AnsomMag.com |

In recent years, the U.S. military has undertaken a number of changes in the type of camouflage it has approved for use by personnel in combat zones and elsewhere.

For decades, the venerable Woodland camo pattern was utilized by our military forces. As military involvement began to increase in sand-strewn regions of the Middle East, two-and-three color desert camo patterns were introduced as an alternative to the jungle environment-based Woodland pattern.

Then, just a few years ago, the US Marine Corps led the way with a new, “digital” pattern (so named due to its pixelated appearance). The Army followed suit in 2004 and thus was born the Active Combat Uniform (ACU), another digital pattern that was produced in variants with color palettes adjusted to meet regional needs.

The tan. green and gray Universal Camouflage Pattern (UCP) was then adapted to the ACU in an attempt to find a pattern that would prove effective in a range of environments. Another pattern that became operational with the Marine Corp was the Woodland digital pattern as part of the their MARPAT uniform system. A Desert digital pattern was another MARPAT variation.

Multi for the many

Combat personnel began to express dissatisfaction with the UCP ACU, found to be limited in effectiveness in Afghanistan.

After considerable research, a new pattern named MultiCam® (developed by the Brooklyn, New York-based company Crye Precision) has been approved to replace the UCP in the ACU. The U.S. military will transition to the MultiCam ACU in Afghanistan in the next month.

The new fire-resistant ACU, which will include the MultiCam pattern on MOLLE gear and mountain combat boots, will be issued to deploying troops at mobilization sites across the U.S., while warriors already in country will receive new uniforms in the fall.

“The decision to field and develop an alternative camouflage for uniforms in Afghanistan came out of the realization that the UCP did not meet all of the concealment needs for Afghanistan’s multiple regions,” according to Col. William E. Cole, project manager for soldier protection at the Program Executive Office, Soldier at Fort Belvoir in Virginia.

The Afghanistan theatre presents unique problems for the concealment needs of the troops.

“Afghanistan is a camouflage challenge because it’s such a terrain-diverse country,” said Cole.

For now, the MultiCam pattern will only be used in Afghanistan, Cole confirmed.

Similar to the original Woodland camo pattern, the MultiCam digitized pattern incorporates seven colors, a jumble of greens, brown and beige.

For the army/navy market, the MultiCam pattern is currently available from industry suppliers that include Propper International, TRU-SPEC and Condor Outdoor Products, among others.