Nearly as soon as I had found out that the Army was planning to transition from the dreaded UCP camouflage to Scorpion, I found out about the upcoming “Book End” pattern tests scheduled for August – October of this year. When you see what they’ll be testing, you aren’t going to believe it.
Naturally, the baseline transitional pattern will be Scorpion (w2) and the Army will consider uniforms and limited OCIE items (such as helmet covers, etc) in MARPAT desert and woodland. ALso under consideration are the legacy 3-color Desert and Woodland (M81 to Camo collectors), both of which were previously displaced by the adoption of the Universal Camouflage Pattern beginning in 2004.
Initially, I didn’t get the pattern choices until someone put it into perspective for me. I kept saying to myself that someone in the Army sure wanted to adopt MARPAT but then I noticed that they aren’t looking at AOR 1&2. While AOR 1 and MARPAT desert are very similar patterns, AOR 2 was specifically tuned to use in jungle environments. The developers even turned the pattern 90 degrees to give it a more vertical orientation. MARPAT woodland on the other hand is a much more generic woodland pattern.
Since the woodland aspects of this testing are being driven by requirements out of the new Army Jungle School at Schoffield Barracks in Hawaii, jungle performance is going to have a lot of weight. With its more Green coloring, chances are very good that AOR 2 would outperform MARPAT woodland.
What I see going in here is something altogether different. After speaking with others, I see a test that pits “analog vs digital” and the Army is out to put us all out of “digital” misery.
If you look at MARPAT as the “digital” solution and 3-color and Woodland as the “analog” solution you can begin to see a method to the madness. Since Scorpion also looks analog in nature, adoption of the two other analog patterns creates a new “family of camouflage” that offers similar design elements if not outright geometry.
As I said before, a lot of credence is being placed on the needs of the Jungle School which has already scoured DLA stocks for the last of the woodland EHWBDUs in stock. They’ve been issuing them out to students for some time now and by all accounts are very happy with Woodland’s performance in jungle. As it should be, since Woodland is son of ERDL. It’s also important to note that Woodland isn’t completely dead. It’s still an issue pattern. There is an Army G1 message that still authorizes Woodland for jungle use due to UCP’s poor performance in that environment. Consequently, based on these two factors (creation of analog family and Jungle School use of Woodland), my money is on the “analog” solution.
My prediction? It’s back to the future with a Scorpion transitional pattern bookended by 3-color Desert and Woodland. Time will tell if I’m right. At any rate, I’m giddy (yes, I said “giddy”) that the Army is moving out swiftly to adopt more effective camouflage for their troops.
Tags: Camo Wars
Why not just tweak BDU/DCU into the same pattern shapes as scorpion? They all keep the same colors and look similar.
Or. Take Scorpion and tweak it to where it looks like either BDU or DCU?
BTW, why not resurrect the DBDU as well?
Aside from ignoring all of the comments before yours, do you mean 6-color Desert?
Whats the point of wearing all these different patterns if the OCIE and TA50 stays one color while your uniform is a different color and/or pattern. Marines in full battle rattle look brown to me, not desert or woodland marpat. If the body armor, pouches, assault pack (or ruck), knee pads, potentially elbow pads, potentially nut protector and gloves are all a different color and/or pattern than your uniform then what is the point? Over half your body surface area wouldnt blend in with your other half.
Glad I still have a tubs of woodland and DCU laying around. The wife nags me about them everytime we PCS.
scorpion shares three colors with each of the bookend patterns. Having a different but complimentary pattern on ta-50 (in appropriate colors, as scorpion or multicam would be) gives the effect that an object is in the image, i.e. in deserts your scorpion armor might look like just another rock or wadi, in jungle it might look like an exposed bit of tree trunk. The Marine Corps uses coyote because it was the best solution they could think of to cover woodland and desert circa ’03. As I understand it, the Marine Corps was looking at a similar solution as the army is now taking, they were looking at a transitional pattern for OCIE only, though I haven’t heard anything about it since the NDAA came out. Scorpion will do well as a transitional pattern complimenting woodland and desert, and despite the pattern differences, probably well with marpat.
Seems like it makes sense. So long as the pattern isn’t to different to make it stand out.
Agreed
Why did you leave the kids up on the table …………….. you wanted too ……uhkfhttdrytfdhtdyfcjytcijhytfutk
Duffel blog called it
http://www.duffelblog.com/2012/08/us-army-introduces-revolutionary-new-woodland-camouflage-uniform-to-replace-acu/#!RCQ0n
That was like the third comment .
Never mind strike hold already posted it…
And to think this all could have been avoided if they had just made a timely god damn decision in 2013. ANY of the Fop’s from phase IV would have been preferable over what we are dealing with now.
My solution: Adopt AOR 1 and 2 as bookends since both were baseline patterns in Phase IV and the other submissions barely performed better to my understanding. The Army should then work with the Navy and maybe MC to develop the digital transitional pattern, or seriously look at transitional AOR which to my understanding tied multicam. If transitional AOR existed as a pattern before 2014 it could be adopted correct? I think then the Navy, MC and Army could agree to adopt the same transitional pattern and they share common geometry. MC can keep desert and woodland Marpat, the Army wears transitional AOR CONUS and therefor doesn’t affect Marine ego.
Side note: I have personally seen SEAL’s mixing AOR 1 and MultiCam in theater. It must work well enough for them. Mixing Scorpion and either Marpat pattern may not be too terrible. It might be an eye sore up close but after 50 meters it probably doesn’t matter.
