use of much smaller electronics greatly reduced stack height of the whole launcher, allowing an additional two missiles to be added, for a total of eight.


title: Rapier (missile)

text: In operation, the Rapier 2000 is similar to earlier Blindfire-equipped systems. Targets are acquired visually or through the Dagger radar, and then the Blindfire and optical tracker are slewed onto the target. The optical system can be used solely to track the missile, or it can be used for all guidance, like the original Rapier. In either case the engagement is entirely automatic, with no operator guidance needed. The optical system can also be used as a search system, seeking out IR sources, allowing radar-quiet operation.


title: Rapier (missile)

text: In 2006 a Ministry of Defence study in Ground Based Air Defence recommended further reductions, based on a reduced air threat and the improved air defence capabilities afforded by the Typhoon fighter. These included removing the role from the RAF Regiment as a measure to preserve Royal Artillery units in the face of significant cuts to the Army. Nevertheless, the Royal Artillery units were placed under command of the HQ 1 Group RAF (within HQ Air Command) and the Joint Ground Based Air Defence Headquarters was formed.


title: Rapier (missile)

text: The first known use of a Rapier in combat was in December 1974 during the Second Iraqi–Kurdish War when it shot down an Ilyushin Il-76MD belonging to the Iraqi Air Force. The missile belonged to the Iranian army, but it was stationed inside Iraq to protect the Kurdish military headquarters. It was fired by a British crew, which seems to have been under contract to either the Iranian government or possibly the missile's manufacturer, BAC.


title: Rapier (missile)

text: A number of years after the Shah was deposed in 1978, during informal contact with senior members of the Iranian army they indicated to a UK support organisation that they had continued to operate the initial batch of 30 launchers that had been delivered prior to the Shah's removal and that they had intercepted and destroyed a number of invading aircraft, significantly more than were engaged in the Falkland activities.


title: Rapier (missile)

text: In April 1982, the original Rapier was deployed during the Falklands War when T Battery of the 12th Regiment Royal Artillery joined 3 Commando Brigade as part of the Falklands Task Force, landing at San Carlos on 21 May. Their task was to provide air defence cover for a Harrier landing and re-fuelling pad built on the outskirts of Port San Carlos. (T Battery's sister battery, 9 (Plassey) Battery, was not deployed on the islands until after the conflict had ended.) 63 Squadron RAF Regiment, coincidentally the first unit to have been equipped with Rapier, was deployed at San Carlos bay on 1 June, later deploying around Stanley.


title: Rapier (missile)

text: There were many siting problems which prevented Rapier from operating efficiently, which led to it not being particularly effective in terms of number of 'kills'; but its presence acted as a deterrent, especially after the deployment of Blindfire systems around Port San Carlos.


title: Rapier (missile)

text: From an engineering perspective, the fragile nature of the launchers was well known before the conflict, exacerbated by the sinking of the with almost all of the missiles spares. The intermittent unserviceability of fire unit 32 alpha at Fitzroy was one of many factors that contributed to the success of the bombing of the .


title: Rapier (missile)

text: Early post-war reports were favourable, indicating 14 kills and 6 probables. Later analysis was less rosy, indicating as few as four enemy aircraft were downed. Only one Argentine aircraft, a Dagger A of FAA Grupo 6, can be confirmed as a Rapier kill, when Lt Bernhardt's aircraft was destroyed on 29 May 1982. The pilot was killed. The other three, an A-4B Skyhawk of FAA Grupo 5 on 23 May and two A-4C Skyhawk of FAA Grupo 4 on 24 May and 25 May 1982, were subjected to the full force of the San Carlos Air Defences, with claims going to Sea Wolf, Sea Cat, Blowpipe and small arms, as well as T Battery.


title: Rapier (missile)

text: The official history of the war states "Within the total, only five Argentine aircraft might have been shot down by Rapier, and, as originally noted by Ethell and Price, only one of these was certain, with two probables and two possibles. Similar discrepancies arose over other weapons systems, notably Blowpipe (one confirmed against nine claimed and two probables) and Sea Cat (zero to one against eight claimed and two probables). This confirmation that MoD had exaggerated, however unwittingly, the capabilities of Rapier was deemed to be political, as it was observed that if this assessment became widely known it 'could have serious adverse effects on sales' prospects for Rapier, which was a staple revenue-earner for BAe's Dynamic Group."


title: Rapier (missile)

text: The main problems were a lack of range, and the decision to omit a proximity fuze, an attribute which required the operator to strike the target aircraft directly with the missile. Rapier also suffered from problems with the IFF system and suffered from interference with Royal Navy radar.


title: Rapier (missile)

text: Rapiers were used during the 2012 Summer Olympics to provide air-defence security for the games. Rapier systems were placed at four sites: (Blackheath Common; William Girling Reservoir in Enfield; Oxleas Meadow, Shooter's Hill; and Barn Hill in Epping Forest), with Starstreak missiles at two other sites.


title: Rapier (missile)

text: At the DSEI conference in September 2007 it was announced the UK MoD was funding a study by MBDA UK to investigate a replacement for Rapier which was scheduled to leave service about 2020. The Common Anti-Air Modular Missile (CAMM), would share components with the ASRAAM missile in service with the RAF. In July 2021 it was reported that Sky Sabre had started acceptance trials and training with the 7th Air Defence Group of the Royal Artillery. It was planned to deploy the system in the Falkland Islands in "late summer/early autumn".


title: Rapier (missile)

text: An FSB standard Launcher, Tracker and S.E.Z. is on display in the Aerospace Bristol museum at Filton Bristol.


title: Charanjit Singh Channi

text: Charanjit Singh Channi is an Indian politician who served as the 16th Chief Minister of Punjab. He is a member of the Indian National Congress. He was also Minister of Technical Education and Training in Second Amarinder Singh ministry and leader of the opposition in the Punjab Legislative Assembly. He was the first Dalit to become the CM of Punjab.


title: Charanjit Singh Channi

text: Channi was born in the village of Makrauna Kalan, Punjab. He studied law at Panjab University and has an MBA from PTU Jalandhar. He belongs to the Ramdasia Sikh community. He is currently pursuing PhD from Panjab University Chandigarh in topic related to Indian National Congress with Professor Emanual Nahar as his guide.


title: Charanjit Singh Channi

text: Channi started his political career as a municipal councillor from a ward in Kharar and was elected as the president of the Kharar municipal council in 2002.


title: Charanjit Singh Channi

text: In September 2021, he succeeded Captain Amarinder Singh as Chief Minister of Punjab after the latter's resignation. He is the first Dalit Sikh Chief Minister of Punjab. Commentators suggested that Punjab's large Dalit population and attempts by other parties to appeal to it may have influenced Congress's choice of Channi as Singh's successor.


title: Charanjit Singh Channi

text: On 26 September fifteen new ministers were sworn in; several ministers from the Second Amarinder Singh ministry were retained.


title: Charanjit Singh Channi

text: Soon after taking office, Channi made several policy announcements. On 21 September he promised action concerning a sacrilege case and said that the electricity bills of water works schemes would be waived and connections would be restored. On 23 September he stated "Class D" government jobs would be regularised; they were previously outsourced. In November 2021, Channi inaugurated his dream project "Dastaan-e-Shahadat theme park" at Chamkaur Sahib.


title: Charanjit Singh Channi

text: On 24 December 2021, Channi approved setting up Punjab State Commission for General Category. Congress leader Navjot Dahiya was appointed its first chairman. On 30 December 2021, Channi started free bus travel for students.


title: Charanjit Singh Channi

text: On 5 January 2022, in Firozpur district PM Narendra Modi's cavalcade was stranded for 15–20 minutes on flyover as protesting farmers blocked the Moga-Firozpur highway near Piarenana village far away while he was en route to Hussainiwala National Martyrs Memorial. Criticized by Bharatiya Janata Party, Channi denied any security lapse and stated he will recite Mahāmrityunjaya Mantra for PM's safety. In February 2022, Channi alleged that Modi has taken revenge by denying permission for his helicopter to fly from Chandigarh.


