This is an excellent, concise article by LTC Eugene Wallace of PM SCIE at PEO SOldier regarding the Camouflage Improvement Effort. It was published last October in Army AL&T Magazine. At the time of the writing they expected to record about 100,000 data points but as I understand it they overshot this a bit and are upwards of 120,000. That’s a lot of numbers to crunch and a lot of data to interpret.
Concealment Capability – Army AL&T Magazine – Oct 12 by solsys
We’re tired of waiting for the US Army Camo Improvement Effort announcement as well, so we created a White House Petition. If you can’t wait to get your oompa loompa, sign it now and tell your friends.
By now you’ve read these cool revelations online that the Army camo program race is too close to call. That couldn’t be further from the truth.
I spent some time in the Test and Evaluation business and one thing you should notice is that the more data you collect, the closer you will come to a true average of performance. In this case, with over 120,000 data points collected, pitting four commercial families of camouflage patterns across examples of the Global Military Operating Environments, everything started to look flat. One family’s woodland might do very well yet their desert pattern, not so much, and so on throughout testing. This was especially true with the transitional patterns that all used virtually the same color palette. As test data was weighted and tabulated, everything started to look like it performed the same. And yet, there was one area, where one family of patterns stood out, and that was the family that was recommended to the Army’s leadership.
Now, we wait to hear the announcement of that decision.
With a little help from their friends 762PR the PenCott family is finally available on Facebook with its own fan page.
www.facebook.com/Pencottcamouflage
First off, we hope by now that everyone realizes that the story we published on April 1st entitled “Breaking – US Army to Abandon Camo Update; Vows to Reinstate OD” was in fact an April Fool’s Day prank. We understand that readers come to SSD for solid, reliable and factual information. We violated that trust on Monday and we are sorry if we made any extra work for anyone. We will make all attempts to resist the temptation to pull your collective leg in the future.
As for the US Army Camo Improvement Effort itself. It’s still on and although officials have said on record that a decision is coming, we’d say that it’s just now starting to breathe hard. Look for a decision in 3rd Quarter (we are in 3rd Quarter by the way) with yet another briefing scheduled for Army leadership mid-April to clarify some questions regarding the massive amounts of data collected during the most thorough evaluation of camouflage in history.
To wit, we have this to say. US Army, stop wasting money purchasing commodities in UCP and make a decision already. The data is there. Interpolate it and act.
To everyone else. Stop forwarding that damnable fake camo selection announcement PowerPoint and most of all, stop sending it to us saying that you have some inside information on who was selected. No one knows except those involved in the program. We wish the Army could keep every secret as well as they are keeping this one.
The LXVI MultiCam series of shoes from Vans we showed you right after SHOT Show are now available for order.
Get yours at shop.vans.com.
“I wouldn’t trade my old ODs for all the Navy’s dungarees.”
-‘Dog Faced Soldier’, the 3d Infantry Division Song
Marnemen everywhere rejoice as life imitates art. In a shocking move, Army officials have confided in Soldier Systems Daily that they plan to abandon the Camouflage Improvement Effort that has left Soldiers without an effective camouflage pattern despite several years and tens of millions of dollars.
Army officials are quoted as saying, “We fought three wars in OD. Why not go back to it?” Turns out, the old “Pickle Suit” worn by the US Army until 1987 is readily available after an enterprising supply officer stumbled upon a large stockpile of OG fatigues forgotten years ago in Germany by the US Air Force.
As US forces drawdown forces in Europe, long abandoned facilities are being turned over to host nation governments. At a former supply depot in Germany a newly commissioned supply officer recently uncovered warehouse after warehouse of the uniforms complete with field jackets and Velcro caps. When he alerted his superiors, they passed word up to the Army G4 staff who looked upon the news as a sign from heaven that they could use this boon to survive the Sequestration axe and Congressionally mandated reinstatement of Tuition Assistance. Coincidentally, he also ran across a rather large stash of C-rations which are currently enroute to the fighting in Afghanistan to make up for those dining facilities now only serving two meals per day. One insider sent us a glowing note praising the find and referring the equipment as “sunk cost.” “Hey,” he said, “it’s already paid for, like in the 60s. I mean, who doesn’t have fond memories of winters at Graf wearing that old Velcro hat?”
What’s old is new as the Army goes retro. Who hasn’t seen the movie “Stripes” which is probably one of the most popular films to feature the US Army? The iconic OD uniform plays prominently in that movie as well as anything about World War II, Korea or Viet Nam including “Apocalypse Now.”
While Soldiers will soon be rocking the classic OD uniform of yesteryear, a so-called digicam pattern similar to the Marine Corps pattern will be applied to all US Army vehicles. “Vehicles are expensive and there’s nothing too good for our rolling stock,” commented one procurement official who was not authorized to speak on the record to SSD, adding, “That Marine Camo is good stuff. Too bad they wouldn’t let us give it to the troops 10 years ago.”
The US Army plans to make the switch effective April 1st 2014 barring any other announcements to the contrary.
Deceptex has added the Freddie line with 26 new patterns for their camouflage print on demand program.
This pattern was developed in May 2011 as a potential replacement pattern for the New Zealand Army. Of Hyperstealth’s offerings, the Kiwis selected the MCU pattern after field trials.
