UCP first and third from left, Multicam is second.
Posted on 10/14/2013 4:44:41 PM PDT by haffast
In 2004, the Army decided to scrap the two traditional camouflage uniforms that had long been used by the military—one meant for woodland environments, another for the desert—and claimed to have come up with a universal pattern that could be worn anywhere and blend in with any environment. The $5 billion dollar experiment with the universal pattern is over as the Army is phasing out the uniform after less than a decade of use. But many soldiers and observers are wondering why it took this long and cost this much to replace an item that performed poorly from the start during a period when the money Pcould have been spent on other critical needs, like potentially life saving improvements to military vehicles and body armor.
Less than a decade after the so-called Universal Camouflage Pattern, or UCP, was introduced the Army is back to the drawing board, set to announce a new camouflage pattern and standard uniform to be worn by the more than million members of the active duty and reserve forces.
Evidence of the UCPs inadequacy as a combat uniform is easy to find—just look at pictures of soldiers currently serving in Afghanistan, they’re not wearing the UCP, which was deemed unsuitable for operations there, but a different uniform known as the MultiCam. In 2009, Congress responded to soldiers’ “concerns about the current combat uniform which they indicated provides ineffective camouflage given the environment in Afghanistan,” by passing a bill in the appropriations act requiring that the DOD “take immediate action to provide combat uniforms to personnel deployed to Afghanistan with a camouflage pattern that is suited to the environment of Afghanistan.” The result was the MultiCam.
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(Excerpt) Read more at thedailybeast.com ...
Meanwhile, Obama “hasn’t got enough money” to open our national parks.
UPC looks too blue to my eye.
I can’t help but wonder if the same thing happened here as happened to the interstate signs.
They were supposed to be blue.
The guy who selected the color thought they were blue.
Yes, the US government put a color blind guy in charge of selecting the color...
The transition to digitized camo patterns was largely a waste of time and money. The Marines had a good idea when they stuck to woodland and desert themes with their patterns. The Navy and the Air Force, wtf? Digital tiger stripe, and winter weights for the first couple of years? Blue and black pixelation?
The powers that be should’ve stuck with the BDU, polished boots and pressed uniforms. Woodland or desert depending on location, if units like Security Forces or MPs really wanted to feel special in garrison, urban. But what do I know, I just fix multimillion dollar jets when a Major with a degree in zoology can’t figure out that his ground communication doesn’t work when the switch is in OFF.
The ACU (we don’t call it “UPC”) looks grey-green in actual use.
My major issue with the uniform is the Velcro pockets. The Velcro wears out, but before it does, it is impossible to open a pocket without that “shwip” sound.
LOL !
Bradley Manning (in better days) ?
One word for the Pacific Northwest: flecktarn
Flektarn: sand and green tones!
OK this may sound silly to some but I’ve got about 10 different camo patterns I use. I’ve been a bowhunter for over 50 years and camo is a must. It has to match the enviroment your in, here in West texas I use 3 different ones depending on the season and color. During the winter everything turns gray during the spring it varies and during the summer I can go to my darker greens to match the cedars. When I hunt Eas Texas I’ll swith to more of my tree bard designs, when I go to New Mexico or Colorado it requires different patterns. What I’m saying is theres no one set pattern, you match it to your enviroment as needed. Look at the background in the picture and tell me which one blends in the best.
I got a pair for hunting (free), and I agree with the velcro comment. My other issues are that the crotch is cut weird (read different enough from the BDUs that it can be felt in the fit), and the back pockets aren't deep enough. My billfold sits too high which means it puts my butt cheek to sleep when I sit on it too long.
What was wrong with BDU ?
Actually, it was working as advertised. Used to love the idjit pilot trainees that sat on the flightline in Florida heat, playing with the RADAR without cooling air.
its nothing to do with the color, the camo, the type of material, etc.....follow the money....everytime they need to pay somebody back, our military gets new uniforms, or hats, or guns, etc...somebody is reaping a big fat paycheck...
Gee whiz! All that for hunting? My last time out I wore a olive drab zippered front sweat jacket with military patches on the front and shoulders, denim jeans, brown ankle high hiking boots topped off with a baseball style cap with U.S.M.C. embroidered across the front and no face paint or veil while wearing reflective lens trifocals.
A herd of thirty elk approached me and the first five, four bulls and cow calf, stopped twenty-five yards away as I was standing in the open next to a standing limbless widow maker. I took the calf with a forty-five seventy and they were still standing there although the calf dropped. I had to raise my arms and say “Shoo!” to chase them off so I could get to my kill. Even at that they left in a direction which took them right past me within five yards.
As long as you don’t move they don’t see you.
“why it took this long and cost this much to replace an item that performed poorly from the start “
Oh, get a clue! It’s not about winning wars, or protecting the lives of our soldiers, or making the best use of the taxpayers money - its about money for the contractors, contractor contributions for the politicians, and about the careers and prestige of the brass involved in the process.
I think, Holmes, you have hit upon the answer.
The Navy - awesome choice on the blue/black pattern. Because if you fall off of a great big easy to see ship into the ocean, you definitely want to blend in with the water and drown.
For the Marine Corps - good camouflage colors - crappy material and craftsmanship.
LOL! It took me awhile before I saw the boots.
It works great in domestic warfare.
.....
ROTFL! Thanks. You just gave this old dogface one heck of a laugh.
I guess the guy in the PINK CAMOS is stationed in San Francisco.
