Posted on 06/25/2012 4:53:08 PM PDT by JerseyanExile
The Army is changing clothes.
Over the next year, America’s largest fighting force is swapping its camouflage pattern. The move is a quiet admission that the last uniform — a pixelated design that debuted in 2004 at a cost of $5 billion — was a colossal mistake.
Soldiers have roundly criticized the gray-green uniform for standing out almost everywhere it’s been worn. Industry insiders have called the financial mess surrounding the pattern a “fiasco.”
As Army researchers work furiously on a newer, better camouflage, it’s natural to ask what went wrong and how they’ll avoid the same missteps this time around. In a candid interview with The Daily, several of those researchers said Army brass interfered in the selection process during the last round, letting looks and politics get in the way of science.
“It got into political hands before the soldiers ever got the uniforms,” said Cheryl Stewardson, a textile technologist at the Army research center in Natick, Mass., where most of the armed forces camouflage patterns are made.
The researchers say that science is carrying the day this time, as they run four patterns through a rigorous battery of tests. The goal is to give soldiers different patterns suitable for different environments, plus a single neutral pattern — matching the whole family — to be used on more expensive body armor and other gear. The selection will involve hundreds of computer trials as well on-the-ground testing at half a dozen locations around the world.
But until the new pattern is put in the field — a move that’s still a year or more away — soldiers in Afghanistan have been given a temporary fix: a greenish, blended replacement called MultiCam. The changeover came only after several non-commissioned officers complained to late Pennsylvania Rep. John Murtha, and he took up the cause in 2009. Outside of Afghanistan, the rest of the Army is still stuck with the gray Universal Camouflage Pattern, or UCP. And some soldiers truly hate it.
“Essentially, the Army designed a universal uniform that universally failed in every environment,” said an Army specialist who served two tours in Iraq, wearing UCP in Baghdad and the deserts outside Basra. “The only time I have ever seen it work well was in a gravel pit.”
The specialist asked that his name be withheld because he wasn’t authorized to speak to the press.
“As a cavalry scout, it is my job to stay hidden. Wearing a uniform that stands out this badly makes it hard to do our job effectively,” he said. “If we can see our own guys across a distance because of it, then so can our enemy.”
The fact that the government spent $5 billion on a camouflage design that actually made its soldiers more visible — and then took eight years to correct the problem — has also left people in the camouflage industry incensed. The total cost comes from the Army itself and includes the price of developing the pattern and producing it for the entire service branch.
“You’ve got to look back and say what a huge waste of money that was,” said Lawrence Holsworth, marketing director of a camouflage company called Hyde Definition and the editor of Strike-Hold!, a website that tracks military gear. “UCP was such a fiasco.”
The Army’s camouflage researchers say the story of the universal pattern’s origins begins when they helped develop a similarly pixilated camouflage now worn by the Marine Corps. That pattern, known as MARPAT, first appeared in 2002 after being selected from among dozens of candidates and receiving plenty of input from Marines on the ground at the sniper school in Quantico, Va. The Marines even found one of the baseline colors themselves, an earth tone now called Coyote Brown.
“They went to Home Depot, looked at paint swatches, and said, ‘We want that color,’ ” said Anabelle Dugas, a textile technologist at Natick who helped develop the pattern. That particular hue, she added, was part of a paint series then sold by Ralph Lauren.
Around the same time, the Army was on the hunt for a new camouflage pattern that could solve glaring logistical problem on the ground in Iraq. Without enough desert-specific gear to go around, soldiers were going to war in three-color desert fatigues but strapping dark green vests and gear harness over their chests. At rifle distances, the problem posed by the dark gear over light clothing was as obvious as it was distressing.
Kristine Isherwood, a mechanical engineer on Natick’s camouflage team, said simply, “It shows where to shoot.”
The Army researchers rushed to put new camouflages to the test — several in-house designs and a precursor of MultiCam developed by an outside company. The plan was to spend two years testing patterns and color schemes from different angles and distances and in different environments. The Army published results of the trials in 2004, declaring a tan, brushstroke pattern called Desert Brush the winner — but that design never saw the light of day.
