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The Plastic Rucksack Letter

Sunday, December 27th, 2009

This letter is priceless. Take a moment to read through it.

It seems as though members of Congress have taken to talking to any old yahoo they can round up when they are on “fact finding” trips to exotic locales. It doesn’t seem to matter if any of what said yahoo complains about makes any sense.

Nothing like talking to GIs who have no idea what they are talking about. Of course the Soldiers were referring to the MOLLE rucksack. Somehow, the “plastic” frame is now an entire rucksack with matching plastic straps. Newsflash, I had the same problems with my arms and hands falling asleep back in the bad old days before we had high tech “plastic” rucksacks. The ALICE pack, affectionately known as the “big green tick” would put your arms to sleep just the same. This has much more to do with the load and a lot less to do with the pack.

Camo issues? Hello! The Army is knee deep in it. How about you give them a chance to at least bust their own time line before calling them out?

I am still scratching my head over the comments about needing a larger clothing allowance. I was under the impression that the Army is issuing FR ACUs to deployed troops for free. I guess the Overseas COLA isn’t enough to cover beer these days in Vincenza.

Interestingly, the letter wants to know what the Army is doing to “procure a superior replacement rifle, such as those used by our Special Operations forces (sic).” Do they mean like the SCAR? Excuse me while I guffaw. What wonder weapon are they talking about exactly?

Ok, so what do we have here? GIs want MultiCam. GIs hate their “plastic” rucksacks. GIs hate the M4 and want SOF weapons. GIs want even more of a clothing allowance (aka beer money). Hell, they could have found all of that out by spending five minutes on an internet message board.

Leadership and training are going to fix some of these issues long before the material developer can intercede. Until that happen clean your weapons and employ them properly, take a serious look at your load and accept some risk to lighten it, and use basic soldier skills to camouflage yourself and your equipment.

Posted in Camo, Clothing, Congress, Load Carrying, Packs, weapons | Comments Off on The Plastic Rucksack Letter

The Soldier Systems Daily Christmas Wish List

Thursday, December 24th, 2009

There are three things we would like to see happen in the Soldier Systems world for our American Warriors.

1. A New Camo Pattern for the Army (and Air Force). Something effective would be nice.

2. Change the Color of Small Arms from Black to Anything Earth-tone. SOCOM seems to have figured it out with the SCAR. Flat Dark Earth works pretty well.

3. Fresh Drawers for the Marines. A little known problem is that Marine Corps has a policy to reissue cold weather long underwear once a Marine turns them in. We get being thrifty and all but come on. Who wants to wear a pair of underwear that some other guy wore for 12 months before you? The Army has a Soldier retain them throughout their career and the Air Force doesn’t want anything back that was worn against the skin. Maybe somebody on the Hill can see their way to a set aside for underwear.

Posted in Camo, Clothing, weapons | Comments Off on The Soldier Systems Daily Christmas Wish List

The Weather Outside is Frightful

Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009

But these guys are all warm and snuggly in their snow camouflage. Strike – Hold! has put together a great post on various issue and commercial snow camo from around the globe. Enjoy…

“‘Tis the Season – for Snow Camo!”

Tags: Strike - Hold!
Posted in Camo, Foreign | Comments Off on The Weather Outside is Frightful

Camo Test Photos from Afganistan

Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009

I know, I know, these things have shown up all over the web. I have been asking and asking PEO-Soldier for pictures and they have politely informed me that they aren’t quite ready to release any photos yet. The UCP-Delta uniforms and equipment have been in theater for awhile now but the MultiCam test items just reached troops within the last two weeks. So I can understand their position. What’s the point of just looking at one side of the equation? I mean someone may see that only UCP-D photos are out there and say that the Army is biased and already made up its mind.

Ironically, we all get to see our first glimpses of UCP-Delta in use on CNN. And then, today, DoD’s Digital Imagery & Video Distribution System releases several photos of US troops in Afghanistan doing what they do; soldiering. It just so happens that some of them are wearing UCP-D.