title: Charanjit Singh Channi

text: At the end of the legislative assembly term, Channi was appointed the Chief Ministerial candidate of Congress for the 2022 Punjab Assembly elections. Navjot Singh Sidhu was the other contender expecting to be the CM candidate. The official campaign was named "Sada Channi, Sada CM" (Our Channi, Our CM). Official campaign song "Channi Karda Masle Hal" by singer Surmandeep Mansa was launched in February 2022.


title: Charanjit Singh Channi

text: He contested the 2022 Punjab Legislative Assembly election from Chamkaur Sahib and Bhadaur legislative assembly constituencies, but lost both the seats to his opponents from the Aam Aadmi Party. On 11 March 2022, Channi submitted his resignation to Governor. On 21 March 2022, he met and congratulated his successor Bhagwant Mann.


title: Charanjit Singh Channi

text: Channi is married to Kamaljit Kaur and has two children. He is known to follow astrologers for political gains, he illegally constructed a road from a park outside his official residence in Chandigarh to have east facing entry to his house. He rode an elephant in the lawns of his house in Kharar. In February 2018, Channi flipped a coin to decide the right candidate for the post of a lecturer.


title: Military camouflage

text: Military camouflage is the use of camouflage by an armed force to protect personnel and equipment from observation by enemy forces. In practice, this means applying colour and materials to military equipment of all kinds, including vehicles, ships, aircraft, gun positions and battledress, either to conceal it from observation (crypsis), or to make it appear as something else (mimicry). The French slang word "camouflage" came into common English usage during World War I when the concept of visual deception developed into an essential part of modern military tactics. In that war, long-range artillery and observation from the air combined to expand the field of fire, and camouflage was widely used to decrease the danger of being targeted or to enable surprise. As such, military camouflage is a form of military deception.


title: Military camouflage

text: Camouflage was first practiced in simple form in the mid 18th century by rifle units. Their tasks required them to be inconspicuous, and they were issued green and later other drab colour uniforms. With the advent of longer range and more accurate weapons, especially the repeating rifle, camouflage was adopted for the uniforms of all armies, spreading to most forms of military equipment including ships and aircraft. Many modern camouflage textiles address visibility not only to visible light but also near infrared, for concealment from night vision devices. Camouflage is not only visual; heat, sound, magnetism and even smell can be used to target weapons, and may be intentionally concealed. Some forms of camouflage have elements of scale invariance, designed to disrupt outlines at different distances, typically digital camouflage patterns made of pixels. Camouflage patterns also have cultural functions such as political identification.


title: Military camouflage

text: Camouflage for equipment and positions was extensively developed for military use by the French in 1915, soon followed by other World War I armies. In both world wars, artists were recruited as camouflage officers. Ship camouflage developed via conspicuous dazzle camouflage schemes during WWI, but since the development of radar, ship camouflage has received less attention. Aircraft, especially in World War II, were often countershaded: painted with different schemes above and below, to camouflage them against the ground and sky respectively.


title: Military camouflage

text: Military camouflage patterns have been popular in fashion and art from as early as 1915. Camouflage patterns have appeared in the work of artists such as Andy Warhol and Ian Hamilton Finlay, sometimes with an anti-war message. In fashion, many major designers have exploited camouflage's style and symbolism, and military clothing or imitations of it have been used both as street wear and as a symbol of political protest.


title: Military camouflage

text: Military camouflage is part of the art of military deception. The main objective of military camouflage is to deceive the enemy as to the presence, position and intentions of military formations. Camouflage techniques include concealment, disguise, and dummies, applied to troops, vehicles, and positions.


title: Military camouflage

text: Vision is the main sense of orientation in humans, and the primary function of camouflage is to deceive the human eye. Camouflage works through concealment (whether by countershading, preventing casting shadows, or disruption of outlines), mimicry, or possibly by dazzle. In modern warfare, some forms of camouflage, for example face paints, also offer concealment from infrared sensors, while CADPAT textiles in addition help to provide concealment from radar.


title: Military camouflage

text: While camouflage tricks are in principle limitless, both cost and practical considerations limit the choice of methods and the time and effort devoted to camouflage. Paint and uniforms must also protect vehicles and soldiers from the elements. Units need to move, fire their weapons and perform other tasks to keep functional, some of which run counter to camouflage. Camouflage may be dropped altogether. Late in the Second World War, the USAAF abandoned camouflage paint for some aircraft to lure enemy fighters to attack, while in the Cold War, some aircraft similarly flew with polished metal skins, to reduce drag and weight, or to reduce vulnerability to radiation from nuclear weapons.


title: Military camouflage

text: No single camouflage pattern is effective in all terrains. The effectiveness of a pattern depends on contrast as well as colour tones. Strong contrasts which disrupt outlines are better suited for environments such as forests where the play of light and shade is prominent, while low contrasts are better suited to open terrain with little shading structure. Terrain-specific camouflage patterns, made to match the local terrain, may be more effective in that terrain than more general patterns. However, unlike an animal or a civilian hunter, military units may need to cross several terrain types like woodland, farmland and built up areas in a single day. While civilian hunting clothing may have almost photo-realistic depictions of tree bark or leaves (indeed, some such patterns are based on photographs), military camouflage is designed to work in a range of environments. With the cost of uniforms in particular being substantial, most armies operating globally have two separate full uniforms, one for woodland/jungle and one for desert and other dry terrain. An American attempt at a global camouflage pattern for all environments (the 2004 UCP) was however withdrawn after a few years of service. On the other end of the scale are terrain specific patterns like the "Berlin camo", applied to British vehicles operating in Berlin during the Cold War, where square fields of various gray shades was designed to hide vehicles against the mostly concrete architecture of post-war Berlin.


title: Military camouflage

text: Camouflage patterns serve cultural functions alongside concealment. Apart from concealment, uniforms are also the primary means for soldiers to tell friends and enemies apart. The camouflage experts and evolutionary zoologists L. Talas, R. J. Baddeley and Innes Cuthill analyzed calibrated photographs of a series of NATO and Warsaw Pact uniform patterns and demonstrated that their evolution did not serve any known principles of military camouflage intended to provide concealment. Instead, when the Warsaw Pact was dissolved, the uniforms of the countries that began to favour the West politically started to converge on the colours and textures of NATO patterns. After the death of Marshal Tito and the breakup of what had been Yugoslavia, the camouflage patterns of the new nations changed, coming to resemble the camouflage patterns used by the armies of their neighbours. The authors note that military camouflage resembles animal coloration in having multiple simultaneous functions.


title: Military camouflage

text: Seasons may play a role in some regions. A dramatic change in colour and texture is created by seasonal snowy conditions in northern latitudes, necessitating repainting of vehicles and separate snow oversuits. The Eastern and northern European countries have a tradition for separate winter uniforms rather than oversuits. During the Second World War, the Waffen-SS went a step further, developing reversible uniforms with separate schemes for summer and autumn, as well as white winter oversuits.


title: Military camouflage

text: While patterns can provide more effective crypsis than solid colour when the camouflaged object is stationary, any pattern, particularly one with high contrast, stands out when the object is moving. Jungle camouflage uniforms were issued during the Second World War, but both the British and American forces found that a simple green uniform provided better camouflage when soldiers were moving. After the war, most nations returned to a unicoloured uniform for their troops. Some nations, notably Austria and Israel, continue to use solid colour combat uniforms today. Similarly, while larger military aircraft traditionally had a disruptive pattern with a darker top over a lighter lower surface (a form of countershading), modern fast fighter aircraft often wear gray overall.


title: Military camouflage

text: Digital camouflage provides a disruptive effect through the use of pixellated patterns at a range of scales, meaning that the camouflage helps to defeat observation at a range of distances. Such patterns were first developed during the Second World War, when Johann Georg Otto Schick designed a number of patterns for the Waffen-SS, combining micro- and macro-patterns in one scheme. The German Army developed the idea further in the 1970s into Flecktarn, which combines smaller shapes with dithering; this softens the edges of the large scale pattern, making the underlying objects harder to discern. Pixellated shapes pre-date computer aided design by many years, already being used in Soviet Union experiments with camouflage patterns, such as "TTsMKK" developed in 1944 or 1945.