The problem, the researchers said, was an oddly named branch of the Army in charge of equipping soldiers with gear — Program Executive Office Soldier — had suddenly ordered Natick’s camouflage team to pick a pattern long before trials were finished.
“They jumped the gun,” said James Fairneny, an electrical engineer on Natick’s camouflage team.
Researchers said they received a puzzling order: Take the winning colors and create a pixilated pattern. Researchers were ordered to “basically put it in the Marine Corps pattern,” Fairneny said.
For a decision that could ultimately affect more than a million soldiers in the Army, reserves and National Guard, the sudden shift from Program Executive Office Soldier was a head-scratcher. The consensus among the researchers was the Army brass had watched the Marine Corps don their new uniforms and caught a case of pixilated camouflage envy.
“It was trendy,” Stewardson said. “If it’s good enough for the Marines, why shouldn’t the Army have that same cool new look?”
The brigadier general ultimately responsible for the decision, James Moran, who retired from the Army after leaving Program Executive Office Soldier, has not responded to messages seeking comment.
It’s worth noting that, flawed as it was, the universal pattern did solve the problem of mismatched gear, said Eric Graves, editor of the military gear publication Soldier Systems Daily, adding that the pattern also gave soldiers a new-looking uniform that clearly identified the Army brand.
“Brand identity trumped camouflage utility,” Graves said. “That’s what this really comes down to: ‘We can’t allow the Marine Corps to look more cool than the Army.’ ”
Here's what I wear when I go clubbin'.
That's me there in the middle.
Even the Navy tried to come up with something to spark that rivalry, which was stupid of course. Battleship Gray is a well-defined color. Make all Navy uniforms that color and the enemy would simply see a light-gray silhouette on the horizon and shoot at it. How dumb is that? The enemy would never be able to see the enlisted pukes cowering on decks....
Side note: I was one of ninety guys graduating from boot camp on the day Kennedy was shot. Upon hearing the news, 30 of them wanted a discharge to join the Army. "If there is going to be shooting, I want a rifle!"
30 of them wanted a complete discharge. "I only enlisted in the Navy because chicks dig the uniform!"
The rest of us said pretty much said, "Get me the hell out to the fleet. If there is going to be a war, that is exactly what I joined for!"
Of course I went into submarines. Hard to see the color of your uniform when it is hundreds of feet under the surface....
The new USAF camo looks like it is meant to look "cool" in the office.
“it’s natural to ask what went wrong and how they’ll avoid the same missteps this time around. “
No, they won’t. Incompetent management is never fixed, just promoted and things gets worse.
Second, for the new homosexual military, it's FABULOUS!!!
Zer0: “Oooh, put that on ALL my soldier boys! It looks FABULOUS!”
Thanks for the correction. At least they toned down the blue.
They should try the time-tested “Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake” pattern. Looks pixelated, looks cool, and is darn effective even at close range.
The Army’s camouflage researchers say the story of the universal pattern’s origins begins when they helped develop a similarly pixilated camouflage now worn by the Marine Corps. That pattern, known as MARPAT, first appeared in 2002 after being selected from among dozens of candidates and receiving plenty of input from Marines on the ground at the sniper school in Quantico, Va. The Marines even found one of the baseline colors themselves, an earth tone now called Coyote Brown.
The problem, the researchers said, was an oddly named branch of the Army in charge of equipping soldiers with gear — Program Executive Office Soldier — had suddenly ordered Natick’s camouflage team to pick a pattern long before trials were finished.
“They jumped the gun,” said James Fairneny, an electrical engineer on Natick’s camouflage team. Researchers said they received a puzzling order: Take the winning colors and create a pixilated pattern. Researchers were ordered to “basically put it in the Marine Corps pattern,” Fairneny said.
