In Part 4 of his ongoing look at modern camouflage and specifically how it all fits into the US Army Camouflage Improvement Effort, Guy Cramer explains why his pattern (in concert with ADS Inc), US4CES is the answer.
One thing I was fascinated with was the bit on US4CES-Alpha and Delta. I had forgotten all about the Delta variant and that it had featured colors that flowed from one into the other. Conventional wisdom seemed to favor that method, but it didn’t perform as well as the hard lines.
There’s a lot of science in this article but Guy does a good job of breaking it down for you. Additionally, he offers lots of comparison photos. Even if you aren’t a fan of US4CES, this is a MUST read!
www.hyperstealth.com/US4CES-ALPHA
Tags: Guy Cramer
Does Mr. Cramer know who won? It would seem this quite a lot of effort for something if he had lost. I only hope, I really like US4CES. I was in a country with soldiers wearing one of his patterns. Way more effective than the stuff we had.
No I do not know who won. No clues have been provided either, I could make an educated guess, but without seeing Crye’s submission, I can’t even do that.
Thanks for the quick answer, I’ve been a huge admirer of your work in the field!
Thanks. It’s when you can’t admire it in the field that I know it works!
Hey man…can you do me a favor and work on your website…it’s tough to read your articles even when I put my browser in full screen.
That’s my criticism.
I suspect at this point he does. Probably not allowed to say though.
On the flip side he may just be lobbying to try and prove that he should have won and his series of articles is designed to show that.
The Army has not disclosed the winner to me or ADS Inc. They are keeping quiet on that.
If we lose it won’t be for lack of effort.
Well who would lobby to say their submission should NOT have won? I expect all producers are proud and hopeful for their entries and feel they are the best choice…or else why even get in the game? Thanks for the series on camo, very insightful.
Well, if you don’t win – thanks for all the good effort. Your work and research have surely benefited the science of camoflague.
but, If you don’t win, don’t complain. Do the honorable thing and accept it.
Its getting really tiresome to hear losers in every acquisition situation file challanges and complaints that only serve to delay the process of getting newer, better kit/ equipment into the hands of service members.
Then that contradicts the earlier article about the Army not making the camo decision this Friday.
Darn it, I really want Kryptek to win, but now I dunno. US4CES is pretty awesome stuff. Well, good luck, Mr. Cramer. May the best pattern win this time around. If US4CES wins I’ll hate it for a week but then I’ll be running around replacing my UCP stuff with it ASAP.
Thanks. Which ever family wins; the soldiers wearing it will be safer.
“the soldiers wearing it will be safer.”
You got that right. That being said, it’s pretty hard to spot me in UCP in a gravel parking lot. 😉
I’m confidant that the scientific findings of the Army Camouflage Improvement Initiative will support the US4CES pattern. Whether the Army leadership will actually make the announcement about who’s won, and whether their decision will also be based on the scientific data and not on “political” considerations, remains to be seen.
For whatever its worth though, US4CES would get my vote.
Thanks Lawrence, their are other camouflage experts in this competition, don’t count them out.
Great article for the background, the history and the technology and techniques.
And the compromise of the Crye Arid pattern. Which I think may have been a ruse.
As said, time will tell…
That wasn’t the Crye Arid pattern. It was a strike off.
Thanks Eric, I just updated the Part 2 paper with that information.
Is the link provided down for anyone else? I can’t seem to get to the article, try as I might.
It’s working for me.
It should work, the story is getting hit allot right now and it’s a graphics heavy page.
Guy Cramer, Just wanna say you are a class act with explaining everything and not discrediting the competition. Extremely professional!
I honestly think your product is amazing and I hope it wins.
Thanks Eric. We know we have a good product, but did one of the others do it better?
I wish a rep from Kryptek and Crye will be on this website to comment on their products.
I believe someone from Kryptek has been answering questions on Soldier Systems.
Which ever submission won I can only hope that it really is the most effective pattern.
One thing to say…with all the leaks in the government..this has to be the best kept secret in all of military history.
That’s the quote of the year.
I definitely agree with that. It seems the camouflage decision is that last drop in a bucket full of holes. I’d like to see our troops in the Crye (assuming its anything like multicam), ADS, or Kryptek. But like some people have said, brook wood looks like pastel paint
All the submissions are excellent.
Personally I would prefer to just go with the current multicam. It’s already in the system and pretty effective.
I guess we will find out on June 14th and I hope it goes into effect ASAP. I’m tired of blending into parking lots.
Also I would like to see the requirement that each Soldier have all three sets. Why? Well I’m currently at wonderful Ft Bliss. I’m thinking that a woodland patter wouldn’t be all that effective here.
Just had a thought. I can honestly say that I’ve been in the service so long I will have experienced 3 different combat uniforms. Maybe 3rd time will be the charm.
