Okay Okay…I hear you!
Lots of people hitting me on the tipline about the Brits’ new cammo…Whoa! Caleb Crye is about to become a rich man, huh? Can’t wait to see what his booth looks like at SHOT Show (hopefully he’ll do a better job of talking to reporters this time since lots of Gov money is heading his way).
Anyway, BBC is reporting that the British Army has adopted a UK version of MultiCam MultiCam to replace its 40 y/o woodland Disruptive Pattern Material. That’s freaking HUGE!
The new uniform looks as if it has the distinctive traits of Brit duds: the vertical pockets with buttons, large belt loops, tuck in styling. Seems that they built their own uniform out of a customized MultiCam material.
It’s just amazing to me that the Brits did this — and seemingly so suddenly. I wonder how this will affect the Army’s camo wrangling? Is it possible to how two major allies with the same (or very similar) camo scheme? I know there are a lot of 3rd world armies with BDUs, but having US and UK troops operating side-by-side with nearly the same camo would be amazing. Maybe this will weigh the Army against adopting MultiCam for its new UCP.
And on that note, I spent three hours at PEO Soldier on Friday afternoon discuss a couple gear issues with officials there, including the latest on the Afghanistan camo experimentation. I’ll roll out what I learned over the next couple days (so keep tuning in over the Christmas break) but I thought I’d post a video from CNN where my good friend Barbara Starr seems not to know what she’s got.
Doing a package on Taliban arms and fighter smuggling, she never realized the troops she was filming (or if she knew, she didn’t say anything) were from the 3rd of the 61st — the unit which was sent the UCP-D uniforms. The irony here was she was at the briefing at the Pentagon with us when the Army announced the experiment with UCP-D and MultiCam. She waltzed in there late, demanded a few on camera questions for her package — interrupting our good friend from Army Times Matt Cox, who delivered her a “I’m still getting my question clarified, thank you!” response.
Babs left in a huff, demanding from Army PAOs her own mini-briefing so the all-important CNN could get their big new break of the day.
After all those hystrionics, at least as far as I can tell, there’s no notice from CNN that what they caught was the first known footage of Soldiers wearing a never before worn camo pattern in Afghanistan.
And it looks pretty darned good, I must say.
I’ll have more about this issue in the coming days, including why you’ll probably notice that the Joes don’t have the UCP-D helmet covers on their lids (nor UCP-D chest rig).
(Gouge: PEO Soldier)
– Christian
{ 25 comments… read them below or add one }
But they're *not* adopting Multicam. They're adopting MTP which was developed by Crye *from* Multicam.
Actually UCP-D doesn't look too bad in that environment, somewhat better than UCP. I would like to see it where there in some green though, I still think it will look unnatural.
I think they fixed what is wrong with UCP. I think UCP-D will work.
They still need to fix all that expose Velcro .
Have to agree, this initial appearance looks decent, much, much better than the pics released during the announcement of the test. The standard UCP gear they're wearing on top of the UCP-D definitely stands out against it.
To further clarify what LR said, the new Brit camo is basically a modified DPM using the Multicam color scheme; it's also only replacing the woodland DPM, the Brits are still retaining their desert uniforms so they're not going to a one uniform for all environments deal like the US Army did. Guess the British MoD is smarter than the US Army and realizes that there is no such thing as a universal camo pattern.
I don't think it hurt that the British MoD was able to stand back and observe the US' mistake in trying to adopt a universal camouflage pattern.
Here is a pic of the Brits MTP pattern from SoldierSystems
http://soldiersystems.net/blog1/wp-content/upload…
And another contrasting with current Brit uniforms
http://soldiersystems.net/blog1/wp-content/upload…
Then how does that explain the the Brits have done exactly that?
The new camo IS a universal camouflage pattern.
But they aren't using it as such. They are retaining the Desert DPM as well instead of trying to make one uniform go everywhere.
no it isn't, they intend to keep their desert uniforms. It's MTP: Multi-Terrain Pattern, not universal
Unfortunatly Riceball, what is more likely is that the MOD don't want to buy that much camoflauge but yet want to be seen to be doing something.
Thereis a small rumour going around that MTP will take over as the main stay camo pattern with 2 extra colour configurations of mtp to follow to cover artic and dense woodland aswell
Three articles with different shots of the British MTP uniform
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/onthef…
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/12/20/uk.arm…
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/12/21/new_camou…
Not sure if Colonel George should salute in a combat zone. No camoflaging that.
Is it just me or does the new camo in the CNN video look like faded flecktarn?
Many people have made the same observation, Matt!
Its the reds.
The Brits did NOT just adapt MultiCam.
It is MC-derived, but it is NOT MC.
Another slight thing at the end the guy had a M203 not the new M320 has anyone heard when are boys are going to be getting the M320s?
Brandon Avery, yeah the M203 is still standard among most of the Army and USMC, besides for the 82nd Airborne I don't know who else has received the M320.
The M320 may not be a huge improvement, but there are plenty of minor upgrades. We should be replacing the M203 with it at a much faster rate than we are currently. Yet look how long it is taking to get the M2E2 .50 caliber machine gun upgrade in widespread service.
I think this new cam looks nice.
Happy holiday to you guys!
I know this is about Cam but i hear the SF guys already got something like the M4 i believe its a 7.62 weapon called the 4-16 heard its nice
this whole thing smacks of government cost cutting.
Everyone knows the Afgan and Iraq conflicts are bankrupting the British and American treasuries.
The UK government is putting soldiers lives at risk with this move.
There is no one uniform that fits all theaters .
Bankrupting the British and American treasuries? Are you serious? These wars are nowhere near the cost of WWII…
I can confirm that the British Army will adopt the new MTP uniforms as a 'one-cam-fits-all' system. Desert and woodland DPM uniforms will only be retained during the initial roll-out until all units have had their issue which 'should' be in 2011/12. Units deploying to Afghanistan will be issued with it from March 2010.
Its the biggest change to our uniforms in 40 years. Whilst it is understood that there can never be a cam that fits all terrains, lessons learned in Helmand have shown the need for something close, and this is it.