title: Military camouflage

text: In the 1970s, US Army officer Timothy R. O'Neill suggested that patterns consisting of square blocks of colour would provide effective camouflage. By 2000, O'Neill's idea was combined with patterns like the German "Flecktarn" to create pixellated patterns such as CADPAT and MARPAT. Battledress in digital camouflage patterns was first designed by the Canadian Forces. The "digital" refers to the coordinates of the pattern, which are digitally defined. The term is also used of computer generated patterns like the non-pixellated Multicam and the Italian fractal "Vegetato" pattern. Pixellation does not in itself contribute to the camouflaging effect. The pixellated style, however, simplifies design and eases printing on fabric.


title: Military camouflage

text: With the birth of radar and sonar and other means of detecting military hardware not depending on the human eye, came means of camouflaging against them. Collectively these are known as stealth technology. Aircraft and ships can be shaped to reflect radar impulses away from the sender, and covered with radar-absorbing materials, to reduce their radar signature. The use of heat-seeking missiles has also led to efforts to hide the heat signature of aircraft engines. Methods include exhaust ports shaped to mix hot exhaust gases with cold surrounding air, and placing the exhaust ports on the upper side of the airframe. Multi-spectral camouflage attempts to hide objects from detection methods such as infrared, radar, and millimetre-wave imaging simultaneously.


title: Military camouflage

text: Auditory camouflage, at least in the form of noise reduction, is practised in various ways. The rubberized hull of military submarines absorbs sonar waves and can be seen as a form of auditory camouflage. Some modern helicopters are designed to be quiet. Combat uniforms are usually equipped with buttons rather than snap fasteners or velcro to reduce noise.


title: Military camouflage

text: Olfactory camouflage is said to be rare; examples include ghillie suits, special garments for military snipers made from strips of hessian cloth, which are sometimes treated with mud and even manure to give them an "earthy" smell to cover the smell of the sniper.


title: Military camouflage

text: Magnetic camouflage in the form of "degaussing" coils has been used since the Second World War to protect ships from magnetic mines and other weapons with magnetic sensors. Horizontal coils around the whole or parts of the ship generate magnetic fields to "cancel out" distortions to the earth's magnetic field created by the ship.


title: Military camouflage

text: Ship camouflage was occasionally used in ancient times. Vegetius wrote in the 4th century that "Venetian blue" (bluish-green, like the sea) was used for camouflage in the years 56–54 BC during the Gallic Wars, when Julius Caesar sent his scout ships to gather intelligence along the coast of Britain. The bluish-green scout ships carried sailors and marines dressed in the same colour.


title: Military camouflage

text: The emphasis on hand-to-hand combat, and the short range of weapons such as the musket, meant that recognition and cohesion were more important than camouflage in combat clothing well into the baroque period. The introduction of infantry weapons with longer range, especially the Baker rifle, opened up new roles which needed camouflaged clothing. In the colonial Seven Years' War (1756–1763), the rifle-armed Rogers' Rangers wore gray or green uniforms. John Graves Simcoe, one of the unit's later commanders, noted in 1784:


title: Military camouflage

text: The tradition was continued by British Rifle Regiments who adopted rifle green for the Napoleonic Wars.


title: Military camouflage

text: During the Peninsular War, Portugal fielded light infantry units known as "Caçadores", who wore brown-jackets which helped conceal them. The brown color was considered to be more adequate for a concealment in the landscape of most of Portuguese regions, in general more arid than the greener landscapes of Central and Northern Europe. Other nations soon followed suit, dressing their rifle regiments and sometimes also light troops in suitable drab tones, usually variations of green or gray.


title: Military camouflage

text: The first introduction of drab general uniform was by the British Corps of Guides in India in 1848. Initially the drab uniform was specially imported from England, with one of the reasons being to "make them invisible in a land of dust". However, when a larger quantity was required the army improvised, using a local dye to produce uniform locally. This type of drab uniform soon became known as khaki (Urdu for dusty, soil-coloured) by the Indian soldiers, and was of a similar colour to a local dress of cotton coloured with the mazari palm. The example was followed by other British units during the mutiny of 1857, dying their white drill uniforms to inconspicuous tones with mud, tea, coffee or coloured inks. The resulting hue varied from dark or slate grey through light brown to off-white, or sometimes even lavender. This improvised measure gradually became widespread among the troops stationed in India and North-West Frontier, and sometimes among the troops campaigning on the African continent.


title: Military camouflage

text: While long range rifles became the standard weapon in the 1830s, armies were slow to adapt their tactics and uniforms, perhaps as a result of mainly fighting colonial wars against less well armed opponents. Not until the First Boer War of 1880/81 did a major European power meet an opponent well equipped with and well versed in the use of modern long range repeating firearms, forcing an immediate change in tactics and uniforms. Khaki-coloured uniform became standard service dress for both British and British Indian Army troops stationed in British India in 1885, and in 1896 khaki drill uniform was adopted by British Army for the service outside of Europe in general, but not until the Second Boer War, in 1902, did the entire British Army standardise on khaki (officially known as "drab") for Service Dress.


title: Military camouflage

text: The US military, who had blue-jacketed rifle units in the Civil War, were quick to follow the British, going khaki in the same year. Russia followed, partially, in 1908. The Italian Army used "grigio-verde" ("grey-green") in the Alps from 1906 and across the army from 1909. The Germans adopted "feldgrau" ("field grey") in 1910. By the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, France was the only major power to still field soldiers dressed in traditional conspicuous uniforms.


title: Military camouflage

text: The First World War was the first full scale industrial conflict fought with modern firearms. The first attempt at disruptive camouflaged garment for the French army was proposed in 1914 by the painter Louis Guingot, but was refused by the army, which nevertheless kept a sample of the clothing. In collaboration with a Russian chemist friend, Guingot had developed a process of painting on weather-resistant fabric before the war and had registered a patent for it. But the casualty rate on the Western Front forced the French to finally relinquish their blue coats and red trousers, adopting a grayish "horizon blue" uniform.


title: Military camouflage

text: The use of rapid firing machine guns and long range breech loading artillery quickly led to camouflaging of vehicles and positions. Artillery pieces were soon painted in contrasting bold colours to obscure their outlines. Another early trend was building observation trees, made of steel with bark camouflage. Such trees became popular with the British and French armies in 1916. The observation tree was invented by French painter Lucien-Victor Guirand de Scévola, who led the French army's camouflage unit, the first of its kind in any army. He also invented painted canvas netting to hide machine gun positions, and this was quickly taken up for hiding equipment and gun positions from 1917, 7 million square yards being used by the end of the war.


title: Military camouflage

text: The First World War also saw the birth of aerial warfare, and with it the need not only to conceal positions and vehicles from being spotted from the air, but also the need to camouflage the aircraft themselves. In 1917, Germany started using a lozenge camouflage covering Central Powers aircraft, possibly the earliest printed camouflage. A similarly disruptive splinter pattern in earth tones, "Buntfarbenanstrich 1918", was introduced for tanks in 1918, and was also used on the Stahlhelm (steel helmet), becoming the first use of a standardized camouflage pattern for soldiers.


title: Military camouflage

text: In 1909 an American artist and amateur zoologist, Abbott Thayer published a book, "Concealing-Coloration in the Animal Kingdom", which was widely read by military leaders, although his advocacy of countershading was unsuccessful, despite his patent for countershading submarines and surface ships.


title: Military camouflage

text: The earliest camouflage artists were members of the Post- Impressionist and Fauve schools of France. Contemporary artistic movements such as cubism, vorticism and impressionism also influenced the development of camouflage as they dealt with disrupting outlines, abstraction and colour theory.The French established a "Section de Camouflage" (Camouflage Department) at Amiens in 1915, headed by Lucien-Victor Guirand de Scévola. His "camoufleurs" included the artists Jacques Villon, André Dunoyer de Segonzac, Charles Camoin and André Mare.


title: Military camouflage

text: Camouflage schemes of the First World War and Interwar periods that employed dazzle patterns were often described as "cubist" by commentators, and Picasso claimed with typical hyperbole "Yes, it is we who made it, that is cubism". Most of the artists employed as "camoufleurs" were traditional representative painters, not cubists, but de Scévola claimed "In order to deform totally the aspect of the object, I had to employ the means that cubists use to represent it."