Guy Cramer. Thank You for your reply.
It was stated that the transitional pattern would be the standard garrison uniform and Woodland/Desert will be broken out of the containers; depending on the deployment. But it just makes sense to issue six uniforms of two sets each. Or five with three transitional and one desert and one woodland.
Ok, I can’t resist getting involved. From what I have seen (and I have followed this the Army’s camo fiasco since 2009) ADS seems to be the only family which has NAILED the color scheme. ‘Nuff said.
So if color merging isn’t effective on digi camo, is it be effective at all? The A-TACS patterns have a ton of color merging in them.
I believe the new camouflage pattern – based off of data/research/testing – will be adopted by all services. Why would 3 other services adopt an inferior pattern?
US4CES makes sense. It involves depth. I think Kryptek has too much going on in the pattern to be effective. The same reason a solid (OD) or small scale blended pattern (the previous woodland) would stand out. The pattern needs to be in “scale” with its surroundings if that makes sense.
Still not a fan of how light the OCIE is, but I’m hoping at this point US4CES wins.
Question: When/if it wins, how can we purchase it without a government card? And how long until it’s commercially available?
And funny pondering: How long until there is a Chinese copy.
same for me.
i have it in my head that the OCIE/PPE pattern would be more effective if the 2nd or 3rd darkest colors were replaced by darkest green from either the transitional or woodland patterns. it may sound counter intuitive but that should make it more effective with the woodland and transitional patterns while not making that much difference at longer ranges (300-600m) for the arid
We tested those, it did not work. Nylon tends to reflect more in a photo then in person, so the OCIE pattern always looks brighter in these photos than it really it is.
makes sense. i’m sure that the (hopefully temporary) solid webbing doesnt help either
They now have webbing in US4CES OCIE Pattern, We saw it in January at the Shot Show
There’s already a Russian knock-off of the woodland US4CES variant on eBay… touted as some “Brand New Uniform”.
Does anybody know what Crye’s Camo Submission?
From what I read this morning, the house voted to end the forces specific camo patterns. Don’t know if this will effect the decision we are waiting for from the US Army.
On the other hand, I liek th ework Cramer has done when it comes to camo, but I am still no fan of the Larger print digital camo pattern. I also don’t consider MultiCam as a woodland colour pattern. But an Intermediate. I wish they would bring out a woodland version of their camo.
Mr Cramer, I read through the article, and at one point you mentioned that while black is not a natural color, at a distance it still helps blend in the background, and is more effective than the gray you tested. Have you also tried using dark navy blue, similar to the color found in the Swedish M90 woodland pattern?
Also, these articles are quite interesting for a camo freak, is it also possible we’ll see an article in the future about the upcoming of new camouflage’s in (Western) Europe? Many thanks, and looking forward to read more of you!
Blue is a color that attracts the eye.
Wasn’t aware of that, learned something new.
The dark color in the Swedish pattern is actually black, not dark blue. The first production run did however fade to a bluish-black after a lot of use, but the dye mixture has since been corrected.
We have a DONSA this Friday and I was hoping for the new uniform news. Now, it be a very boring Friday. I hope the new Army Times will have some info.
“I hope the new Army Times will have some info”
Excuse me while guffaw…
Haha. Well this week’s Army Times front page had the article about Congress’ decision. Yes, that paper is not the best source of information.
I’m really hoping to see US4CES get picked. And if all your kit comes in one color and works with all uniforms, that’d be a dream come true. I have to much kit from to many different patterns lining the garage already, every deployment we (USAF) are wearing something new!
Will ADS inc be selling this commercially? Because I really want some
Once the Army announces there are plans to have a commercial line.
Thank you!
I hope the US4CES IS PICKED IT LOOKS BETTER THAN THE REST AND I ALSO HOPE THEY DO HAVE THE ENTIRE FORCE IN THE SAME UNIFORM PATTERN I DONT SEE WHY WE HAVE TO BE DIFFRENT ARNT WE ALL UNDER THE SAME FLAG AND ARNT WE KNOWN AS U.S ARMED FORCES AND ISNT IT THE MILITARY WHO HAS TAUGHT US NOT TO BE INDIVIDUALIST SO YES I AGREE FIELDING THE ENTIRE FORCE IN SAME PATTERN…. THANKS.
Also the goverment should stop waisting time anounce the winner and start production our military should always be ready to go unless they dont mind us coming out on tv withms match gear like iraq or just keep multicam since almost some of the force is already fielding the pattern and it works but then you would be facing same issue if we ended up in north Korea the multicam would stand out like a sore thumb in tha enviroment…
And if goverment cant make up there mind just go back to old school cammo greens and desert brown like its been said keep it simple stupid but effective…