Kit Up! was lucky enough to receive a copy of an interesting debrief on the Australian military's search for a new camo patter to replace its Australian Disruptive Pattern scheme.
The writer describes some push back the MOD is getting from operators on the ethics of going with a foreign country to develop its camo pattern and also whether a MultiCam variant will actually conceal troops.
Australian troops I spoke to have mixed feelings about the idea of introducing a new ‘Australian MultiCam’ to replace the DPCU pattern. The utility of the current-issue MultiCam pattern for overseas deployments - referred to in Australian service as Crye Precision Camouflage Uniform (CPCU) – has been widely acknowledged by Australian troops. As one serving Australian Army officer put it: “The MultiCam pattern is excellent for Afghanistan because of the relatively small distance between desert areasand green zones there, and the fact that we often have to operate in both of those areas as part of one operation”.However, the same officer went on to say that whilst the utility of the pattern for work in Afghanistan was widely acknowledged, there was an uncertainty as to how well the current colour palette would suit the Australian bush. DPCU, based on aerial photographs of Australian terrain and designed specifically for the country’s bushlands, is held in high regard by many of our troops. A serving digger interviewed stressed that DPCU is ideally suited for use in Australia and that, in his opinion, MultiCam (as it stands) should be reserved for troops deploying overseas.
I guess my take is that so what if the pattern doesn't match Australian environments (which seems a weird thing to say anyway)...aren't your troops going to be fighting somewhere else?
Another interesting pullout is the impression Aussie troops had of the failed attempt to design a mid-range pattern that would be a sort of "desert MultiCam"...
Around late March and early May of last year, a number of sources began reporting on the Australian Army’s field testing of a new ‘mid-point’ camouflage uniform, designed to “better meet the range of environments deployed troops are encountering." Disruptive Pattern Midpoint Uniform (DPMU), or ‘vomit cams’ as two of the serving soldiers I interviewed referred to it, was a DSTO (Defence Science and Technology Organisation) project to develop an ‘Australian’ pattern camouflage in a colourway optimised for semi-arid regions19. There were allegations20 made during the testing of this pattern that it had essentially been pre-selected for distribution, regardless of the outcome of the field testing. It was also stated that other patterns (the “US and UK solutions”) were undergoing testing at the same time as DPMU21, however the AMP pattern was not mentioned at this stage.
Judging from the look on the faces of the blokes in the above picture, I can see why the DPMU was a tough sell. Kinda looks like he's holding up a turd.
Please read the entire article by Nic Jenzen-Jones on Australian MultiCam at the Security Scholar blog.
