Updated In an article posted less than an hour ago by Stars and Stripes, Sergeant Major of the Army Raymond F Chandler III was quoted as telling troops from the 4th Combat Brigade Team, 10th Mountain Division, at Forward Operating Base Gamberi that the new Army camouflage would be a recolored variant similar to Crye’s MultiCam verifying what SSD has known for months.
…Chandler also told troops that the new Army combat uniforms will likely be phased in starting eight to nine months from now. The uniform will feature different colors for different environments, but the pattern will be very similar to the mottled “multicam” currently used in Afghanistan under the designation “Operation Enduring Freedom Camouflage Pattern.”
I told you guys months ago that his office was leaking like a sieve regarding the selection for the US Army’s Camouflage Improvement Effort. He isn’t even keeping it as a secret anymore but this is by no means the way it was meant to be announced. In fact, the Army still has not officially announced any of the finalists. Reading, you can see that the Stars and Stripes reporter didn’t even know what he had. He was writing a story about tattoos and I think the SMA just said it without a thought.
Now, if the Secretary of the Army’s office would just validate what the SMA put out, we could all just drop the charade and move on. I know the supply chain would breathe a collective sigh of relief. Additionally, an official announcement would also bring some closure to a program that started almost three years ago.
I’d like to remind everyone that the competition was very close and the selection wasn’t based on popularity but rather science. While I haven’t seen the test report yet, I do know that this was the most comprehensive camouflage program in history with over 120,000 data points collected. In addition to Crye Precision, the US Army also evaluated families of camouflage patterns consisting of Transitional, Woodland and Arid patterns along with an optional pattern for OCIE from ADS Inc partnered with Guy Cramer, Brookwood and Kryptek.
Thanks WBY!
This article has been updated to add details about the Army Camouflage Improvement Effort.
