SIG MMG 338 Program Series

Is This The New US Army Camouflage Pattern?

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ADS is exhibiting their US4CES (pronounced US forces) family of camouflage patterns at Warrior West. US4CES is vying along with three other commercial contenders for the honor of outfitting America’s Army with the most thoroughly vetted camouflage in history. Army officials should soon be announcing their selection for new camouflage after an exhaustive, multi-year study and testing regimen.

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74 Responses to “Is This The New US Army Camouflage Pattern?”

  1. Tony says:

    Hopefully not, Kryptek FTW.

    • SFC12B says:

      Honestly, I would be happy with anything besides the refurbished ACUPAT garbage ADS is trying to pawn off on us.

      • Greg says:

        You might who knows. The end game of this whole effort is to get everyone in the same camo again, not just to get the Army in to the right camo. Since “whole” means the Corps too, that means they will need something that keeps it in spirit with MARPAT to please them. But understand one thing. Just because UCP made some loose faith in Pixels, dosn’t mean the digital in general is useless. It was the colors chosen that made UCP worthless. What ADS has with US4CES is far from refurbished ACUPAT, more so pixelated BDU.

  2. BradKAF308 says:

    Sure, or not.

  3. Rod says:

    WHY? Just go with the multicam..trust me it works!

    • Walt says:

      Simple. The Army doesn’t own the pattern. Therefore, they get no money in royalties from the clothing, trinkets, etc made with the pattern. Moreover, they have to PAY the company that does own the pattern for use of it. The Army wants to go for a pattern it owns, so that they reap the monetary benefits from non-government contractor produced uniforms, and all the cheap little crap that soldiers and their significant others buy with the pattern on it.

  4. TW says:

    pixels are soo last year, I’m waiting for shiny holograms

    • Greg says:

      Problem is Marines will never take the holograms. The real end game of the Army efforts is to outfit everyone back in the same camo, eventually. Plus Digital is still pretty in imo.

  5. Desert Lizard says:

    It better not be. It’s got the same problem as ACU: it’s bright colored. And when it fades it gets even worse. If they do it again I’ll lose all faith in the army. I hate to say it, but that’s the truth.

  6. Thomas says:

    I sure hope we can do better than pixels.

    • Mr. European says:

      Like the italian Vegetato with non-pixelated fractals?
      Or the finnish m/05 with rounded hexagons?

      Personally I think US should have taken All-Over Brush in the first place. Even if some would complain it resembles (very remotely) the british DPM.

      • JBAR says:

        Heard the same thing about A-O-B.

      • CamoReader says:

        All over brush was the best in the trials of 2004.

        The problem with that camo is that is has no macro pattern to disrupt the human axis symetry.

      • JEFF says:

        All-Over Brush in the multicam color scheme would have been awesome.

  7. badjujuu says:

    I cant keep up with this, when i go thru my tough boxes in my garage i have to dig thru Woodland, ACU and OCP uniforms as well as plethora of coyote and tan gear etc…now this.
    I cant imagine the day that I finally squared away my unit with OCIE just to have them turn it in and issue them some kind of new pixaleted cool guy shit.

    • Thomas says:

      Amen! I think we had a plague of good idea fairies and here we stand in their wake.

    • CamoReader says:

      Hopefully, this will end it.

      • Stone06 says:

        LOL!! Amen to that. I found a tough box yesterday with my bdu’s stored in it. I put it next to the other three tough boxes.

  8. David says:

    You tell me?!…

  9. Guam Guy says:

    The Army is already gagging on Crye. Why not swallow?

  10. Tom says:

    If you check out the book cover of “Gentlemen Bastards” you’ll see a Green Beret on the cover rocking desert US4CES camo. They mention in the book that ANCOP got a bunch of these new uniforms and the Green Berets got to pick their sizes first before handing them out, this was all in Afghanistan back in early 2012 or possibly 2011? It’s a pretty recent book, it’s a good read too.

  11. Tom says:

    forgot to mention there’s a bunch of pics of this ODA team in the book wearing these uniforms

  12. SteveB says:

    I don’t think that was US4CES camo. It wasn’t out yet. Guy Cramer designed a special digital arid pattern for ANCOP. Thats the pattern seen in the book.

  13. Norbis says:

    At this point I don’t care. Just announce the one that did best, authorize it and start to execute.

