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.