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!”
Archive for the ‘Foreign’ Category
The Weather Outside is Frightful
Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009MTP – The Competition
Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009Britain’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
Testing the New British Camouflage
Monday, December 21st, 2009Our 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.
UK MoD releases MTP Photo
Monday, December 21st, 2009The 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.
German Military Awards Pre-Production Contract for Future Soldier System
Monday, December 21st, 2009The German Bundesamt für Wehrtechnik und Beschaffung (Federal Agency for Defense Technology and Procurement) in Koblenz, awarded Rheinmetall Defence a contract for pre-production examples of the IdZ-ES (Infanterist der Zukunft – Erweitertes System or Future Soldier – Expanded System) last Thursday, 17 December.
The program began in 2004 but in 2006 Rheinmetall Defence assumed lead for development of the system after an EADS led “Projekthaus System Soldat†version proved to have deficiencies. Rheinmetall claims this is an entirely new system. Full-scale procurement is to begin in 2012. Ultimately, they plan to purchase 1000 kits for all three armed services with each kit equipping 10 men.
More on New Brit Camo
Sunday, December 20th, 2009The 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.
Kiwis Update Kit
Saturday, December 19th, 2009We have been receiving reports regularly from our readers that the New Zealand Army is updating its individual equipment but the Army itself issued a great poster detailing the features of the new Soldier Survivability Gear.
According to Chief of the Army MAJ GEN Rhys Jones, “There are currently 790 New Zealand Defence Force personnel deployed on 14 operations, UN missions and defence exercises in 10 countries around the world.†The NZ Army began issuing the equipment to these troops in October and much of it would be familiar to Soldier Systems Daily readers. In addition to the SOCOM issued BAE RBAV and BPG Serpa holster, the Kiwis are also receiving the Camelbak Trizip based on a Mystery Ranch design. Additionally, they are being issued Camelbak gloves, Streamlight Sidewinder lights, ESS ballistic glasses, Revision ballistic goggles, Garmin GPS. The only item that you would have trouble finding here in the US is the Rabintex helmet.
•The new advanced combat helmet is 0.5kg lighter than its predecessor, has an internal mounting system that makes it more comfortable to wear and allows greater functionality with ballistic glasses or communications equipment.
•The improved body armour (IBA) provides enhanced ballistic and fragmentation protection and is now sized to the individual rather than one-size-fits-all. The IBA also includes side, groin and bicep protection should it be required by the wearer and has a modular webbing system so soldiers can customise the pouches they attach directly to their webbing.
•The IBA is fully modular and also has a quick release system to enable the user or another person to discard the vest quickly if the user is injured or submerged in water.
•The improved patrol pack is ergonomic in design, has an adjustable, removable back comforter and is adjustable for height.
•The Revision Desert Locust ballistic goggles were selected as they offered the greatest durability and functionality. These protect the wearer against blast fragmentation and other non-ballistic threats whilst also protecting the eyes from wind, sand, dirt and snow.
•New individual general purpose torch: The Sidewinder stood out as the individual torch choice as it is small, light-weight and has excellent functionality. It provides four types of light: red, blue, white and Infra-red. It has four levels of brightness on each including a strobe function. The torch also comes with a helmet mount so that it allows a hands-free operation. With the IR function it significantly improves the local area illumination when used with an night vision goggles.
•Improved individual GPS: The Garmin 60cX GPS is a unit that provides a cheap but very functional GPS. The Garmin provides colour mapping and new maps can be downloaded via the internet as required. The users found it easy to operate and accurate as an individual navigation aid for tactical commanders.
Crye Developed New Camo Pattern for Brits
Friday, December 18th, 2009Soldier Systems Daily has received verification from Crye Precision that they developed the new Multi-Terrain Pattern exclusively for use by the UK’s Ministry of Defence. A Crye representative related to us that, “MultiCam® won all their trials so they wanted us to develop a pattern for them that performed like MultiCam® but had a distinctly British identity. UK-MTP is the result.”
Earlier today, unattributed information found its way to a popular military message board detailing plans to begin issuing this new pattern initially to troops on Op Herrick early next Spring and ultimately in 2011 to the entire military. As you can see from the photo, the unique MultiCam® color palette has been adapted to a pattern reminiscent of Disruptive Pattern Material (DPM) a pattern in use by the British military for 40 years.
As posted on StrikeHold! the UK’s Special Forces Support Group has been wearing combat uniforms in MultiCam® for some time.
The adoption of MTP seems to put to rest the limited use of Hybrid DPM which has seen limited use in Afghanistan on “Battle Bags” and assault packs.