title: Military camouflage

text: Other countries soon saw the advantage of camouflage, and established their own units of artists, designers and architects. The British established a Camouflage Section in late 1916 at Wimereux, and the U.S. followed suit with the New York Camouflage Society in April 1917, the official Company A of 40th Engineers in January 1918 and the Women's Reserve Camouflage Corps. The Italians set up the "Laboratorio di mascheramento" in 1917. By 1918 de Scévola was in command of camouflage workshops with over 9,000 workers, not counting the "camoufleurs" working at the front itself. Norman Wilkinson who first proposed dazzle camouflage to the British military employed 5 male designers and 11 women artists, who by the end of the war had painted more than 2,300 vessels. French women were employed behind the lines of both the British and American armies, sewing netting to disguise equipment and designing apparel for soldiers to wear.


title: Military camouflage

text: Printed camouflage for shelter halves was introduced for the Italian and German armies in the interwar period, the "splotchy" M1929 Telo mimetico in Italy and the angular Splittermuster 31 in Germany. During the War, both patterns were used for paratrooper uniforms for their respective countries. The British soon followed suit with a brush-stroke type pattern for their paratroopers' Denison smock, and the Soviets introduced an "amoeba" pattern overgarment for their snipers.


title: Military camouflage

text: Hugh Cott's 1940 book "Adaptive Coloration in Animals" systematically covered the different forms of camouflage and mimicry by which animals protect themselves, and explicitly drew comparisons throughout with military camouflage:


title: Military camouflage

text: Both British and Soviet aircraft were given wave-type camouflage paintwork for their upper surfaces throughout the war, while American ones remained simple two-colour schemes (different upper and under sides) or even dispensed with camouflage altogether. Italian and some Japanese aircraft wore sprayed-on spotted patterns. German aircraft mostly used an angular splint-pattern camouflage, but Germany experimented with different schemes, particularly in the later stages of the war. They also experimented with various spray-on camouflage patterns for tanks and other vehicles, while Allied vehicles remained largely uni-coloured. As they had volunteered in the first World War, women sewed camouflage netting, organizing formalized groups for the work in Australia, Britain, New Zealand and the United States who took part as camoufleurs during the second war.


title: Military camouflage

text: The British Middle East Command Camouflage Directorate, consisting mainly of artists recruited into the Royal Engineers, developed the use of camouflage for large-scale military deception. Operations combined the disguise of actual installations, vehicles and stores with the simultaneous display of dummies, whether to draw fire or to give a false idea of the strength of forces or likely attack directions. In Operation Bertram for the decisive battle at El Alamein, a whole dummy armoured division was constructed, while real tanks were disguised as soft-skinned transport using "Sunshield" covers. The capabilities so developed were put to use not only in the western desert, but also in Europe as in the Operation Bodyguard deception for the Invasion of Normandy, and in the Pacific campaign, as in the Battle of Goodenough Island.


title: Military camouflage

text: The introduction of strategic bombing led to efforts to camouflage airfields and strategic production centres. This form of positional camouflage could be quite elaborate, and even include false houses and cars. With the threat from nuclear weapons in the post-war era such elaborate camouflage was no longer seen as useful, as a direct hit would not be necessary with strategic nuclear weapons to destroy infrastructure. The Soviet Union's doctrine of military deception defines the need for surprise through means including camouflage, based on experiences such as the Battle of Kursk where camouflage helped the Red Army to overwhelm a powerful enemy.


title: Military camouflage

text: The role of uniform is not only to hide each soldier, but also to identify friend from foe. Issue of the "Frogskin" uniforms to US troops in Europe during the Second World War was halted as it was too often mistaken for the disruptively patterned German uniform worn by the Waffen-SS. Camouflage uniforms need to be made and distributed to a large number of soldiers. The design of camouflage uniforms therefore involves a tradeoff between camouflaging effect, recognizability, cost, and manufacturability.


title: Military camouflage

text: Armies facing service in different theatres may need several different camouflage uniforms. Separate issues of temperate/jungle and desert camouflage uniforms are common. Patterns can to some extent be adapted to different terrains by adding means of fastening pieces of vegetation to the uniform. Helmets often have netting covers; some jackets have small loops for the same purpose. Being able to find appropriate camouflage vegetation or in other ways modify the issued battle uniform to suit the local terrain is an important skill for infantry soldiers.


title: Military camouflage

text: Countries in boreal climates often need snow camouflage, either by having reversible uniforms or simple overgarments.


title: Military camouflage

text: The purpose of vehicle and equipment camouflage differs from personal camouflage in that the primary threat is aerial reconnaissance. The goal is to disrupt the characteristic shape of the vehicle, to reduce shine, and to make the vehicle difficult to identify even if it is spotted.


title: Military camouflage

text: Paint is the least effective measure, but forms a basis for other techniques. Military vehicles often become so dirty that pattern-painted camouflage is not visible, and although matt colours reduce shine, a wet vehicle can still be shiny, especially when viewed from above. Patterns are designed to make it more difficult to interpret shadows and shapes. The British Army adopted a disruptive scheme for vehicles operating in the stony desert of the North African Campaign and Greece, retrospectively known as the Caunter scheme. It used up to six colours applied with straight lines.


title: Military camouflage

text: The British Army's Special Air Service used pink as the primary colour on its desert-camouflaged Land Rover Series IIA patrol vehicles, nicknamed "Pink Panthers"; the colour had been observed to be indistinguishable from sand at a distance.


title: Military camouflage

text: Nets can be effective at defeating visual observation. Traditional camouflage nets use a textile 'garnish' to generate an apparent texture with a depth of shadow created beneath it, and the effect can be reinforced with pieces of vegetation. Modern nets tend to be made of a continuous woven material, which is easier to deploy over a vehicle and lack the "windows" between patches of garnish of traditional nets. Some nets can remain in place while vehicles move. Simple nets are less effective in defeating radar and thermal sensors. Heavier, more durable "mobile camouflage systems", essentially conformal duvets with thermal and radar properties, provide a degree of concealment without the delay caused by having to spread nets around a vehicle.


title: Military camouflage

text: Active camouflage for vehicles, using heated or cooled Peltier plates to match the infrared background, has been prototyped in industry but has not yet been put into production.


title: Military camouflage

text: Until the 20th century, naval weapons had a short range, so camouflage was unimportant for ships, and for the men on board them. Paint schemes were selected on the basis of ease of maintenance or aesthetics, typically buff upperworks (with polished brass fittings) and white or black hulls. Around the start of the 20th century, the increasing range of naval engagements, as demonstrated by the Battle of Tsushima, prompted the introduction of the first camouflage, in the form of some solid shade of gray overall, in the hope that ships would fade into the mist.


title: Military camouflage

text: First and Second World War dazzle camouflage, pioneered by English artist Norman Wilkinson, was used not to make ships disappear, but to make them seem smaller or faster, to encourage misidentification by an enemy, and to make the ships harder to hit. In the Second World War, the Royal Canadian Navy trialled a form of active camouflage, counter-illumination, using diffused lighting to prevent ships from appearing as dark shapes against a brighter sky during the night. It reduced visibility by up to 70%, but was unreliable and never went into production.


title: Military camouflage

text: After the Second World War, the use of radar made camouflage generally less effective. However, camouflage may have helped to protect US warships from Vietnamese shore batteries using optical rangefinders.


title: Military camouflage

text: Coastal patrol boats such as those of the Norwegian, Swedish and Indonesian navies continue to use terrestrial style disruptively patterned camouflage.


title: Military camouflage

text: Aircraft camouflage faces the challenge that an aircraft's background varies widely, according to whether the observer is above or below the aircraft, and with the background, e.g. farmland or desert. Aircraft camouflage schemes have often consisted of a light colour underneath and darker colours above.


title: Military camouflage

text: Other camouflage schemes acknowledge that aircraft may be seen at any angle and against any background while in combat, so aircraft are painted all over with a disruptive pattern or a neutral colour such as gray.


title: Military camouflage

text: Second World War maritime patrol aircraft such as the Consolidated PBY Catalina flying boat were painted white, as aircraft generally appear dark against the sky (including at night), and hence are least visible when painted in as light a colour as possible. The problem of appearing dark against the sky was explored in the U.S. Navy's Yehudi lights project in 1943, using counter-illumination to raise the average brightness of a plane, when seen head-on, from a dark shape to the same as the sky. The experiments worked, enabling an aircraft to approach to within before being seen, whereas aircraft without the lights were noticed away.


