Even though the Army issued guidance last year on how to paint rifles in order to better blend in to the environment, it seems that the practice just isn’t that wide spread. One reason may be that it is so difficult to restore the weapons to inspection order. Another issue is that the guidance was only issued for rifles and carbines and not for the myriad of other weapons that find themselves on the battlefield. UPDATE: In fact, we have recently heard that there are no plans to authorize painting of additional weapons.
For the past two years, Military Wraps has produced MW Gripz. They are die-cut applique kits that can be applied at the operator level to various individual weapons. The material is also available in sheets that can be cut to shape as needed. Additionally, the non-marring material leaves no residue when removed. As you can see from the photo below, they do a great job of breaking up the visual signature of small arms.
But there’s more. During a recent demonstration, it was noted that weapons covered on MW Gripz didn’t emit a significant thermal signature. In fact, it appeared to be about half that of unprepared weapons. Based on this, Military Wraps has secured lab time in order to determine exactly how much Grips mask the weapon’s IR signature. We look forward to their report and will pass on what we find out. In the interim, MW Grips can be applied and removed repeatedly with no damage to the weapon not additional cleaning requirement. It is important to note that the current versions of Gripz is designed for use with weapons that are employed in the semi automatic role, a new version is on the way that can take the increased heat of sustained automatic fire.
Updated: Military Wraps shared these photos with us of a few weapons wrapped in the Gripz technology. As you can see, the MultiCam (oops, OCP) makes a big difference. Additionally, an evaluation by a military unit came in over the weekend from Afghanistan stated that while a single kit is designed cover two carbines it could also easily be adapted for use with other weapons. Additionally, the break up of the weapon’s outline was significant in both daylight conditions as well as under night vision devices.
MW Gripz are available in a variety of patterns and can be manufactured using to match the operational environment. For more information visit www.militarywraps.com.
