Our friends over at Soldier Systems blog have been tracking an interesting story about whether the Russian army has copied a Finnish camo pattern…or whether the Russian soldier photographed wearing the curiously similar fatigues might have been going off the reservation a bit.
It’s not very often that you run across articles in the NY Times on Soldier System topics, but the Russian Interior Ministrys latest camo pattern is allegedly a dead ringer for the Finnish Armys pattern. The pattern was reportedly worn by Russian Special Operations troops during the recent hostilities in Georgia. While the Russian Government has flatly denied copying the pattern, they have been known in the past to copy US Woodland pattern as well as German Flecktarn. Additionally, tipsters have alerted us to Russian versions of the Finnish m/05 pattern for sale on ebay within the last year. Obviously, considering a sizable common border and a past history of conflict with Russia, the Finns are a bit concerned.
[Note: Picture shows Russian special operations troops wearing Brit DPM, woodland and far left, the Finnish pattern]
Update:
In an update to the NY Times story of Finnish concerns over Russias purloining of their Armys camo pattern, Strike Hold has published a photo of Russian troops in Georgia wearing the Finnish m05 camo as well as a copy of Brit DPM.
i don’t know anything about camo, i do know something about vision systems.
if they are copying the pattern, can the finns/brits scan for an inversion (or some orthologous transform) of the pattern and get russian-vision?
Depending on what type of ‘Special Forces’ these are they could be actual units or copies procured from their stocks that were handed out during deployment. One of the missions of the ‘Spetsnaz’ units is infiltration behind enemy lines in preparation for, or during, a conflict. That includes usage of enemy (read NATO/Western Europe) uniforms and equipment.
It is not inconceivable that when these troops were called up everyone did not have their issue gear to bring, or the unit did not have enough gear in stock to equip all with standard uniform components. Personally, I would worry about blue-on-blue kills with these motley collection of uniforms, but the Russians have their own way of thinking and operating.
Unmannedanimal,
The idea behind camoflauge is to break up your outline by creating patterns similar to that around you. For example, woodland camo pattern used on US Armed Forces troops for years is modeled after leaves you might possibly find in a forest. Although not all camo patterns reflect that same “consistency”(ACU, ABU), it’s true for the most part. As for your question, it’s possible to use a camera and a computer to search for a specific pattern, our eyes do it already. The problem you run into is that, if the camo is good camo, that same pattern will be found in, say, the bush next to the guy you’re looking for as well, so it’s really not practical to do even an inversion of that pattern, because it pretty much means the same thing, that the guy you’re looking for is still not there.
Looking at this picture, all I see is a bunch of different uniforms. Is it possible that Russian Special Forces are given leeway on the type of uniform they wear, as our own SF can pretty much choose their own weapons?
Anyone else notice not a single one of these guys has any body armor on at all. Hell they don’t even have steal pot helmets. Do the Russians not use much in the way of body armor?
I have no idea where this picture is from (Georgia?) but I can’t imagine the US, Brits, Canadians, Aussies, etc ever doing anything with there weapons without wearing armor of somekind.
I noticed that the guy in the back furthest to the left is waring what looks like a Danish M84 camo.
It looks like they are not only trying to blend in with the environment, but also who ever they might fight…
Err… to me it looks like a collection of all kinds of diffrent uniforms.. Testing/training, perhaps? Note the guy with a blue stripe on his helmet to on the far right, or the guy in a black hat who is wearing a very light uniform.
The soldier in the middle is carrying a Finnish Sako TRG sniper rifle.
The soldier in the middle is carrying a Finnish Sako TRG sniper rifle.
Perhaps they are Russian OPFOR who were rushed in for the deployment as there were personnel conducting ‘exercises’ in the area.
The soldier in the middle looks like he has an AI rifle instead of a Sako. Squared fore end and the bolt handle give it away.
these guys are actually part of obama’s new 250,000 man army. they are deployed elsewhere practicing for the future takeover of all red states.
Without a doubt. The Russians(Soviets) have/had more camo patterns than any other nation. They currently use 30 or so patterns. I have many of them. The Beka’s pattern(available in many camo designs) are by far the BEST BDU out there. Fit finish, features ‚cost, material. Do not doubt me on this. Beka’s are THE BEST. I wear them most evey day. In fact, I have a Beka Flecktar coming from Ukraine right now.
The Russians are the masters of theft. They will use what works, no matter where it came from. They have coppied German British and US camo patterns. They have come up with some original though. Like VSR,and the “sun bunny” pattern. You saw these camo oversuits in the 1983 movie “RED Dawn”. They have a new digital that is two color and quite effective. The Russians have about 6 major uniform makers. Hence the wide variations in camo.
On a related note. During lend-lease, the US gov. acquired several American Locomotive diesels from several US railroads. These were RS-1’s, among the first PRACTICAL road switchers built. They were sent to the Soviets. The Soviets loved them. So much so that they reversed engineered them , and made hundreds more. To the point of copying the ALCO diamond hearld on the front, and replacing ALCO with the Soviet mfg. name.