Interesting update to the new US Army camouflage uniforms

[Bzzliteyr]

http://www.army.mil/article/131259/Soldiers_to_get_new_camo_uniform_beginning_next_summer/

"The uniform bearing the new pattern will be largely the same as what Soldiers wear now, except that the lower leg pockets will be closed by a button instead of the "hook and loop" fabric fastener on the current Army Combat Uniform, or ACU. Soldiers complained that fastener made too much noise in combat environments, officials said. The insert pockets for knee pads and elbow pads will also be removed from the new uniform, according to Program Executive Office Soldier.

Other changes that will be considered by the 2015 Army Uniform Board include:

-- elimination of the mandarin collar and replacement with a fold-down design
-- change of the infrared square identification for friend or foe, known as the IFF tab
-- removal of one of three pen pockets on the ACU sleeve
-- elimination of the drawstring on the trouser waistband

These last four potential changes have not yet been approved but are being considered, according to PEO Soldier."

Interesting that our new Canadian uniforms will have the Mandarin collar and the knee pads. I wonder if we will look South at their "lessons learned" before we make the same mistake?

 

[acen]

No longer "will have" but "do have". I exchanged my 3 sets of hole riddled combat laungeret the other day and got 3 sets of the ECU complete, (though only one rank velcrolette and astronaut flag due to national shortages). They do indeed have everything that was outlined in the initial presentations of the ECU (available elsewhere on army.ca) for better or for worse. Beside the homage-to-Hadfield flag, it seems like a pretty good set of improvements over the previous cut. It sounds as though they are removing one slot per pocket, which would bring them in line with our 2x2 pen pockets. On the knee pad front, from what I can see theirs only has a "pocket" that you would have to insert a rectangular pad into if you didnt want it to shift around whereas the ECU has velcro to hold the "almost looks like knee pads" contoured foam in place. I've yet to actually use them as such and doubt that I ever will, but it's nice to have the option for those that want it and at minimal design tradeoff for the rest of us and can definitely see a place for them amongst certain trades.

I have a feeling that the mandarin collar issue is more driven by the return to garrison mode than anything else. The reason canadians asked for it was to eliminate chafing as a result of the frag vest, but the US has a moisture wicking fire retardant shirt to wear under their frag vests with a high collar (Army Combat Shirt). Essentially, they don't need it in their top as they typically wouldnt use it with armour anyhow. Pretty sure the brits have this same concept of shirt (and we at least had a trial overseas of them) but they still opted for mandarin collars on thier new uniforms.

 

[Lightguns]

This is very interesting, I am assuming that the trials of camo have been suspended then and Multicam (Yankeeized) is the future of the US Army?

 

[acen]

This is very interesting, I am assuming that the trials of camo have been suspended then and Multicam (Yankeeized) is the future of the US Army?

They have indeed selected the Multicam variant (actually, the original multicam called Scorpion W2 which the US owned and would not have to pay royalties to Crye for, even though it was Crye developed) for their new uniforms. Part of this was due to a bill passed by congress stipulating that any camouflage used had to be developed before (IIRC) 2008 and the goal is for all services to use the same pattern by 2018. The way they are going to go about it is rather interesting too...we all know how expensive it can be to replace a whole suite of kit for a new pattern, especially for an army as big as the US is, so they had a solicitation for a process that would "overdye" a pattern onto existing ancilliary equipment, preferably with a portable system that could be brought base to base. Seems a bit ambitious but if they could pull it off, it could result in massive savings for them.

Official announcement:
http://soldiersystems.net/2014/07/31/breaking-us-army-makes-officical-announcement-regarding-scorpion-aka-operational-camouflage-pattern/

Everything else OCP drama related:
http://soldiersystems.net/category/peo-soldier/