I ran across this gem the other day while looking for scorpion photos on SSD. This story goes back to when this latest round of Camo Wars began in 2009. Look what the prevailing thought was. Turns out, the Afghanistan was much larger than this, throwing in several additional patterns, Here we are, almost five years on and it looks to have turned out to be a Scorpion variant of all things.
In light of an impending directive from Congress to the Army to get their camo house in order, rumors continue to circulate about an upcoming test involving four camo patterns with the Army’s current Universal Camouflage pattern serving as a control.
The four patterns are MARPAT-Woodland, MARPAT-Desert, Multicam, and Desert All Over Brush (seen below). Originally, we had heard that the fourth pattern would be the 3-color Desert pattern issued to all services prior to adoption of their new distinctive uniforms. However, based on some recent, unverified information we believe it is actually the Desert All Over Brush which interestingly gave a very good showing during the Army camo trials of 2003-2004. According to a Natick report, a modified variant of the Desert version All Over Bush pattern performed best in all environments. You can also access a briefing presented on the subject at the 2004 International Soldier Systems Conference here.
Based on a series of evaluations documented in the report and briefing slides Natick developed the variant of All Over Brush pattern.
Having said all of that, the info on that particular pattern is old news. At some point in the Spring of 2004, the Army took a serious sidestep from all of its research and adopted UCP. if the rumors are true, looking at what is on the table, neither Marine patterns would really be considered serious candidates due to a variety of morale, and as we have discussed before, branding issues. You think the black beret issue was rough, imagine the outcry from two services if the Army adopted a Marine camo pattern. Consequently, while effective, we don’t consider the MARPAT variants as serious contenders. This leaves, depending on who is telling the story, either 3-color Desert which is still used by some US Navy forces (and a few others) or the prototype Desert All Over brush pattern in addition to Crye’s Multicam. While there are limited stocks of 3-color equipment still in the system, virtually none of it is in the configuration currently used by US forces. If it were adopted, the US Soldier would literally take a five year step back in capability until production of current issue equipment could be accomplished. Additionally, there is a political dimension to such a move. UCP was sold as a superior pattern to both Woodland and 3-Color Desert. Someone would naturally ask the question of why the Army discarded a pattern in favor of something less effective.
This leaves Desert All Over Brush and Multicam. Multicam has been used operationally by select US forces to great success and even more importantly, is currently supported by the US industrial base. A wide variety of Berry Compliant products (and raw materials) are available as COTS items. Additionally, industry already offers versions of current issue equipment in Multicam. Furthermore, there are numerous lightweight and multi-purpose Soldier Systems items designed specifically for environments like Afghanistan. Multicam is a mature, widely available, low hanging fruit. On the other hand, adoption of Desert All Over Brush would require long lead times as fabric mills first perfect and then produce sufficient quantities of materials. Only then could uniforms and equipment for our Soldiers begin to be procured.
We are waiting with bated breath to see if these rumors are true and what’s more, if they are, what will come of them. Naturally, Soldier Systems Daily will keep you updated.
And we’ve been keeping you updated ever since.
Tags: Camo Wars
I just love the look on the blokes face in the second photo.
Would make an awesome caption competition photo!
Our entry would be “Desert All Over Brush, you know it makes sense!”
Scorpion is going to be ‘the Camo of Choice’? Even when Crye MultiCam outperformed Crye Scorpion in trials, the Army is still going to go for CP’s Scorpion? The more I hear about this, the more I just can’t help but think that this has nothing to do with actual camouflage and everything to do with money. Sounds to me like the Army is just too ‘effing damn cheap to pay Caleb his due… In my estimation, Caleb Crye(and his partner) ought to get a medal and a very large letter of apology from the U.S. Army
It really does come down to money and probably more importantly control. The army doesn’t have to pay the millions up front with scorpion since they own it but the cost to field it might be more expensive than multicam over the long run. Or a wash since we will use existing multicam stock with scorpion until the multicam gear wears out and slowly transition to 100% scorpion.
The army has complete control over scorpion and can restrict its use the way the Navy does with AOR 1 and 2. How often do we see gear in either of those patterns let alone uniforms? Very rarely. Additionally the Army has already tweaked scorpion and the version we will get is already slightly different than the old version from 03. I bet only those close to the process or in industry have seen the new version. For all we know it could perform better than multicam (doubt it) and have improvements for IR.
wouldn’t be surprised if the new scorpion is worse once the army started playing with it.
Me neither, after all they did give us UCP and UCP-D. They also gave us woodland and three color desert which were great patterns in their time and respective environments. I want to believe that they can make good improvements now that they have mountains of data and research and tests etc.
SSD,
Did you see Stars and Stripes finally reported on it.
http://www.stripes.com/news/reports-army-selects-new-camouflage-uniform-pattern-1.285675
Seems the reporter still does not know the difference between Scorpion and Multicam.
One thing I noticed way back in 2004 when the results of these trials were released: the PowerPoint slides of the report have UCP decorating the borders of the slides even though no one knew anything about it at the time. Seems like they had already decided to go that route before they released the results of camo trials (that UCP wasnt even a part of)
There’s a link to the report in the comments of the Scorpion thread