Camouflage usually means blending in. That wasn't an option for the submarine-dodging battleships of a century ago, which advertised their presence against an ever-changing sea and sky with bow waves and smokestacks. And so dazzle camouflage was born, an abstract riot of squiggles and harlequin patterns. It wasn't hard to spot a dazzle ship but the challenge for the periscope operator was quickly to judge a ship's speed and direction before firing a torpedo on a ponderous intercept. Dazzle camouflage was intended to provoke misjudgments, and there is some evidence that it worked.
迷彩通常意味著與周圍環境協調一致。在一個世紀之前，戰艦想躲避潛艇時不會用這一招，因為在不斷變幻的海天背景之下，船首波與主煙囪會時刻暴露出戰艦的位置。于是炫幻迷彩應運而生，這種迷彩由彎彎曲曲的線條和五顏六色的花紋，以很抽象的方式顯示出來。采用炫幻迷彩的戰艦不難定位，難的是在程序繁瑣的攔截中，發射魚雷之前需要潛望鏡操作手迅速判斷出戰艦的航速與航向。也就是說，設計炫幻迷彩的目的就是造成誤判，有證據表明這種策略確實有效。