title: Military camouflage

text: The higher speeds of modern aircraft, and the reliance on radar and missiles in air combat have reduced the value of visual camouflage, while increasing the value of electronic "stealth" measures. Modern paint is designed to absorb electromagnetic radiation used by radar, reducing the signature of the aircraft, and to limit the emission of infrared light used by heat seeking missiles to detect their target. Further advances in aircraft camouflage are being investigated in the field of active camouflage.


title: Military camouflage

text: The transfer of camouflage patterns from battle to exclusively civilian uses is not recent. Dazzle camouflage inspired a trend of dazzlesque patterns used on clothing in England, starting in 1919 with the "Dazzle Ball" held by Chelsea Arts Club. Those attending wore dazzle-patterned black and white clothing, influencing twentieth-century fashion and art via postcards (see illustration) and magazine articles. The Illustrated London News announced


title: Military camouflage

text: While many artists helped to develop camouflage during and since World War I, the disparate sympathies of the two cultures restrained the use of "militaristic" forms other than in the work of war artists. Since the 1960s, several artists have exploited the symbolism of camouflage. For example, Andy Warhol's 1986 camouflage series was his last major work, including Camouflage Self-Portrait. Alain Jacquet created many camouflage works from 1961 to the 1970s. Ian Hamilton Finlay's 1973 "Arcadia" was a screenprint of a leafily-camouflaged tank, "an ironic parallel between this idea of a natural paradise and the camouflage patterns on a tank", as the Tate Collection describes it. Veruschka, the pseudonym of Vera von Lehndorff and Holger Trülzsch, created "Nature, Signs & Animals" and "Mimicry-Dress-Art" in 1970–1973. Thomas Hirschhorn made "Utopia : One World, One War, One Army, One Dress" in 2005.


title: Military camouflage

text: In the US in the 1960s, military clothing became increasingly common (mostly olive drab rather than patterned camouflage); it was often found worn by anti-war protestors, initially within groups such as Vietnam Veterans Against the War but then increasingly widely as a symbol of political protest.


title: Military camouflage

text: Fashion often uses camouflage as inspiration – attracted by the striking designs, the "patterned disorder" of camouflage, its symbolism (to be celebrated or subverted), and its versatility. Early designers include Marimekko (1960s), Jean-Charles de Castelbajac (1975–), Stephen Sprouse (using Warhol prints, 1987–1988), and Franco Moschino (1986), but it was not until the 1990s that camouflage became a significant and widespread facet of dress from streetwear to high-fashion labels – especially the use of "faux-camouflage". Producers using camouflage in the 1990s and beyond include: John Galliano for Christian Dior, Marc Jacobs for Louis Vuitton, Comme des Garçons, Chanel, Tommy Hilfiger, Dolce & Gabbana, Issey Miyake, Armani, Yves Saint-Laurent.


title: Military camouflage

text: Companies closely associated with camouflage patterns include 6876, A Bathing Ape, Stone Island, Stüssy, Maharishi, mhi, Zoo York, Addict, and Girbaud, using and overprinting genuine military surplus fabric; others use camouflage patterns in bright colours such as pink or purple. Some, such as Emma Lundgren and Stüssy, have created their own designs or integrated camouflage patterns with other symbols.


title: Military camouflage

text: Some countries such as Barbados, Aruba, and other Caribbean nations have laws prohibiting camouflage clothing from being worn by non-military personnel, including tourists and children. Civilian possession of camouflage is still banned in Zimbabwe.


title: Robert Black (serial killer)

text: Robert Black (21 April 1947 – 12 January 2016) was a Scottish serial killer and paedophile who was convicted of the kidnap, rape, and murder of four girls aged between 5 and 11 in a series of killings committed between 1981 and 1986 in the United Kingdom.


title: Robert Black (serial killer)

text: Black was convicted of the kidnapping, rape and murder of three girls on 19 May 1994. He was also convicted of the kidnapping of a fourth girl, and had earlier been convicted of the kidnapping and sexual assault of a fifth. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, with a recommendation that he serve a minimum of 35 years.


title: Robert Black (serial killer)

text: Black was further convicted of the 1981 sexual assault and murder of nine-year-old Jennifer Cardy in 2011, and at the time of his death was regarded as the prime suspect in the 1978 disappearance and murder of 13-year-old Genette Tate. Black may also have been responsible for several other unsolved child murders throughout Britain, Ireland and continental Europe between 1969 and 1987.


title: Robert Black (serial killer)

text: The nationwide manhunt for Black was one of the most exhaustive UK murder investigations of the 20th century. He died of a heart attack at HMP Maghaberry in 2016 aged 68.


title: Robert Black (serial killer)

text: Robert Black was born in Grangemouth, Stirlingshire, on 21 April 1947, the illegitimate child of Jessie Hunter Black and an unknown father. His mother originally planned to have him adopted before she emigrated to Australia to escape the stigma of his birth. He was not adopted, and at six months old was placed with an experienced, middle-aged foster couple in Kinlochleven named Tulip. He adopted their surname.


title: Robert Black (serial killer)

text: Black showed antisocial tendencies and became known as an aggressive child with few friends. He was prone to tantrums and vandalised school property. He was also a target for bullying among children his own age, and became a bully towards younger children. Though his foster mother insisted upon cleanliness, he cared little for his own hygiene and was called "Smelly Bobby Tulip" by classmates.


title: Robert Black (serial killer)

text: At the age of five, Black and a girl the same age compared their genitalia, triggering a childhood belief within Black that he should have been born female, and he developed a deep interest in his genitalia, the genitals of female children, and body orifices. From the age of eight he would regularly insert objects in his own anus, a practice he carried into adulthood.


title: Robert Black (serial killer)

text: Locals later recalled seeing bruises on Black's face and limbs, suggesting he had been physically abused by his foster parents. Black stated he could not recollect their origin, and they may have resulted from childhood fights. Despite being adamant he could not recall the origin of these bruises, Black was a chronic bed wetter, and freely admitted to being berated and beaten by his foster mother for each offence.


title: Robert Black (serial killer)

text: By 1958, the Tulips had both died, and Black was placed with another foster family in Kinlochleven. He soon committed his first known sexual assault, dragging a young girl into a public lavatory and fondling her. His foster mother reported the offence and insisted he be removed from her home.


title: Robert Black (serial killer)

text: Black was placed in a mixed-sex children's home on the outskirts of Falkirk. Here he regularly exposed himself to girls, and on one occasion, he forcibly removed the underwear of a girl. As a result, he was sent to Red House Care Home, a high-discipline, all-male establishment in Musselburgh. At this location, Black was sexually abused by a male staff member for three years; typically by being forced to perform fellatio. During this time, he studied at Musselburgh Grammar School, developing an interest in football and swimming. Other students recall him as taciturn, with few friends.


title: Robert Black (serial killer)

text: In 1963, Black left the Red House Care Home. With assistance from child welfare agencies, he moved to another boys' home in Greenock and obtained a job as a butcher's delivery boy. He later said that he had fondled thirty to forty young girls while making deliveries if, upon calling at the house, he discovered young girls were alone in the premises. None of these incidents seem to have been reported.


title: Robert Black (serial killer)

text: On a summer evening in 1963, Black encountered a seven-year-old girl playing alone in a park; he lured the child to a deserted air-raid shelter on the pretext of showing her some kittens. There he held the girl by the throat until she lost consciousness, then masturbated over her body. The following day, Black was arrested and charged with lewd and libidinous behaviour. A psychiatric examination suggested the incident was an isolated one, and that Black was not in need of treatment; as a result he was admonished for the offence.


title: Robert Black (serial killer)

text: Shortly after, Black moved to Grangemouth, where he lodged with an elderly couple and worked for a builders' supply company. He began dating a young woman he met at a local youth club. This was his only known girlfriend, and they dated for several months. According to Black, he had asked this woman to marry him, and was devastated when she abruptly ended their relationship, in part due to his unusual sexual demands.


