Posted on 12/20/2009 6:18:27 AM PST by csvset
The uniform of the British Army is to be changed for the first time in almost 40 years.
The new Multi-Terrain Pattern (MTP) will replace the traditional four colour woodland uniform known as No.8: Disruptive Pattern Material (DPM).
Forces in Afghanistan will start to get the new uniforms in March next year, with the whole army upgraded by 2011.
MTP is designed for a wide range of environments, including the volatile "green zone" of Helmand province.
British troops in Afghanistan currently use a mix of desert camouflage and temperate DPM, depending on which area they are operating in.
There are three main types of terrain in Helmand - desert, the agricultural "green zone" either side of the Helmand river, and residential areas comprised of dusty buildings and mud huts. One soldier said that the mix-and-match was far from ideal and made units stand out, especially in the "green zone".
Not perfect Lt Col Toby Evans - a military advisor with the Government's Defence Science and Technology Laboratory - told the BBC the new uniform was a compromise between having a uniform that was perfectly suited to a specific environments and one that would work well across a wide range of conditions.
"We've realised that Afghanistan is more complex - especially Helmand - than, say Iraq, which was predominantly a desert background or north-west Europe, which was predominantly green," he said.
"The new camouflage is optimised for all the Afghan background colour sets and in doing so we never reach a point - which we did with the old colours - where it is actually wrong. "It many not be quite perfect, but its good enough for everything," he added. from the firm's MultiCam pattern, currently used by some special forces units.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
40 years? No one can accuse them of acting precipitously.
Does the camo pattern really matter that much these days? Western soldiers on today’s battlefields look like a giant shambling mound of gear. Obviously, you don’t wear green in a brown environment, but how effective are these expensive camo changes?
I’m not saying they shouldn’t have it. If the troops need it, then they need it and that settles it for me.
I’m just curious because I’m ex-navy and I’ve noticed that our Navy now wears blue digi-camo, which will make them stand out like a turd in a punchbowl in every possible situation that a sailor can find himself in, except for when they fall overboard and that’s a bad time to be inconspicuous.
Bless those lads.
That camo is amazing; I can’t see their faces at all!
They and we could have gone with solid Feld-Grau and got it over with.
When you are talking about standing out on a tarmac in bright daylight, I doubt any pattern makes a difference. However, a recent military channel program on camo development highlights that the biggest challenge is coming up with clothing that aids in cutting down heat and infrared signatures during night ops.
We have a decided advantage over most enemies due to our advantage in night vision.
U.S. BDU’s are treated to reduce infrared emission.
If the Democrats had their way, this is what our Army would look like:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_iH1GhM2j8
“Boom-chucka-lucka-lucka”
Maybe that’s the real reason for these frequent camo changes. They develop new IR resistance and don’t want to advertise it and to make sure that everyone gets the new stuff, they change the pattern.
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