The most common questions we currently field are for updates on Phase IV of the Army’s Camouflage Improvement Effort. Finally, we have an answer. In a PEO Soldier media roundtable earlier today COL William Cole, PM Soldier Protection and Individual Equipment related that the Army received over 20 submissions for their solicitation. The picture-in-picture evaluation strategy has been completed by over 900 Soldiers viewing the patterns in 45 environments. Currently, the Army is evaluating the data. According to COL Cole, they plan to brief the Army Senior Leadership late this month. Ultimately, the mix of patterns may be 3 commercial families and 2 Government or possible 4 commercial variants to 1 Government family of patterns.
Why not just go with multicam? Seems like a waste of money to me.
My vote is on Multicam for general issue and a desert and jungle/woodland green for deployment locations and the darker color Marine Corp boots. Bring back the the one team, one fight way of thinking and stop turning each branch into a F*#@ing fasion show for the sake of getting an O6 bird or a star on your collar!! Pick something that is a functional COMBAT uniform (talking to you mainly AF). Do we really need 2 Army, 2 AF (counting multicam as one for each), 2 Marine, and 3 Navy uniforms, along with tan, Marine brown, AF green, and black boots? I’m sure there is even more out there, and I’m beginning to get lost trying to figure out who’s U.S. military now a days……..
Please just no gray camouflage and get rid of the dang velcro (excuse me, “hook and loop fastener”) on the shoulder pockets! It sticks to everything and looks terrible. Bring back sew on patches.
@Jason – The 80s is calling and it wants its crappy uniform back. That thing went the way of the LP.
Thats good soon we should see what thier choosing nice to know things are going well,But for those of you who think Multicam is something super It isn’t no such thing all in one camo,Theres just not enough green in it to use in the Korean peninsula and central america or tan or beige enough for the Sinai and Saudi deserts for that matter to put every grunt or Everybody in to MC is just asking for the same mistake we did with grey UCP and that must NOT be repeated,Plus im not sure especially we all know at this point the Corps probably will not surrender thier coveted MARPAT no matter how many times we get on our knees and beg for it Sad really but its life. :'(
Greg is right. Multicam is a “decent” camo for a specific habitat, but it is outdated. Just like technology better science has come about and something new and improved is out there. Furthermore until a predator suit is developed the soldier or marine on todays battlefield needs a camouflage that matches the varying areas of operations. Which is why the Army is asking for a family of camos.
While I agree that Multicam is ideally suited for certain terrains, I’ve seen plenty of it by my house driving to & from work every day, but from what I’ve seen it’s probably the closest thing there is to a universal pattern. While it’s too light and tan for woodlands and too dark & green for deserts it’s far better than UCP and I’d say that someone wearing Multicam stands out far less in less than optimal terrains than somebody would wearing UCP or the Air Force’s digital tiger.
What would be ideal is if either the Marine Corps or the Navy relinquishes their copyrights on MARPAT & the AOR’s respectively and the woodland & desert patterns for either gets adopted as the new standard issue pattern for all branches. Then if the branches still want their uniqueness they can get the actual uniform pattern done up however they want but all branches would at leas be using the same camo patterns. Of course that’s not likely to happen but it would be nice though then the DoD could at least save money on the thread & fabric used for cammies even if the uniforms are cut differently.
Multicam is outdated? Absolutely not. It’s funny how, once Multicam was adopted by the Army and AF, everyone starts hating it. The mindset that “the military couldn’t quite possibly pick something that works” is getting old. I have seen and used Multicam in a number of different environments, and nothing else works as well. Some of the other commentators here mentioned that Multicam wasn’t green enough for certain environments and wasn’t tan enough for another. Probably because you’ve never actually gotten to see MC in those environments. MC is advanced to the point that you can’t make an assumption like that until you see it in that environment. It’s designed to reflect light in accordance with its surroundings and work on the human brains way of seeing shapes and colors. In other words it appears green in the woods and tan in the desert. So don’t tell me it doesn’t work somewhere you’ve never seen it.
I say Multicam for the masses and get it done with. It’s still the best we have!
Former SF medic, Multicam has been fielded for 8 years now. Which in todays world is antiquated by any means. It does work in some environments, to a degree. It is a macro-pattern based camo, plain and simple. Good at only nominal distances. Developed by a designer who has never been in a combat zone or been in theatre. Is there a better solution? Yes. I’m not going to go into a pissing match with you about utilizing it in different environments. Been there, done that, used it. As well as many different AO’s. The Army’s asking for a “family” of patterns because they realize a universal DOES not suffice.
Answer: Pick up an issue of Surefire’s Combat Tactics magazine on the 15th.
Exactly my point,The most we’ve seen from its effectiveness in places thus far over UCP is in afghanistan and probably pakistan witch is why its used there and only seen in those places,plus i read from the start of the whole new camo search was that Multicam was only a temporary stand in until they found something suitable to specific areas than one.
Not to sound ‘gloom and doom’, but I wish we’d get a dedicated effort on some urban patts. You know as well as I that it’s only a decreasing amount of time before we find ourselves ins someone’s back yard – and I don’t just mean in an arid land. ATACS looks like it’d be outstanding if they added some medium gray into the patt. Just enough to make it look like dirty concrete when they stand next to dirty concrete, but not so much that the gray overpowers it in othe rurban lanscapes. just my opinion.
Testing has indicated that urban patterns don’t make sense. There is no true “urban” operational environment except in the rarest of circumstances and that other patterns actually prove more effective across the urban landscape. For example, a desert pattern works well in a SWA city and woodland pattern in a South American city.
I think I wrote about this during my early coverage of the Camo Program.
Thanks Administator you explained it for me There is No true urban pattern UCP proved that.when you look very close at the 1,000s of photos from Baghdad Basara Kandahar and Kabul most of those nasty looking brick walls and houses are almost the same color of the very dirt our guys and gals fight on,even in some of our cities not all colors will be slade grey quite frankly i think its the mentality that when you think of a large urban setting like NY you would be thinking grey,black,white,blue anything in cement color “what?” in general.
Agreed. UCP showed there is no true urban pattern. Remember, even in New York there is Central Park. BUT…the Canadians have paid HyperStealth to prove me wrong and develop an urban pattern. I’m interested to see how it works.
They are? well if thats the case then its something else worth looking into i would like to choke on my own words and prove me wrong too if they show us some unique stuff.