Army's Pixel Camouflage Gets the Boot



After eight years and $5 billion, the U.S. Army admits its pixelated Universal Camouflage Pattern (UCP) was a "colossal mistake." It may have been hip, but it didn't hide soldiers in any environment -except on the living room sofa.
“Essentially, the Army designed a universal uniform that universally failed in every environment,” said an Army specialist who served two tours in Iraq, wearing UCP in Baghdad and the deserts outside Basra.  “The only time I have ever seen it work well was in a gravel pit.”

The specialist asked that his name be withheld because he wasn’t authorized to speak to the press.

“As a cavalry scout, it is my job to stay hidden. Wearing a uniform that stands out this badly makes it hard to do our job effectively,” he said. “If we can see our own guys across a distance because of it, then so can our enemy.”

The fact that the government spent $5 billion on a camouflage design that actually made its soldiers more visible — and then took eight years to correct the problem — has also left people in the camouflage industry incensed. The total cost comes from the Army itself and includes the price of developing the pattern and producing it for the entire service branch.

The Daily has the story of how the UCP came about and what the Army is doing about it now. Link -via Metafilter, where you'll find more camouflage links.

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I laughed so hard when I read that the army had spent $5billion on a camo design that made people more visible but I'm not sure whether my tears were from laughter or the sheer waste of money.
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Sammy, mine are coming from wondering how many service people were injured or lost their lives because of this fiasco. Talk about playing directly into the enemies hands...
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The ACUs worked well if you were covered in mud or dust, also you could not sew combat skills patches on the uniform. The only positive thing is that the ripped less than the BDUs, for me at least.
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