The consensus among the researchers was the Army brass had watched the Marine Corps don their new uniforms and caught a case of pixilated camouflage envy.
“It was trendy,” Stewardson said. “If it’s good enough for the Marines, why shouldn’t the Army have that same cool new look?”
“Brand identity trumped camouflage utility,” Graves said. “That’s what this really comes down to: ‘We can’t allow the Marine Corps to look more cool than the Army.’ ”
Mossy Oak could solve this problem for less than 5 billion I bet
The USAF camo might hide someone who falls out of a plane at 30,000’ on a sunny day.
Being old enough to have briefly worn the pickle fatigues, I think the USAF ought to go back to that...maybe in gray, so that maintainers can lie down on concrete and disappear from view!
They were thinking "CONTRACTS" for friends most likely. Lot's of money for friends to make in a complete service uniform change over. You're right the change to Blue Camo's for a working uniform it was just plain dumb and completely dysfunctional for locating a man overboard in the water.
It equals or exceeds the Naval uniform change of the Dress Blues to a the dysfunctional Chief's style suit worn by junior enlisted in the mid to late 70's. I do know for a fact the Navy finally saw the mistake & went back to the traditional Cracker Jacks in about late 1979. I had to buy them before I could get out in late 1980.
A functional working uniform change could have simply been a pair of light weight solid Navy Blue {dark} Coveralls that both Dickies and Walls makes. A lot of guys on ship wore coveralls when working anyway. But then again the traditional Dungarees also were a part of water survival in the event of man overboard.
The Waffen SS was te first major military force to go with camo, back in WW II.Since all the major Waffen SS units started the war as motorized infantry, they didn’t need the black panzer uniform [worn by the Army since 1939], until 1942, when they were upgraded to Panzer divisions [at least the 1st SS, 2d SS, 3d SS, 5th SS, 9th SS, 10th SS and 12th SS]. But SS Mountain Divisions [7th SS], Cavalry Divisions [8th SS, 23d SS], and Panzer Grenadier Divisions [e.g 15th SS, 16th SS, 17th SS], as well as the infantry/grenadier component of Pz. Divs. still wore the camo.
Panzer crews all wore the same uniform, no matter if they were SS or regular German army.
That always was a beautiful pattern. Take that and put LBE on it, add the helmet and you’d think we’d become the Whermacht!
All the way down to how we identify our vehicles....pure WWII german.
No one admits it or knows it.
I read somewhere that the enlisted sailor coming out of NTC has something like five uniforms issued, with multiple duplicate items that are part of their own uniform set.
They get the A uniform, B uniform, some other kind of B uniform, the dungarees, cracker jacks, and the new utilities.
I could be wrong about the types, but I’d read it was not so long ago that new sailors just had two sea bags of uniforms, and a suit bag. Maybe it’s changed now.
I read somewhere that the enlisted sailor coming out of NTC has something like five uniforms issued, with multiple duplicate items that are part of their own uniform set.
They get the A uniform, B uniform, some other kind of B uniform, the dungarees, cracker jacks, and the new utilities.
I could be wrong about the types, but I’d read it was not so long ago that new sailors just had two sea bags of uniforms, and a suit bag. Maybe it’s changed now.
USMC’s MARPAT is the only one that works as intended.
Duh. Jarheads know what works in the bush. My first set of Camo Utilities in the Corps was the original Vietnam pattern 5 color when they brought them back in ‘77. Worked better than anything except Tiger Stripes, were very comfortable and would dry out faster than anything else. I could go from soaking wet to done dry in about half a hour of humpin’. Downside was they wore out very quickly, ripstop or not.
The pixelation tricks the brain no matter what size object you put it on. Only downside is that the USMC pretty much looks from a distance like a dead ringer for the Waffen SS when fully geared up in it. That’s not cool. Even if there are those who think it’s cool, it’s still not cool.
Who cares about cool? What keeps you’re a$$ subdued in combat is cool. If it resembles old Waffen SS patterns, So f*kin’ what. MarPatt works.
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