Tactical Distributors is going to offer some gear in the US4CES Bravo-2 pattern. They are trying to determine which items you would be most interested in. Survey participants will get a 15% off discount code when the submit the survey. No registration needed, just feedback.
To take the survey go here.
Since November I’ve been watching a rather interesting drama play itself out on Fed Biz Opps, the US Government’s website used to communicate procurement opportunities with the public. Aimed at industry, these postings spell out what the Government is buying. Normally, this isn’t a big issue. But in this instance it involves a constant flip flop over camouflage patterns.
Specifically, the Army wants to purchase 15,000 yards of Permethrin treated 50/50 NYCO fabric. It’s generally used to manufacture the Army Combat Uniform. The Permethrin treatment has been added to the fabric over the past few years as an insect repellant. That isn’t the issue. The issue has been whether to purchase the fabric in the Army’s current standard issue Universal Camouflage Pattern or in the Operational Camouflage Pattern known commercially as MultiCam by Crye Precision.
Originally posted 20 November, 2103, Army Contracting Command at Natick Soldier Systems Center posted a presolicitation, used to give industry a heads up, entitled “To purchase a minimum of 15,000 yards of Permethrin treated 50:50 Cotton/Nylon fabric from an EPA approved vendor” for “an acquisition requirement to purchase a minimum of 15,000 yards of Permethrin treated 50:50 Cotton Nylon (CoNy) fabric from an EPA approved Vendor. Fabric will be in the Operational Camouflage pattern…” Pretty cut and dried right?
But then, January 13th came and the actual solicitation was released and they asked for “50:50 Nylon:Cotton fabric in accordance with MIL-DTL-44436B Class 8; Universal Camouflage Pattern (UCP) (emphasis added) treated with permethrin meeting the requirements of GL/PD 07-13D Type I, Class 2 and GL/PD 07-14D Type I, Class 2, as described in the Statement of Work, Section C, of this solicitation.”
Naturally, the head scratching began. The purchase of the fabric in OCP was right on track with the “soft launch” transition to OCP from UCP and here the Army is, asking for the old stuff. What was going on? The Army even went so far as to address the issue in a Q&A update to the solicitation. Their statement sounds like it put the issue to bed. But did it?
Flipping isn’t any good unless there’s some flopping to go along with it right? Well this story has got some for you. On 06 February, 2014, an update to the solicitation reverted back to the original requirement, “Natick Soldier Research Development and Engineering Center’s (NSRDEC) has an acquisition requirement to purchase a minimum of 15,000 yards of Permethrin treated 50:50 Cotton Nylon (CoNy) fabric from an EPA approved Vendor. Fabric will be in the Operational Camouflage pattern…” Maybe it’s an administrative error, and maybe it’s schizophrenia, but either way, it’s painful to watch. UCP? OCP? Whatever works.
At this point I don’t even bother to ask the Army what they are up to as they have stopped communicating with me regarding camouflage as well as my colleagues at other websites. All any of us can do is watch what the Army does and report on its actions. In this case, ‘schizophrenia’ is the best word I can come up with to describe those actions. Yes, we’ve downloaded the documents and will post them here on SSD if the Army once again decides to alter the public record by deleting solicitation documents.
Hopefully, the Army will choose a single course of action regarding camouflage and make it work. The Soldier, industry and SSD are waiting.
I originally posted this story on 20 December, 2013. It gives you some real background on how Congress fumbled the quest for a camouflage pattern by stripping the deadline out of the legislation in conference committee. Since several articles discussing camouflage have made the rounds recently, I felt it was important to arm SSD readers with some facts.
I keep getting emails from readers with links to stories from other websites with these silly headlines about new legislation blocking the Army’s ability to field new camo. I thought that the best way to put this to bed is to share the actual language in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2014 with you so I asked the folks at Rising Tide if they could provide a copy and they were more than happy to oblige. Read the section in question for yourself and then we’ll discuss.
SEC. 352. REVISED POLICY ON GROUND COMBAT AND CAMOUFLAGE UTILITY UNIFORMS.