If only you could the services to all work together. Of course, combine all three of the other services together and you still don’t have the buying power of the Army. Maybe they should just do what the Army decides.
They went with what ever the Army went with for decades. If there is ANYTHING we should adopt from the past in regards to camo its that kind of mindset. Then all services could wear the FOP winner from phase IV and we would all have an up to date, cutting edge pattern(s).
The road to hell is paved with good intentions, and so was NDAA 2014.
The NDAA would have had it’s intended results had they not dropped the deadline.
Agreed. Having all services in the same pattern by 2018 was the teeth of the bill and would have forced cooperation. Now I almost think the bill should be revoked as its doing more harm than good and will make it very difficult to create new patterns as the need arises.
That may happen
OK SSD, I think your giddiness is premature. If what you say is true, then (A)Scorpion will still lose out as a official camo pattern. (why waste money doing new when you can go old, besides the logistics of a 3 uniform system would weigh down the supply system) AND (B) Congress would not fund such a idea as a 3 uniform system). Personaly, I think that the Army will go with scorpion and its associated patterns for simplicity. That does not mean they will not test the hell our of MARPAT and AOR 1/2 again.
No, my joy is based on action.
As for a 3 uniform system weighing down the supply chain, ygbsm. We’ve got at least seven DoD-wide right now, not counting specialty patterns like woodland and USMC snow.
SSD,
If the intent still to have Scorpion/OCP as the garrison/training/OCIE pattern and then issue combat uniforms in specific environment patterns as needed? Then what’s the point of announcing specific bookend patterns or testing? couldn’t they theoretically issues ANY (tiger stripe, ERDL, M1942…) pattern they needed as the situation requied?
Look how long THIS is taking. A 13 year long war is an anomaly compared to the normal cycle of short contingency after contingency. The operation would be over before they even decided which patterns to test. They need kit on the shelves, and in the hands of those who will use it.
Touché.
SSD – Can the Army include other patterns in the test?
They can do whatever they want but if they plan on it, they’d better have something made to test.
SSD have you got any idea what the OCIE for all this is gonna be? Are they gonna use Scorpion gear with BDUs/DCUs or is the Army gonna pull a Marine Corp and do Coyote Brown or maybe Tan 499 gear for everything????
I believe it will be OCP.
This is the goddamn dumbest shit I’ve seen in a while. I feel so bad for my brother in the Army and so fucking happy to be in the Navy.
I think what we need right now is for some airsofters to save us. Yes you read that right. We are all commenting on something non of us have actually seen. We need someone to get a hold of some BDU/DCU and MARPAT tops and a Multicam vest and take some pictures.
Damn, that’s a good idea. If the airsofters don’t get involved, then I hope someone else can take the guidon on this one.
We should use the term pixilated to describe all the CADPAT derived patterns (UCP, AOR 1&2, MARPAT, NWU) or other patterns that use pixel blocks. It is a more appropriate descriptor of the pattern than digital VS analog.
An analog pattern brings to mind a guy with a paint brush. A digital pattern is a pattern that is generated via computer algorithms AKA digitally.
You can generate non-pixilated patterns digitally (IIRC Multicam was generated in part by computer algorithms). And you can generate pixilated patterns by hand without a computer using graph paper.
Looks like what Army is doing is borrowing from Crye the concept of analog camo (utilizing colors already in their inventory) across family of camos.
See previous Soldier Systems article
https://soldiersystems.net/2013/11/26/crye-precision-releases-new-multicam-patterns-and-reinvents-website/
Ok SSD, this is great coverage, so I’ll bet you know the answer to the million dollar question. Does the Army plan on testing any other patterns, or is woodland/3CD versus MARPAT the only thing being tested? I have read all the other post, and I haven’t seen this question or the answer.
The answer you seek is in the comments but I’ll rehash. As far as I know, this is it.
A no BS comparison of M81 (“US Woodland”), Multicam and MARPAT.
The three videos below depict how well all three patterns compare to one another.
Woodland…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0F4SZgXvx8&index=42&list=UUUQJVlbm8TI4Q6kMvbq6wgg
MARPAT…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0qV9yw0Ze0&index=47&list=UUUQJVlbm8TI4Q6kMvbq6wgg
Multicam…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKtgoLlYxEU&index=48&list=UUUQJVlbm8TI4Q6kMvbq6wgg
I’m thinking what with the Jungle Warfare school using BDUs that is their test. It they already have their answer. Only thing I could see them still testing is the desert variants with the OCP TA50
Also, I just thought of this a few minutes ago. Seeing as how the Army kinda screwed the pooch on Multicam; this is what I was thinking:
A.) The Army wanted full rights to their camo
B.) Since they wanted full rights and could not get them for Multi cam they went with Scorpion W2. Also, bookend patterns are already in circulation with the Navy/ The Corps. Also, the BDU/ DCU is still in CIF warehouses all over.
C.) They went this route because now they control who prints what and how much.
D.) Perhaps, because of this we will have less of the “Stolen Valor” we have been having problems with.
E.)
I know this is clearly not the main priority behind this thinking, however, it would possibly help. Now that they have control over who does what with how much we won’t have an issue with people who are not in the service wearing it all over the place. Perhaps NATO also has a say in this considering so many of our allies are wearing something similar. Therefore easier to identify friendlies from foes. I don’t think the hill thinks of things like this, you never know though.
Not to resurrect an old thread, but I was hoping to hear something about an official announcement on the Army’s birthday. I guess that pooch has been screwed too.
^ Seconded! +1
SSD, any good (or not good) news on the bookend tests?
None
personally, what do you think the Army will do (and how that will relay with the NG)?