Now, I am sure you have noticed that some of the troops in the photos are from the 82d Airborne Division (2d Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment to be exact). No, they were not initially intended to participate in testing. About 1,000 uniforms were made in UCP-D, plus about 200 extras. CJTF-82 made the decision on who would receive test items and not PEO-Soldier. 3-61, being a squadron, rather than a battalion, has well under 1,200 Soldiers and consequently, the decision was made to spread the wealth so to speak. Looks like the paratrooper wearing the Arc’teryx Kneecaps is a Grey Group customer (just sayin’).

The Tactical Assault Platform (TAP) is in UCP-Delta.

Pictures of 4th ID Soldiers wearing MultiCam ACUs also began to show up. Unfortunately, it seems that their MultiCam TA-50 hadn’t been issued when these were taken.

Tags: UCP-Delta
Posted in Camo, Load Carrying | Comments Off on Camo Test Photos from Afganistan

MTP – The Competition

Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009

Britain’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) has released a photo showing the multitude of patterns that were tested in order to settle on the new Multi Terrain Pattern.

Click on the photo for a larger view

Tags: MTP
Posted in Camo, Foreign | Comments Off on MTP – The Competition

Testing the New British Camouflage

Monday, December 21st, 2009

Our friend Dom Hyde, posted this article from the UK’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl).

According to the article, which goes into great depth about their goals and methodology, “Dstl assessed whether a multi-terrain camouflage was better than the standard army woodland camouflage disruptive pattern material (DPM) or the desert DPM and if so what is the best pattern, or balance of colours. The two current camouflage schemes were tested alongside an existing off-the-shelf multi-terrain camouflage to see which performed best across various backgrounds that soldiers are likely to encounter across the landscape in Afghanistan.” Sounds an awful lot like what the US is currently doing.

Perhaps, based on the UK experience of adapting the Crye color palette to their pattern, the right answer for the US is to do something similar. It seems that the MultiCam pattern is challenging for the supply chain to sustain due to its complexity in printing. Apparently it is difficult for inspectors to quickly approve material printed in the pattern as they must look over the sample and decide whether it meets spec for color shading and blending. Due to the US obsession with so-called digital patterns, if a pixelated version were created, it would be much easier to print and quicker for the inspectors to proof. However, it would lose some of its effectiveness due to the loss of the fades in the pattern.

Tags: Crye Precision, MTP
Posted in Camo, Foreign | Comments Off on Testing the New British Camouflage

UK MoD releases MTP Photo

Monday, December 21st, 2009

The UK MoD has released a photo that shows the new Multi-Terrain Pattern (MTP) with the currently issued Woodland and Desert Disruptive Pattern Material (DPM) patterns.

Posted in Camo, Foreign | Comments Off on UK MoD releases MTP Photo

More on New Brit Camo

Sunday, December 20th, 2009

The BBC has reported on the new Multi-Terrain Pattern meant to replace the Woodland pattern found on No. 8 DPM uniform in service for the past 40 years. However, the No.5 Desert Combat Dress will remain in service. As we reported earlier, Crye Precision developed the pattern for the exclusive use of the UK Ministry of Defence.

In the BBC video Lieutenant Colonel Toby Evans identified as “a military advisor with the Government’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory,” speaks quite a bit about the importance of the camo pattern as a “corporate image” and how it represented the “British Army brand.” In effect, the British Army has adopted a new woodland pattern that is more relevant in a wide variety of environments than the previous pattern which was more developed for use in Northern Europe. They will retain their desert pattern for specialist use so they will continue to have a two pattern system but with one of the patterns being more universal in nature rather than tuned specifically for verdant areas. Finally, in addition to uniforms in the CS95 cut, the British Soldier will receive armor and helmet covers, packs and webbing in MTP. However, this will happen over time while the new uniforms as soon as this Spring.

Posted in Camo, Foreign | Comments Off on More on New Brit Camo