title: Robert Black (serial killer)

text: In 1966, Black's landlords discovered he had molested their nine-year-old granddaughter whenever she visited their household. They evicted him but did not inform police, wanting to spare their granddaughter further trauma. Black lost his job soon after, and he returned to Kinlochleven, where he lodged with a married couple who had a six-year-old daughter.


title: Robert Black (serial killer)

text: Within a year, Black's landlords informed police that he had repeatedly molested their daughter. He pleaded guilty to three counts of indecent assault against a child and was sentenced to a year at Polmont Borstal in Brightons, an institution which specialised in the training and rehabilitating of serious youthful offenders. Although he later spoke freely about every aspect of his youth and adolescence—including the sexual abuse he had suffered at the Red House Care Home—he refused to discuss Polmont Borstal beyond saying he had vowed to never again be imprisoned; this has led to speculation that he may have been brutalised there.


title: Robert Black (serial killer)

text: In September 1968, six months after his release from Polmont Borstal, Black moved to London, where he initially found lodgings in a bedsit close to King's Cross station. Between 1968 and 1970, he supported himself through various—often casual—jobs. One of these was as a lifeguard at a Hornsey swimming pool, where he was soon fired for fondling a young girl; no charges were brought.


title: Robert Black (serial killer)

text: Via a contact he had met at a King's Cross bookshop, Black began to collect child pornography. Initially, much of this material was in magazine and photograph format, although he later expanded this material to include videos depicting graphic child sexual abuse. As Black was a keen photographer, he sometimes also discreetly photographed children (mostly girls between eight and twelve) at locations such as swimming pools; he stored these images alongside his pornographic material in locked suitcases.


title: Robert Black (serial killer)

text: Black frequented the Three Crowns, a Stamford Hill pub, where he became known as a proficient darts player. There he also met a Scottish couple, Edward and Kathy Rayson. In 1972, he moved into their attic. The Raysons considered Black a responsible if somewhat reclusive tenant who gave them no cause for complaint beyond his poor hygiene. They suspected Black of viewing pornographic material, but had no idea it might be paedophilic. Black remained their lodger until he was arrested in July 1990.


title: Robert Black (serial killer)

text: To increase his scope for casual work, in the mid-1970s Black bought a white Fiat van to enable him to commit to driving for a living. In 1976, Black obtained a permanent job as a van driver for Poster, Dispatch and Storage Ltd, a Hoxton-based firm whose fleet delivered posters—typically depicting pop stars—and billboard advertisements to locations across the UK, Ireland and continental Europe. To his employers, Black was a conscientious employee who was willing to undertake the long-distance deliveries some of his married co-workers disliked.


title: Robert Black (serial killer)

text: While working as a driver, Black developed a thorough knowledge of much of the UK road network, subsequently enabling him to snatch children across the entire country and dispose of their bodies hundreds of miles from the site of their abduction. To reduce the chance of being identified by eyewitnesses, Black often adjusted his appearance by alternately growing a beard or appearing clean-shaven, and occasionally shaved his head completely bald. Black also owned over a dozen pairs of spectacles, and would wear a pair significantly different from those he regularly wore when abducting children. He also covered the rear windows of his van with opaque black curtains.


title: Robert Black (serial killer)

text: The first murder Black is proven to have committed was that of nine-year-old Jennifer Cardy, who was abducted, sexually assaulted and murdered on 12 August 1981. Cardy was last seen by her mother at 1:40 p.m. as she cycled to a friend's house in Ballinderry, County Antrim; she never arrived.


title: Robert Black (serial killer)

text: Hours later, Cardy's bicycle was discovered less than a mile from her home, covered with branches and leaves. The stand of the bicycle was down, suggesting that she had stopped her bicycle to converse with her abductor. A search aided by 200 volunteers found nothing further.


title: Robert Black (serial killer)

text: Six days later, two anglers discovered Cardy's body in a reservoir near a lay-by in Hillsborough, from her home. A pathologist noted signs of sexual abuse on Cardy's body and underwear; the autopsy concluded she had died of drowning—most likely accompanied by ligature strangulation. The watch she had been wearing had stopped at 5:40 p.m.


title: Robert Black (serial killer)

text: The location of the body near a major arterial road between Belfast and Dublin led police to suspect her murderer had been familiar with the area. The reservoir in which her body was found was near a route frequented by long-distance delivery drivers, and visible only yards away from the lay-by, suggesting that her killer may have travelled extensively upon this route.


title: Robert Black (serial killer)

text: Black's second confirmed victim was 11-year-old Susan Claire Maxwell, who lived in Cornhill-on-Tweed on the English side of the Anglo-Scottish border. Maxwell was abducted on 30 July 1982 as she walked home from playing tennis in Coldstream. She was last seen alive at 4:30 p.m., crossing the bridge over the River Tweed, and was likely abducted by Black shortly after.


title: Robert Black (serial killer)

text: The following day a search was mounted. Search dogs were used, and at peak 300 officers were assigned full-time; a thorough search was made of every property in both Cornhill and Coldstream and over 80 square miles of terrain. Several people reported having seen a white van in the locality; one said a van had been parked in a field gateway off the A697.


title: Robert Black (serial killer)

text: On 12 August, Maxwell's body was found by a lorry driver; her body was covered with undergrowth, and was clothed save for her shoes and underwear. The precise date and cause of her death could not be determined due to decomposition. Maxwell had been bound, and gagged with sticking plaster, and her underwear had been removed and folded beneath her head, suggesting that she had been sexually assaulted.


title: Robert Black (serial killer)

text: A coroner's inquest concluded Maxwell had died shortly after being abducted. Evidently, Maxwell remained in Black's van—alive or dead—for over 24 hours, as his delivery schedule encompassed Edinburgh, Dundee, and finally Glasgow, where he made his final delivery close to midnight on 30 July. The following day, Black returned from Glasgow to London, discarding the body in a copse beside the A518 road near Uttoxeter, from where Maxwell had been abducted.


title: Robert Black (serial killer)

text: Five-year-old Caroline Hogg, Black's youngest known victim, disappeared while playing outside her Beach Lane home in the Edinburgh suburb of Portobello in the early evening of 8 July 1983. When she failed to return home by 7:15 p.m., her family searched the surrounding streets. A boy told them he had seen Caroline with a man on the nearby promenade, which they searched before calling the Lothian and Borders Police.


title: Robert Black (serial killer)

text: The ensuing search was the largest in Scottish history at the time, with 2,000 local volunteers and 50 members of the Royal Scots Fusiliers searching first Portobello, then expanding their scope to all of Edinburgh. By 10 July, Hogg's disappearance was headline news across the UK. Nine known paedophiles were identified as having been in Portobello on 8 July; all were eliminated from the inquiry.


title: Robert Black (serial killer)

text: Numerous eyewitnesses had seen an unkempt, balding, "furtive-looking" man wearing horn-rimmed glasses, watching Hogg as she played; then following her to a nearby fairground. En route, a 14-year-old girl named Jennifer Booth had seen Hogg sitting with this man on a bench. Booth overheard Hogg reply "Yes please" to some question posed to her by the man before the two walked to the fairground holding hands.


title: Robert Black (serial killer)

text: There, the man paid 15 pence for Caroline to ride a carousel as he watched. A witness stated to police that as they left the fairground at about 7:30 p.m., Caroline seemed frightened.


title: Robert Black (serial killer)

text: Hogg remained in Black's van for at least 24 hours. Black delivered posters to Glasgow several hours after the abduction, and refuelled his van in Carlisle early the following morning.


title: Robert Black (serial killer)

text: On 18 July, Hogg's naked body was found in a ditch close to the M1 motorway in Twycross, from where she had been abducted and just from where Maxwell's body had been found the previous year.


title: Robert Black (serial killer)

text: The precise cause of death could not be determined due to the extent of decomposition. Insect activity suggested the body had been placed where it was found on or after 12 July; Black had made a delivery to Bedworth on that date. The absence of clothing again suggested a sexual motive.


title: Robert Black (serial killer)

text: The following March, a televised reconstruction of the abduction was broadcast nationally. Appealing for witnesses to come forward, Hogg's father said: "You think it can never happen to you, but it has proven time and time again that it can, and it could again if this man isn't caught in the near future."


