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.
via $5B CAMO SNAFU – The Daily.
Just put everyone in Multi-Cam and quit screwing around.
And if you MUST have the theater/scenario specific patterns and uniforms, then go with a simple, dirt cheap uniform for general issue and wear in the garrison and non-deployed field environment. Say…. OD Green jungle fatigues? Modify them to work with body armor, and you’re all good.
Wannt sumbuddy blaming the Marine Corps for this?
We got two very effective camouflage uniforms, sturdy and well-made, comfortable, too. Cost a bit less than five billion, too.
Aright URR, you Jarheads are to blame. Does that make you feel all better now?
Possibly the only good thing Murtha ever did was bring the UCP debacle to light. I will never understand how stupid someone had to be to select UCP over pretty much any other camouflage pattern.
Multi-Cam does seem to be a favorite, and I like your suggestion for the return of ODs. Let the Navy go back to dungarees while we’re at it.
Yes. Please get the poor swabbos back into a real uniform instead of the execration they are forced to wear now. The old jungle fatigues from the Vietnam era would be nice in garrison. I always liked Tiger Stripe too.
Well, the Air Force went with Tiger Stripe, so that’s out…
Here’s the kicker, every Central Issue Facility will have to keep track of these new uniforms, thus adding more delays and $$$ to the camo roll-out. Soldiers will have to buy yet another uniform. Multi-cam was the classic “not-invented here” syndrome. PEO-Soldier didn’t want to admit that the Marines had a winner so they gave us the [expletive deleted] ACU’s. At least the TA-50 will be coyote brown.
BTW: the “urban track” pattern that was the basis for the ACU was dead last in the original test.