    I don’t really see any value in waiting. I’m done with this dead horse, who is next?

  14. Don S says:

    This is worse than the ACU and will whiten when washed, So i ask all the rest of the Infantry guys out there, How long will you last in a fire fight wearing this whitened Digi uniform.

    • Army Doc says:

      You do realize that this is the desert pattern right? And it is meant to be lighter since the desert tends to be…. lighter. ACU didn’t do horrible in Iraq because of this fact. The Transitional and Woodland patterns are not nearly as light and look to be excellent camo.

    • Kris says:

      This is the desert uniform there will be a woodland and intermediate uniform as well. No more one pattern for ever thing.

  15. Stefan says:

    Good to be retired!

  16. Rey says:

    *sigh* I’m glad I am out of the service; I sure do miss the look and feel of a nicely starched set of Woodland BDUs with a pair of “spit shined” OD Jungle Boots. :C

    • SSD says:

      Me too

    • Dan says:

      amen brother. I really just wish they’d make up their damn mind already and quit wasting money and joe’s time, I’m pretty sure we all remember how quick cif and rfi issue was.

    • Greg says:

      The Woodland version of these patterns has the same color shades as Old Woodland did 🙂

  17. kaltesherz says:

    Just make it official already so I can replace my craptastic ACU’s already. While I’d prefer Multicam /OCP, US4CES is a huge improvement over UCP.

  18. greyghost says:

    I knew it was going to come down to ADS and Kryptek

  19. GMK says:

    Hoping for a non-Crye solution: that way we can keep ours (AMP). Sorry guys…

  20. bulldog 76 says:

    im hoping for kryptek but i know because of the price ads will get it

  21. Kris says:

    Mr Crammer you are among the best and I plan to get some SPEC4CE for personal use but the army needs to ditch the pixilated pattern completely. All it will do is remind of the failure of the UCP pattern and the self serving leadership that pushed it in to service.

    • Army Doc says:

      We should use whichever pattern is shown to be the most effective across the board, period. If that is a pixilated pattern then so be it. To not use the most effective pattern because we don’t want to be “reminded of the failure of the UCP pattern” would be making the same mistake that lead to UCP in the first place.

      The army has gone through this process to be as thorough and scientific as possible in an effort to get away from the “feel good” decision making of the past. Whatever comes out on top is what we should wear!

      • JBAR says:

        Though…. the results were almost identical in the end. The one area which stood out is in the air per SSD. If that final factor happens to be a personal like from the soldiers who participated in the study, or the chain of command authorizing it, then who knows.

  22. Daniel says:

    I really can’t even stand to look at it. Nothing about US4CES is appealing to me.

  23. Andy says:

    I think we all know that there is no single pattern and color that is going to work wonders in EVERY environment. Picking two patterns would help with the camo issue, but that does nothing to ease the logistical burden of the army. Now we have to either issue both in boot camp, or special order one patern when we deploy to a different area. And what’s the plan for OCIE/gear? Why don’t we issue a single base pattern used worldwide, then create some kind of area specific camoflaging kit with RFI? It should include materials to lighten the colors in desert and darken it in jungle/woods. We also need to renew training in individual camoflage, that is becoming a lost skill/art.

    • Army Doc says:

      You should try reading up on the process that is going on… It would answer all your questions.

    • Ryan says:

      The gear is going to use the transitional pattern and soldiers will be issued the transitional gear and uniforms with the desert and woodland in reserve stock.

      That was one of the main intents of this program.

      • JEFF says:

        The gear can be the transitional or a seperate OCIE pattern, it’s up to the company that submitted. While in theory the transitional would make sense check the pics of US4CES, the transitional and the OCIE were different.

  24. Doc Rob says:

    I know that you can’t tell us who won yet, but could you at least let us see the new Crye Precision Pattern.

  25. name says:

    I hope not. How is this any better than the current pixelated digital pattern? The colors are different, but it’s still pixelated.

    What we need is something that’s been proven to work, and that’s Multicam. Plus, Multicam just looks classy and balanced in terms of pattern and palette.

    Kryptek’s reptilian pattern is awesome, but hasn’t been proven in combat yet.

    The fourth pattern that no one knows anything about just looks plain ugly. Does it work? No one knows.