(a) ESTABLISHMENT OF POLICY.—It is the policy of the United States that the Secretary of Defense shall eliminate the development and fielding of Armed Force specific combat and camouflage utility uniforms and families of uniforms in order to adopt and field a common combat and camouflage utility uniform or family of uniforms for specific combat environments to be used by all members of the Armed Forces.
(b) PROHIBITION.—Except as provided in subsection
(c), after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of a military department may not adopt any new camouflage pattern design or uniform fabric for any combat or camouflage utility uniform or family of uniforms for use by an Armed Force, unless—
(1) the new design or fabric is a combat or camouflage utility uniform or family of uniforms that will be adopted by all Armed Forces;
(2) the Secretary adopts a uniform already in use by another Armed Force; or
(3) the Secretary of Defense grants an exception based on unique circumstances or operational requirements.
(c) EXCEPTIONS.—Nothing in subsection (b) shall be construed as—
(1) prohibiting the development of combat and camouflage utility uniforms and families of uniforms for use by personnel assigned to or operating in support of the unified combatant command for special operations forces described in section 167 of title 10, United States Code;
(2) prohibiting engineering modifications to existing uniforms that improve the performance of combat and camouflage utility uniforms, including power harnessing or generating textiles, fire resistant fabrics, and anti-vector, anti-microbial, and anti-bacterial treatments;
(3) prohibiting the Secretary of a military department from fielding ancillary uniform items, including headwear, footwear, body armor, and any other such items as determined by the Secretary;
(4) prohibiting the Secretary of a military department from issuing vehicle crew uniforms;
(5) prohibiting cosmetic service-specific uniform modifications to include insignia, pocket orientation, closure devices, inserts, and undergarments; or
(6) prohibiting the continued fielding or use of pre-existing service-specific or operation-specific combat uniforms as long as the uniforms continue to meet operational requirements.
(d) REGISTRATION REQUIRED.—The Secretary of a military department shall formally register with the Joint Clothing and Textiles Governance Board all uniforms in use by an Armed Force under the jurisdiction of the Secretary and all such uniforms planned for use by such an Armed Force.
(e) LIMITATION ON RESTRICTION.—The Secretary of a military department may not prevent the Secretary of another military department from authorizing the use of any combat or camouflage utility uniform or family of uniforms.
(f) GUIDANCE REQUIRED.—
(1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 60 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense shall issue guidance to implement this section.
(2) CONTENT.—At a minimum, the guidance required by paragraph (1) shall require the Secretary of each of the military departments—
(A) in cooperation with the commanders of the combatant commands, including the unified combatant command for special operations forces, to establish, by not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, joint criteria for combat and camouflage utility uniforms and families of uniforms, which shall be included in all new requirements documents for such uniforms;
(B) to continually work together to assess and develop new technologies that could be incorporated into future combat and camouflage utility uniforms and families of uniforms to improve war fighter survivability;
(C) to ensure that new combat and camouflage utility uniforms and families of uniforms meet the geographic and operational requirements of the commanders of the combatant commands; and
(D) to ensure that all new combat and camouflage utility uniforms and families of uniforms achieve interoperability with all components of individual war fighter systems, including body armor, organizational clothing and individual equipment, and other individual protective systems.
(g) REPEAL OF POLICY.—Section 352 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010 (Public Law 111–84, 123 Stat. 2262; 10 U.S.C. 771 note) is repealed.
Now my comments–
The hope has been that Congress would step in to curb the US military’s number of camouflage patterns from what averages out to about two per service, to a more manageable total of three or less for everybody. I hope you aren’t as underwhelmed as I am with the legislation. Any teeth that the original Enyart Amendment had to bring about any real change, seem to have been yanked from this document.
Having said that, there are a couple of interesting bits. Such as…This section, which halts the Marine Corps’ restriction on sharing MARPAT:
(e) LIMITATION ON RESTRICTION.—The Secretary of a military department may not prevent the Secretary of another military department from authorizing the use of any combat or camouflage utility uniform or family of uniforms.