title: Robert Black (serial killer)

text: After the discovery of Hogg's body, a conference of senior Staffordshire and Leicestershire detectives unanimously concluded that Hogg's and Maxwell's murderers were the same person, to a large degree because of the distance between the abduction and discovery sites. (Cardy's murder was not linked to this series until 2009.)


title: Robert Black (serial killer)

text: Due to the distances involved, police suspected that the murderer of Maxwell and Hogg worked as a lorry or van driver, or a sales representative, which required him to travel extensively to locations which included the Scottish Borders. Both girls had been bound and likely subjected to a sexual assault prior to the murders, and each had been wearing white ankle socks at the time of her abduction, which may have triggered a fetish in the perpetrator's psyche. Due to the geographical and circumstantial nature of the offences, the killer was most likely an opportunist.


title: Robert Black (serial killer)

text: Based upon the day of the week when Maxwell and Hogg had been abducted (a Friday), the killer was likely tied to a delivery or production schedule. Following the August 1982 discovery of Maxwell's body, numerous transport firms with links between Scotland and the Midlands of England were contacted, and drivers were questioned about their whereabouts on the date of her abduction. This line of inquiry was repeated following the discovery of Hogg's body, but in both instances failed to yield results.


title: Robert Black (serial killer)

text: Despite frustration at the lack of a breakthrough in their search for the murderer, there was complete cooperation between the detectives from the four police forces involved in the manhunt. Initially, a satellite incident room in Coldstream coordinated the efforts of the forces involved in the hunt for Maxwell's killer, with incident rooms in Leith and Portobello coordinating the search for Hogg's; within hours of Hogg's body being discovered, the chief constables of all forces now involved in investigating the murders agreed to appoint a senior investigating officer to coordinate the inquiries. Hector Clark, the assistant chief constable of Northumbria Police, took overall charge of the investigation. Clark established incident rooms in Northumberland and Leith police stations, to liaise between the four police forces involved.


title: Robert Black (serial killer)

text: All information relating to both murders was initially logged within a card filing system, which contained 500,000 index cards relating to the Maxwell case alone. Mindful of the criticisms of the recent investigation into the Yorkshire Ripper, which had become overwhelmed due to the volume of information filed in a card filing system, one of Clark's first decisions upon taking overall charge of the murder investigation was to introduce computer technology into the investigation; he and other senior officers agreed that the most efficient way to cooperate in an investigation of this scope was to collate their information on the Hogg murder into a computerised database, which all forces involved in the manhunt could access. Information relating to Maxwell's murder was also later entered onto this database.


title: Robert Black (serial killer)

text: By January 1987, all information relating to the murders initially linked to Black was entered into the newly established HOLMES information technology system, with the £250,000 cost to implement it provided by the Home Office. Information continued to be entered into the database, and police forces nationwide could cross-check all data fed into this system. This database—based at the Child Murder Bureau in Bradford—expanded to hold information upon over 189,000 people, 220,000 vehicles, and details of interviews held with over 60,000 people. Much of the information came through three confidential hotlines established in 1984. As a result of the investigation into the killings, several unrelated crimes, including offences relating to child abuse, were solved.


title: Robert Black (serial killer)

text: At about 7:50 p.m. on 26 March 1986, 10-year-old Sarah Jayne Harper disappeared from the Leeds suburb of Morley, having left her home to buy a loaf of bread from a corner shop 100 yards (metres) from her home. The owner of the shop confirmed that Harper had bought a loaf of bread and two packets of crisps from her at 7:55 pm, and that a balding man had briefly entered the shop moments later, then left as Harper made her purchases.


title: Robert Black (serial killer)

text: Harper was last seen alive by two girls walking into an alley leading towards her Brunswick Place home; when she had not returned by 8:20 pm, her mother, Jackie, and younger sister, Claire, briefly searched the surrounding streets, before Jackie Harper reported her daughter missing to West Yorkshire Police. Immediately, an extensive search was launched to find the child. Over 100 police officers were assigned full-time to the search, which saw house-to-house inquiries across Morley, over 3,000 properties searched, more than 10,000 leaflets distributed, and 1,400 witness statements obtained. A police search of the surrounding land was bolstered by 200 local volunteers, and a reservoir in nearby Tingley was searched by underwater units.


title: Robert Black (serial killer)

text: Extensive inquiries by West Yorkshire Police established that a white Ford Transit van had been in the area where Harper had been abducted. Two suspicious men had been seen loitering near the route Harper would have taken to the corner shop, and one of them was stocky and balding. Mindful of the possibility Harper had been abducted and murdered, West Yorkshire Police dispatched a telex to all forces nationwide, requesting that they search all locations where they had previously discovered child murder victims.


title: Robert Black (serial killer)

text: At a press conference on 3 April, Sarah's mother, Jackie, informed journalists that she feared her daughter was dead, and that the worst torment she and her family endured was the uncertainty. She made a direct appeal to her daughter's abductor to reveal the whereabouts of her daughter's body, stating: "I just want her back, even if she's dead. If someone would just pick up the phone and tell us where the body is."


title: Robert Black (serial killer)

text: On 19 April, a man discovered Sarah's partially dressed, gagged and bound body floating in the River Trent near Nottingham, from the site of her abduction. An autopsy showed she had died between five and eight hours after she was last seen alive, and that the cause of her death was drowning; injuries she had received to her face, forehead, head and neck had most likely rendered her unconscious prior to being thrown into the water. Harper had also been the victim of a violent and sustained sexual assault prior to being thrown into the river, causing perimortem internal injuries which were described by the pathologist as "simply terrible".


title: Robert Black (serial killer)

text: Days after Harper's body had been found, a further witness contacted West Yorkshire Police to say that at approximately 9:15 p.m. on 26 March, he had seen a white van with a stocky, balding man standing by the passenger door, parked close to the River Soar. As the Soar is a tributary to the Trent, and the description of the vehicle and driver matched those obtained from Morley residents, investigators took this eyewitness account seriously. Black refuelled his van in Newport Pagnell the following afternoon, and it is likely that he had driven Harper to Ratcliffe on Soar, and discarded her body in the Soar in the late evening of the date of her abduction, or the early hours of the following day.


title: Robert Black (serial killer)

text: Realising the likelihood that Harper's murderer had travelled on the M1 motorway prior to disposing of her body in the river, and that he would have had to refuel his vehicle as he made this journey, officers from both West Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire Police questioned staff and motorists at all service stations on the M1 motorway between Woolley, West Yorkshire and Trowell, Nottinghamshire, asking whether they had noted anything unusual on 26 or 27 March. Staff at one station had noted a white Transit van which had seemed out of place on the evening of 26 March, but could not give a clear description of the driver.


title: Robert Black (serial killer)

text: Detective John Stainthorpe, head of the Leeds South Division of West Yorkshire Police, initially stated his doubt that Harper's disappearance was linked to those of Maxwell and Hogg: in one interview, he said that although he would not discount the possibility, he believed that Harper's abductor had close, personal connections with Morley. Upon the discovery of her body in the River Trent, he revised his opinion.


title: Robert Black (serial killer)

text: Numerous similarities linked the murder of Sarah Harper to those of Maxwell and Hogg: she had been a prepubescent, white female, abducted from Northern England and found murdered in the Midlands. All three victims had been discovered within of Ashby-de-la-Zouch, with little effort being made to conceal the bodies.


title: Robert Black (serial killer)

text: Despite these similarities, several investigators initially doubted whether Harper's murder should be linked to the series due to the differences in the circumstances of her abduction and the fact that the child had been subjected to a serious sexual assault prior to her murder, whereas decomposition had erased any such clear traces on the bodies of the two previous victims. Harper had been abducted on a rainy Wednesday evening from a suburb in the north of England, wearing a hooded anorak covering much of her face, as opposed to being abducted on a summer Friday afternoon in southern Scotland while wearing summer clothing. Investigators remained open-minded as to whether Harper's murder had been committed by the same person, and telephone and computer connections were established between the incident room in the Leeds district of Holbeck and Leith. Harper's murder was formally linked to the series in November 1986.