    • JBAR says:

      US4CES is different than the previous digital pattern. It incorporates more to work at different distances.

    • CamoReader says:

      Multicam lacks a good macro pattern but does excel in matching the texture.

      Kryptek has a good macro pattern but has a werid micropattern that I am skeptical of.

  26. Ryan says:

    This is the desert pattern guys…

    Think they’ll dump the tan t-shirt? Always hated it.

  27. Jon Meyer says:

    To anyone who hasn’t figured it out yet or have read that all OCIE will be a transitional color/pattern that works with both desert/woodland uniforms. What is pictured is the desert with trans gear. I, nor should anyone else care what the pattern and colors are, it should only matter what variation performed the best out of all selected to compete. As for Kryptek, I think it is the ugliest camo I have ever seen but if it wins, it wins. As for US4CES, I see nothing wrong; looks half way decent. Now whether it was the top performer is the real question.

    • JBAR says:

      I think US4CES has the best OCIE selection. It is not their transitional color, and if you compare OCIE between all sets, it is well done. Using a base transitional color set for OCIE does not always work. I imagine it is pretty difficult to get the OCIE color set just right so that it is light enough for desert and dark enough for woodland.

  28. reverend says:

    (shrugs) I love multicam. I have no vote. This pattern makes me sad.

  29. matt says:

    Will this pattern come with a liscensing agreement or is DOD buying it outright.

  30. JBAR says:

    I have been snooping through the gov’t solicitations and addendums and see that Multicam is still being stated, even in the new items and addendums that have come out in the past week or so. I know that a decision has not been made by the SEC ARMY, SECDEF, or whomever, but it leads to question why new solicitations would be sent out for thousands of new items right on the eve of a decision. I know how the gov’t works, but……

    Multicam is already in the supply system and in soldiers’ hands.

    Guy Cramer has the history of providing for the Canadian and our uniform patterns, plus ADS already has a huge supply base with the Gov’t.

    Brookwood: established textiles. No examples seen except small pics of the pattern. Looks like watercolors.

    Kryptek: May work very well. The pattern is non-traditional. This may be a turn off, or it may be the winning factor (recruiting coolness also).

    SSD should throw another bone

  31. Lawrence says:

    Which ever family of patterns wins, some people are gonna love it, some people are gonna hate it – and some people are gonna feel butt-hurt.

    Just get on with it and make the damn announcement already!

  32. frog says:

    Looks like a combo of AOR1 and AOR2.

  33. Ben says:

    I’m sure it will be a blast rounding all my UCP and multicam shit up, turning it in and getting all new shit. Seriously, why can’t we just stick with multicam? It works and works well.

  34. BradKAF308 says:

    Where did the post on Krytek go?

  35. sgt Garcia says:

    I just think that multicam should be the way to go it blends in better in a city battle also the acu shouldnt completely be faced out they should keep it for the recruits in basic training why just get rid of it all that gear can be re used over and over or just sell it all to a third world country who needs uniforms to try to get some of the money lost.. And if all fails i would be happy in wearing just shorts it gets tiring wearing pants al the time why cant we be comfortable while in battle able to move quicker like the enemy…

  36. sgt Garcia says:

    Also just go with the multicam everybody loves it and please stop changing pattern so much whats the point if we ever go into war people are starting to use chemicals and nuclear shit camo does not help when attacked with nuclear wepons….

  37. sgt Garcia says:

    They can also go with the US 4CES pattern and variants i think our next war will be in north korea sometime in the near future so we will need sometime of green uniform cammo….

  38. sgt Garcia says:

    I think its all a bunch of bull shit why waste youre time on i think this i think that just shut up and wear what ever is issued to you no matter if its damn pink the uniform does not make the soldier its the person who makes the diffrence so stop the bull shit already sit back and just wait that way you can all run out and start spending money on useless tactical shit that you will never use but for camping or your wknd training….

    • Mac says:

      You think this is about the uniform? No. It’s about survivability. Camoflage is a large passive measure of that. I guess you’re one of the people who would prefer to ride around and get shot at rather than set up somewhere and engage the enemy on your terms….try doing that in a vegetated area in UCP. People aren’t bitching because it’s a fashion statement, they’re bitching because we’ve been saddled with a substandard solution that reminds us of the story of the Emperor’s New Clothes.