Posted on 05/25/2014 12:41:07 PM PDT by null and void
The U.S. Army is quietly putting the word out to commands that it is replacing its current Universal Camouflage Pattern with a pattern the service has owned for more than a decade.
The Army's senior leadership has selected Scorpion, a pattern similar to MultiCam that was developed around 2002, according to a source with knowledge of the decision.
The Army was poised to announce the results of its multi-year camouflage improvement effort nearly a year ago, but congressional language in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal 2014 called on the Pentagon to put an end to the services branding their ranks with unique camouflage uniforms.
The Army has been considering replacing UCP with Crye Precision's MultiCam -- a pattern that has demonstrated consistent performance in multiple tests and was selected in 2010 for soldiers to wear in Afghanistan.
Army officials even tried to buy the rights to MultiCam but rejected Crye's figure of $25 million, according to Caleb Crye, owner of Crye Precision. Army officials also balked at paying for "printing fees" the company receives on MultiCam -- a small figure that amounts to about one percent of the 20 percent price hike uniform companies want to charge the Army for MultiCam.
And, ironically, in March 2013 the Army decided to drop the fifth finalist -- a government pattern developed at the Army's Natick Soldier Systems Center. The pattern, known as Scorpion, was too similar to one of the industry submissions, Army officials said.
The unique blend of greens, browns and tans has been a favorite of Special Operations Command for almost a decade. The Army selected MultiCam in 2010 as the clear winner over several other patterns to issue to soldiers deploying to Afghanistan.
(Excerpt) Read more at military.com ...
with all the necessary sensitivity training about queers, how did they find time to work on this ?
No pink in the pattern....
It put them in close contact with the fashion industry...
This is ridiculous. The uniform system doesn’t need to be complicated. This is all so contractors can make millions that can be funneled into other pockets in kickbacks.
On a side note, it’s ridiculous for the Navy to have blue camo. They’re on ships. If the enemy sees the ship they know you’re there. If you’re not on the ship you’re not needing blue camo.
This whole logistics deal is stupid.
Blue camo makes sense for the navy as it makes it harder for the enemy to see you if you fall overboard.
Yes. The blue camo is especially handy to be wearing should you happen to fall overboard. It really helps them locate you in the water!
will there be a runway show with lights and music to model the new camo ?
I am guessing that there will be a lawsuit from one of the commercial manufacturers over the similarity in patterns.
I’m finishing up Ken Burn’s `Civil War’ on Netflix:
There was a story of the Union Army buying a large lot of boots for the infantry, but the shoes fell apart after just a couple hours of marching.
The manufacturer explained, “We thought these were meant for the cavalry ... “
Narrator: “During the war overnment contractors could get from the Federal government just about any price they had the guts to ask for.”
Wonder what they’d think of 25 million for a camo pattern?
I would have expected to see some combination of Photoshop effects mixed with images of Benghazi witnesses in some of some sort of a mosaic pattern. This would be unbeatable due to the fact that when used it would make our military personnel nearly invisible. This is proven Obamatech. I’m surprised it isn’t being used here.
There is too much of a scheduling problem to get a group photo ,
the FED Govt. is unable to coodinate the monthly, or more frequent , lie detector tests for a group photo op.
where's the lavender?
It’s a good thing I don’t know photo shop ... I’d be banned forever
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