Last week we mentioned that Uni & Forma was exhibiting the Sniper Garment in Hyde Definition‘s PenCott Greenzone pattern at the Parisian military expo MiliPol.
Unfortunately, all we had at the time was a line drawing of the garment, but Andrzej Krugler, Editor-in-Chief, of the Polish magazine Special Ops captured this photograph of the garment.
Be sure to visit them at www.special-ops.pl
Yesterday we mentioned that the Ghostex Kilo-1 pattern had been adopted for use by the Afghanistan Border Police. As you can see, it uses a similar color palette to the Army’s OCP (MultiCam) but the geometry is different.
Security Scholar, an Australian defense blog has been keeping tabs on the Australian adoption of Crye Precision’s technology in the form of uniform designs (Operational Combat Uniform) and the adaption of the MultiCam pattern for their use in a similar fashion to the British Multi Terrain Pattern. As you will recall, MTP is a melding of Crye’s technology with the long-serving Woodland Disruptive Pattern Material design.
Photo: Commonwealth of Australia, 1st Joint Public Affairs Unit, PO Damian Pawlenko
We can verify that the new Australian MultiCam Pattern will, just like the original use 7 layers of color and that Black is not one of them. Testing has shown these colors to work well in the homeland.
Last month, the Crye issue became politicized in Australia when the opposition party tried to make so much hay out of reports from troops deployed in Afghanistan that their OCUs were falling apart. One politico even went so far as to make the outrageous claim that if the uniforms had been manufactured by an Australian company rather than an American one they would not have been “shoddy.” While the intent was ridiculous, he may have been right considering that, previous uniforms were not FR at all. Now, for the first time, Australian ground troops have FR protection with the Crye uniforms and are better protected. Unfortunately, that is also the culprit behind the prematurely worn uniforms. It seems, the Australians specified an older blend of TenCate’s Defender-M fabric. A newer version with twice the tear strength has been in use by the US Marine Corps for well over a year and for the last few months by the US Army. Hopefully, the Australians will transition to the new fabric. However, according to the Security Scholar report, “Army Headquarters has tasked the Defence Science and Technology Organisation to analyse the use of flame retardant materials in combat uniforms to determine if there is an operational need for these types of fabrics.” At this point, the Australians aren’t even sure if they want their troops to have FR protection.
Read the securityscholar.wordpress.com report to learn more.
Predator BDU has just added several new products from Propper International in the popular A-TACS camouflage pattern. Shipping in November, the new items include a patrol cap, shorts, and the traditional BDU design – a 4 Pocket Coat and 6 pocket Pants.
Available for pre-order now from www.predatorbdu.com.
HyperStealth Biotechnology Corporation has announced that the Afghanistan Border Police (ABP), an elite division of the Afghanistan National Police (ANP) with a strength of around 20,000 has authorized the Ghostex Kilo-1 pattern as their new uniform camouflage.
You may notice that the pattern looks complimentary to the Operation Enduring Freedom Camouflage Pattern (OCP) currently used in Afghanistan by the US Army and Air Force. This is because the US Government stipulated that the new ABP pattern must have similar coloration but yet be distinctively different. This is so that the forces could work in concert during operations but would not be mistaken for one another in close proximity. Based on this requirement, HyperStealth was able to offer three different patterns from the Ghostex line the same day the request came in.
A Purchase Order has been issued and the first 12,000 yards of fabric has been already been printed. The fabric is milled and printed in the US and then sent to Afghanistan for assembly by Afghanistan citizens working for Afghanistan companies.
This is not the first time HyperStealth has worked with the Afghanis. In 2009, the Afghanistan National Army (ANA) chose Hyperstealth’s Spec4ce Afghan Forest pattern for their uniforms.
Ghostex is a joint venture between ADS Inc and Canada-based HyperStealth Biotechnology Corporation.
If you’re attending the MiliPol 2011 Exhibition in Paris this week, make sure you visit the booth of Slovenian clothing company Uni & Forma to check out their Sniper Garment System in Hyde Definition’s PenCott-GreenZone camouflage. Uni & Forma produce clothing solutions for the Slovenian military, police, border guard and customs forces – as well as a growing number of European customers – and can be found at stand # 1G 140. More details of their 3-layer Sniper Garment System can be found on their website at: www.ufpro.si.
Coming soon from Grey Ghost Gear, equipment in Hyde Definition’s PenCott family of camo patterns.
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.