title: Robert Black (serial killer)

text: Following the murder of Sarah Harper, with six police forces now involved in the hunt for the offender, the police forces involved in the manhunt agreed that Hector Clark (by this time Deputy Chief Constable of Lothian and Borders Police) should maintain overall command of the investigation. Clark created a new headquarters in Wakefield to act as a liaison between the six forces.


title: Robert Black (serial killer)

text: On 21 April 1986, the head of Scotland Yard's Criminal Intelligence Branch, Phillip Corbett, hosted a summit meeting at Scotland Yard, to discuss how best to share information between the forces involved in the manhunt, and to investigate potential links with 19 other unsolved child murders. Senior officers attended from 16 UK police forces. At this stage, the inquiry had cost in excess of a million pounds.


title: Robert Black (serial killer)

text: One of the outcomes of this meeting was that investigators contacted the FBI to request that they compose a psychological profile of the murderer for UK investigators. The FBI completed this profile in early 1988.


title: Robert Black (serial killer)

text: For the HOLMES database, investigators concluded only those with convictions for serious sexual offences against children would warrant further investigation. Those to be checked were to have been convicted of child murder, child abduction or attempted child abduction, or the indecent assault of a child. Every police force in the UK was asked to check their databases for people who had received convictions for any of these offences within 10 years of the 1982 murder of Susan Maxwell. This narrowed the number of people to be checked to 40,000 men, and Black's name was not on the list, as his sole conviction had been in 1967.


title: Robert Black (serial killer)

text: In January 1988, the UK investigators received the psychological profile of the killer from the FBI. This profile described the killer as a white male aged between 30 and 40 (likely closer to 40), who was a classic loner. This offender would be unkempt in appearance, and had received less than 12 years of formal education. He likely lived alone, in rented accommodation, in a lower-middle class neighbourhood. This profile also deduced that the motive for the child killings was sexual, that the offender held a fixation with child pornography, that he retained souvenirs from his victims, and he most likely engaged in necrophilia with his victims' bodies shortly after their death, before disposing of them.


title: Robert Black (serial killer)

text: On 23 April 1988, an attempted abduction of a teenage girl occurred in the Nottingham district of Radford which was not initially deemed by Nottinghamshire Police to be linked to the three child killings, and thus remained unreported to Clark or senior investigators in the national manhunt, despite the fact that all chief constables across the UK had been requested to report incidents of this nature to the inquiry team. The victim of this attempted abduction was Teresa Thornhill, a 15-year-old who was tall, which may have led Black to think she was younger than she was.


title: Robert Black (serial killer)

text: That evening, Thornhill had been at a social gathering in a local park with her boyfriend, Andrew Beeston, and other teenagers, before walking home with Beeston. The pair had parted company at the end of Norton Street when Thornhill noted a blue Transit van slowing to a stop ahead of her; the driver of this van then got out, raised the van's bonnet and asked Thornhill, "Can you fix engines?" When Thornhill replied that she could not and began walking at a much brisker pace, Black clasped his arms across her mouth and navel and attempted to drag her into his vehicle.


title: Robert Black (serial killer)

text: Thornhill resisted him: writhing and kicking as she attempted to free herself from what she later described as his "bear hug" grasping of her body. As her would-be abductor wrestled her to his van, Thornhill squeezed his testicles, causing him to loosen his grasp sufficiently enough for her to bite into his right forearm. Black shouted, "Oh! You... bitch!", as Thornhill began to scream for her mother, wedging her feet on each side of the door frame as she struggled to resist being forced into the van. At the same time, Beeston ran towards the van shouting, "Let go of her, you fat bastard!" Upon hearing this, Black loosened his grip on Thornhill, who fell into the road, sobbing. Black himself ran towards the driver's seat of his van and rapidly drove away from the scene.


title: Robert Black (serial killer)

text: Both Thornhill and Beeston ran to Thornhill's home and informed her parents what had occurred; they immediately reported the attempted abduction to Nottinghamshire Police, who questioned both youngsters. Both Thornhill and Beeston described her would-be abductor as an unkempt, overweight, balding and heavily built man aged between 40 and 50, and about in height.


title: Robert Black (serial killer)

text: Black was arrested in Stow on 14 July 1990. David Herkes, a 53-year-old retired postmaster, was mowing his front garden when he saw a blue Transit van slow to a standstill across the road. The driver exited the van—ostensibly to clean his windscreen—as the six-year-old daughter of Herkes' neighbour passed his field of view. As Herkes stooped to clear grass cuttings from his lawnmower, he saw the girl's feet lifting from the pavement; he then straightened himself to observe the vehicle's driver hastily pushing something through the passenger door before clambering across to the driver's seat, closing the passenger door, and starting the engine.


title: Robert Black (serial killer)

text: Realising he had witnessed an abduction, Herkes noted the registration number of the van as it sped away. Herkes ran to the girl's home; the girl's mother called police.


title: Robert Black (serial killer)

text: Within minutes, six police vehicles had arrived in the village. As Herkes described the van to officers, he observed it driving in their direction and exclaimed, "That's him! That's the same van!" An officer jumped in the van's path, forcing it to halt. Police removed the driver from his seat and handcuffed him.


title: Robert Black (serial killer)

text: One of the officers, who was the father of the abducted girl, opened the rear of the van and clambered inside, calling his daughter's name. Seeing movement in a sleeping bag, he untied its drawstring to discover his daughter inside, her wrists bound behind her back, her legs tied together, her mouth bound and gagged with sticking plaster, and a hood tied over her head.


title: Robert Black (serial killer)

text: En route to Selkirk police station, Black said: "It was a rush of blood to the head; I have always liked little girls since I was a lad. I tied her up because I wanted to keep her until I had dropped a parcel off. I was going to let her go." Black claimed he had interfered with his victim only "a little". A doctor found the victim had been subjected to a serious sexual assault.


title: Robert Black (serial killer)

text: The girl was able to pinpoint the lay-by on the A7 where Black had sexually assaulted her. Black's intention had been to quickly make a final scheduled delivery to Galashiels before further abusing and almost certainly killing his victim.


title: Robert Black (serial killer)

text: At Selkirk police station, Black admitted to sexually assaulting the girl, saying he had not done more to her because he "didn't have much time". He was charged with abduction and remanded in custody. As Black awaited a scheduled 16 July Selkirk Sheriff court appearance, the detective superintendent—noting the similarities between the Stow abduction and the three child killings—notified Hector Clark of Black's arrest. On 16 July, Clark travelled from Wakefield to interview Black at Edinburgh's St Leonards police station. Although Black's answers in this brief interview were largely monosyllabic, Clark left feeling that Black was the man he had sought since 1982. At Black's initial remand hearing he was ordered to stand trial at Edinburgh High Court for the abduction of the Stow girl; he was then transferred to Saughton Prison.


title: Robert Black (serial killer)

text: A search of Black's van found restraining devices including assorted ropes, sticking plaster, and hoods; a Polaroid camera; numerous articles of girls' clothing; a mattress; and a selection of sexual aids. Black claimed that on his long-distance deliveries he would pull into a lay-by and dress in the children's clothing before masturbating; he gave no plausible explanation for the sexual aids.


title: Robert Black (serial killer)

text: At the request of Scottish detectives, Black's Stamford Hill lodgings were searched by the Metropolitan Police. This search yielded a large collection of child pornography in magazine, book, photographic and video format, including 58 videos and films depicting graphic child sexual abuse which Black later claimed to have bought in continental Europe. Also found were several items of children's clothing, a semen-stained copy of a Nottingham newspaper detailing the 1988 attempted abduction of Teresa Thornhill, and a variety of sex aids.


title: Robert Black (serial killer)

text: Black's appointed defence lawyer, Herbert Kerrigan QC, and the Edinburgh procurator fiscal both ordered psychiatric evaluations of Black, which were undertaken by prominent psychiatrists. Both reports were uncompromising regarding Black's deviancy and proclivities towards children. Black told Kerrigan he intended to plead guilty to the abduction charges.


title: Robert Black (serial killer)

text: On 10 August 1990, Black was tried for the abduction and sexual assault of the Stow schoolgirl. He was tried at the Edinburgh High Court before Lord Donald MacArthur Ross. The trial lasted one day.