But this section is the free pass that the USMC has been looking for to continue to use MARPAT as long as they want:
Nothing in subsection (b) shall be construed as—
(6) prohibiting the continued fielding or use of pre-existing service-specific or operation-specific combat uniforms as long as the uniforms continue to meet operational requirements.
My take is that this proposed law really does nothing to control the problem. It’s just another watered down version of the language from 2010 that it replaces. There are no deadlines to move to a common uniform or pattern as specified in Rep William Enyart’s (D-IL) (MG, USA NG, Ret) original amendment to the House version of the NDAA; no consequences to continuing on the current path. It’s status quo. Services can continue to use the patterns they already have and can utilize different pocket configurations and even different body armor. It’s the development of new patterns that is at issue and even this can be accomplished so long as it is done so under the banner of jointness. In fact, the language even encourages development of new patterns and technologies.
The real question is how this will affect the Army’s Camouflage Improvement Effort and the USMC’s developmental Transitional MARPAT (yes, you read that right). Not that it really matters. The Army has zero interest in announcing the results of the so-called Phase IV Camo Tests and instead is in the midst of a soft-transition to the Operational Camouflage Pattern (aka Crye Precision’s MultiCam), a currently issued pattern. And so far, no one knows what will come of work being accomplished by NRL on behalf of the Marine Corps.
If you want to know about all of the other defense programs, below is the entire 1105 page NDAA bill. It was recently passed by the House of Representatives and should clear the Senate today. The President is expected to sign it into law before Christmas.
There’s also some guidance on protective equipment early on in the bill. It’s worth looking at.
One of the beauties of the digital age of camouflage is that patterns can easily be recolored if needed. There seems to be a lot of interest in the Dispersal pattern by CROPS that we showed earlier in the week but we received several comments that it was too this or that.
This new variant is intended for Alpine use. But it might be the ticket for some of you guys looking for something to blend in with concrete environs, although I find the best urban camo is to dress like the natives.
Natick has issued a Sources Sought Synopsis looking for companies that are capable of digitally printing on a variety of substrates (fabrics). Additionally, they must be capable of NIR and SWIR compliance. Specifically:
Natick Soldier Systems Center requires rapid printed fabrics for field/lab testing of camouflage patterns for use in woodland, transitional and arid environments that conform to visual, NIR and SWIR requirements.
The Army is interested in prints on 50/50 Nylon/Cotton Ripstop Fabric, 500D Cordura and Rayon/Para-Aramid/Nylon Ripstop Fabric.
Notice in the documentation they reference Woodland, Transitional and Arid patterns? They go on and on about this, repeating it four times which tells me that, despite the contractual machinations currently (not) underway with Crye Precision for OCP (MultiCam), Natick is committed to working with a family of camouflage consisting of a Transitional pattern combined with Bookend Woodland and Arid patterns. Perhaps someone has realized that they actually own the Scorpion pattern (seen below), a precursor to MultiCam developed for the Objective Force Warrior program and can do pretty much anything they want with it. Then again, maybe not.
At this point, the Army is in a bit of quandry, having banked on a soft transition to OCP. Now, no one seems sure if the Army will be capable of moving away from the UCP camouflage. If a friend asked me in October if I knew what was happening I’d say “yes.” If they asked me now, I’d tell a story that sounds like a plot to an episode of “Three’s Company” and say “Not so much.”
As for trying to keep up; the Army is getting pretty savvy on releasing solicitation notices that deal with developmental camouflage issues on FedBizOpps. Looks like they’ve figured out that folks are keeping an eye on them so they are issuing them without any discussion of camouflage on the actual notice. Take for instance this one. It is titled “Fabric Printing BPAs.” You have to get down into the attachments to see what is really going on. Sneaky, Sneaky. But don’t worry Army, we will keep an eye out for you to help keep you honest. Since the Army likes to alter the public record by deleting postings once they’ve been brought to light on SSD, we’ve included the meat of what the Army is looking for below.
Click to download: CAMO_BPA2_Spec23Jan2014
If you’re interested in answering up, you’ve got until February 4th.
