Security Scholar, an Australian defense blog has been keeping tabs on the Australian adoption of Crye Precision’s technology in the form of uniform designs (Operational Combat Uniform) and the adaption of the MultiCam pattern for their use in a similar fashion to the British Multi Terrain Pattern. As you will recall, MTP is a melding of Crye’s technology with the long-serving Woodland Disruptive Pattern Material design.
Photo: Commonwealth of Australia, 1st Joint Public Affairs Unit, PO Damian Pawlenko
We can verify that the new Australian MultiCam Pattern will, just like the original use 7 layers of color and that Black is not one of them. Testing has shown these colors to work well in the homeland.
Last month, the Crye issue became politicized in Australia when the opposition party tried to make so much hay out of reports from troops deployed in Afghanistan that their OCUs were falling apart. One politico even went so far as to make the outrageous claim that if the uniforms had been manufactured by an Australian company rather than an American one they would not have been “shoddy.” While the intent was ridiculous, he may have been right considering that, previous uniforms were not FR at all. Now, for the first time, Australian ground troops have FR protection with the Crye uniforms and are better protected. Unfortunately, that is also the culprit behind the prematurely worn uniforms. It seems, the Australians specified an older blend of TenCate’s Defender-M fabric. A newer version with twice the tear strength has been in use by the US Marine Corps for well over a year and for the last few months by the US Army. Hopefully, the Australians will transition to the new fabric. However, according to the Security Scholar report, “Army Headquarters has tasked the Defence Science and Technology Organisation to analyse the use of flame retardant materials in combat uniforms to determine if there is an operational need for these types of fabrics.” At this point, the Australians aren’t even sure if they want their troops to have FR protection.
Read the securityscholar.wordpress.com report to learn more.
Tags: Australia, Crye Precision, MTP, TenCate
I wouldn’t get too wrapped up around the axles by the oppositions comments. Our current government is extremely unpopular and the opposition is just attacking every decision parliament makes.
On the topic at hand, the DTSO geeks are largely scientists who have never served and fall into the old DMO mindset of jack-of-all-trades ideology. They would have seen that the Defender-M fabric was FR and stopped thinking after that. The new Diggerworks seems to be doing the right thing now, but there still seems to be a deeply ingrained distrust of industry by the ADF.
Having seen the new uniform at a recent industry meeting, I can safely say that while they are going in the right direction, they need to study the map closer. The sample they had on display was ‘Australianised’ by adding some of the black ‘bunny ears’ from the current DPCU uniform and the addition of a small ADF logo similar to what the USMC do. The difference is that the ADF logo runs in a straight line and is spaced every 6 inches. As soon as you notice it, all you can see is essentially a dashed line running right up and then down the back of the torso which makes it look strange.
They are heading in the right direction, it will just take a while to get there.
I have heard there is an ADF logo but I thought they had used the Crye palette which does not contain Black. However, the Dark Brown 530 can look almost Black from a distance.
The sample they showed industry had the black in it. I asked if I could take a picture and got declined. The bloke said that there were still some tweaks (this was only two weeks ago) so since the last meeting they may have decided to do away with the bunny ears, which were pretty redundant as from five feet away it looks almost exactly like conventional multicam.
Winston,
I’d be interested in having a word with you re: this if you would care to get in touch. nic -at- securityscholar -dot- com -dot- au
okay i say fuck off fr clothing not needed by australian service men on the ground mainly air crew and ship crew, keep the frabics made in australia so there’s no messing about with theft from other nations so that they cant copy the australian uniform, like other countries have done with america hahaha.
also get rid of the scientist that dont know shit the auscam is more of a fashion statement than a camofluge. id rather use the digi auscam WITH BLACK in it than anything elese.
[…] is purchasing an additional 10,000 Operational Combat Uniforms. These “test” items will be manufactured from TenCate’s 6.5 oz Defender M fabric. […]