Speaking of Holmes, he was great at camouflage:
Totally concur with the Navy camouflage. There isn't any time in the Navy where you want to blend in with the water, unless you are a SEAL, and you won't catch those guys wearing those. Then with all the individual augmentation orders to send sailors out to do Army jobs the first thing you have to do is issue sailors a bunch of new uniforms.
There are many time where the contractor is to blame for cost over runs and shoddy equipment, but the Govt is to blame for the majority of these problems. I have seen the havoc the Govt causes contractors. Here is a couple of examples.
I worked for a Defense company on the JLTV(Joint Light Tactical Vehicle)Program and the NLOS Cannon Program.
In the case of JLTV the Govt goes to the contractors with a specific set of requirements and asks for an RFP(Request for Proposal). The contractors then go through the Govt requirements and come up with a dollar number and time frame to build and test prototypes.
The Govt then selects 2-4 competitors and the Technology Demonstration phase begins. While the prototypes are being built the Govt will come down with even more requirements. Usually some set of bells and whistles that some idiot desk commander in the Pentagon thinks would be nice. This in turn causes the contractors to go back and re-engineer complete systems, or layouts. Costing them more money and time.
This crap happen all the time. I am not excusing the contractors for stuff that is their fault, but the Govt needs to stick to it’s initial requirements and the RSPs they accepted from the contractors.
A large part the failure belongs to DCMA(Defense Contract Management Activity) offices. These clowns rarely know anything about the program they are charged with overseeing. Many of them fail to keep their audit schedules, they tend to wait until the equipment is ready for delivery to the Govt. Their initial acceptance inspections are a joke. Many are not written for the equipment they are inspecting. It is not all on the contractor.
Looks like that pattern will work perfectly if the Army invades a discount furniture outlet.
Five billion, huh? There’s obviously a lot of money in the military uniform business. Even during my six years in the Marines we got three changes of cammies. Somebody well-connected is scooping a whole lot of cash out of this scam.
Yes.
I’ve had this mental image of being caught alone behind enemy lines, hungry, with a Power Bar in my pocket. What do I do?
Actually, my newest uniform has buttoned cargo pockets and sleeves. So it is not quite as noisy.
I think they were trying to make the uniforms so un-cool that no one would steal them. It was working.
They have to buy their own now. Boots too. They keep one for inspection and the other for the field.
Your points are well taken. Thanks for that info, and for all the crap you have put up with.
Where do you think the fault lies with this camouflage fiasco? Not saying you know for sure, but yours may be a better informed opinion than the rest of us can come up with.
“...this may sound silly...”
Yes, it does sound silly. Here in Pennsylvania, if you are not moving, the deer don’t see you. It does not matter what you are wearing. If you blink, they see that and they’re gone.
Ah aviation
Were high school drop outs fix the mistakes of college graduates.
Though most of the mechs I work with do have a degree or two, but they have their heads on straight.
I’m not sure where the blame lies with that one. I do know the process the Marine Corps used to come up with the MARPAT utility uniform. I was a SSgt at the time. The Marine Corps came up with 5 versions for both the woodland and desert utility uniform. They then went out and us the Marines which design and pattern we wanted. The rest is history. The MARPAT utility uniform is very well designed and Marines love it.
I think another viable option would be the ATACS and ATACS-FG:
One group I would add to you group of government idiots is DCAA (formerly DCAS).
We were delivering shelters painted with mil spec paint supplied by the government and they squawked that it wasn't the right lustre. They refused to sign the DD 250 until we stripped and repainted the shelters with a different batch number of the same paint.
They insisted we pay for the rework under threat of a "Method C" which would have implied that we had serious systemic QA problems.
Years later we finally were awarded consideration because an arbitrator declared their action was a constructive change to the contract. The dufuses that perpatrated this went on to higher positions because of their "diligence".
Guess who paid the bill? The taxpayer of course.
I just wish the navy would have stuck with the dungaree’s. They made the navy different and they were cool!
Ha! The good old Gamma Goat. The Marine Corps didn’t train me to work on that POS, but low and behold we had 12 of them in my unit when I got to my 1st duty station. A year later when I left Okinawa for Twentynine Palms I thought I had seen the last of that hunk of crap. Wrong again. My new unit had 10 of them.
I’m glad there is someone else here that knows the deal. Too many here are quick to blame the contractor, yet they have no clue how the process works.
We tried to tell them that in the 90's. The problem was that too many young officers thought that velcro, poly-pro, and gore-tex were just so high tech. They wanted that stuff on everything.
>>As long as you don’t move they don’t see you.<<
Smell comes into the picture too. Stay down wind of them and it’s amazing how close you can get to wild animals.
You will likely die no matter what you are wearing, if you fall off a really big ship.
If you don’t move how are you going to raise your bow and shoot? Maybe the critters out West ain’t as dumb as the critters back East. Y’all should try and hunt some of these West Texas Whitetails, Antelope and Aoudad, all of which I’ve taken with either recruves or longbows. When your talking inside 20 yards on the ground it’s a whole different ball game.
Try it with a recurve or a longbow inside 20 yrds before ya get too cocky.
Sounds like you spend more on your meat than on your family.
“My major issue with the uniform is the Velcro pockets. The Velcro wears out, but before it does, it is impossible to open a pocket without that “shwip” sound.”
Too true; I don’t know why they got rid of the buttons. They have Velcro inside some of the pouches that already close with a buckle. I don’t get it; I use some of these things hiking with the kids, and am reluctant to wear out the Velcro. I should trade it at the local flea market for an olc-school web belt with H suspenders; they can accomodate a fanny pack, canteen, and various pouches just as well if not better (IMHO).
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