For the full Sources Sought Synopsis visit Fabric Printing BPAs.
A reader of ours shared a couple of Kryptek kilts custom made for him by Gryphon Work Shop out of Vancouver, Washington. The kilts were done in Typhon and Mandrake patterns. These patterns aren’t a standard option on the Gryphon Work Shop site, although you can make a request for these and more patterns if you choose.
Thanks to AZ for the tip!
We recently ran across an interesting new hexagon-based camouflage from British company CROPS and asked them for some information to share with our readers.
History & Background:
I have been obsessed about camouflage ever since I was a child, back then I used to hide in the back garden using material which had been painted and died to make my own camouflages, this all thanks to my mother’s everyday role as a textiles specialist.
As an adult in the military I would buy ‘arctic cam whites’ and once again spray paint, screen print and stencil my own camouflages. Only this time for a more serious role than that of hiding in the back garden!
Having designed and developed a number of rural based technical equipment, optical platforms and more recently three variant low-profile rigs and the technical CROPS combat pant. www.crops.uk.com
Current times:
Now working alongside the UK based manufacture ARKTIS, we (CROPS) continue to be innovators within the tactical clothing arena.
Approached by a small overseas Special Forces unit with the following brief, “we require a new, never seen before camouflage print which would aid concealment at distances between 100 – 150 metres in an urban environment. This then was to be made into a technical coverall consisting of a number of set features required of the tactical team”.
Urban concealment concept:
The first stage was to identify the correct colour pigments required to blend into the domestic and industrial urban back drop, I remembered years ago I stencilled an urban print on to my ‘arctic cam whites’ using the following colours. Pale sand, baby powder blue, pinks and dark purpley-red blends with a deep orange. These colours where stencilled in the same way as a WW2 German camouflage known as ‘Lozenge’ a basic hexagon-base camouflage typical for night operations. Once happy with the colour pigments, the next stage was to arrange them so that they worked together creating the overall effect.
We started playing around with a number of designs trying to add a 3D concept on flat fabrics, introducing artificial trapped shadows, fake textures and colour bleeds. After a number of tests and trials, so was born the latest in urban concealment fabric concepts, DISPERSAL.
DISPERSAL:
The DISPERSAL camouflage design is an optical effect that you will notice works in several ways; at greater distance its cuts up the outline of the wearer, mimicking broken rubble and harsh masonry lines. Whilst at shorter distances the ‘blurring effect’ fools the eye making it seem like its merging with the environment.
So effective the print has been at fooling the human eye, factory staff working to cut and machine the design, have had to be taken off the line complaining of dizziness and blurred vision!
Trials:
Remembering the original brief which was concealment between 100 – 150 metres, I drove around looking for as many different back drops I could find to test the print. Once convinced that the product worked I needed to test it on a real target location, this was to be a fully operational construction site.
The aim was to insert and slowly move as close to the workers as possible until compromised! With a college situated on the boundary armed with a camera and powerful lens, I started my insertion been photographed at stages. I achieved a distance of 10 metres before running out of rubble and only left with the option of standing up and walking out, this confirm the DISPERSAL as nothing short of awesome.
I emailed some images to a friend who had not seen the print and asked him to find me, 50 metres nothing, 25 metres nothing, and at 10 metres with a hint did he find me.
The Future:
After all this hard work the unit in question failed in their commitment, so the DSP print is up for grabs, CROPS is interested to hear from specialist units who have a requirement for this one of a kind camouflage.
What’s next:
The DISPERSAL is now in the trial stages for operations in the Rural, Arctic Mountain and Arid environments. All prints will be available in time from our on line store as well as our other specialist products which have been designed for the tactical and surveillance professionals. The store which will be going live very soon can be found at www.thesurveillancestore.co.uk
Written by: Ben Wall – CROPS School of Rural Surveillance
Slangvel will soon be offering his M43, Patrol hat, and Recce in MultiCam Tropic, a pattern heavily influenced by the ERDL camouflage pattern.
