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