universal camouflage

[32degrees67]

Should the US military design a universal camouflage for its vehicles or are the current patterns OK. I always thought that the German World War II Ambush pattern was a step in that direction. It seems to fit between a temperate and desert pattern. Or does it really matter on a vehicle like a truck that will begin to collect local dust quick and form itself to the area. A vehicle with a pattern similar to Multicam camouflage would be great for Overwatch. Especially when the vehicle had a excellent view of the on going area of operations.

 

[Sgt. Sam]

Paint

Army vehicles are supposed to OD not that ugly camouflage crap.

 

[Flyingvan911]

Universal camo depends on how well you need the camo to work in a certain situation. Multicam seems to work fairly well from pictures I've seen.

 

[neilhendrix]

Army vehicles are supposed to OD not that ugly camouflage crap.

 

[Wrench Wench]

Where are all the good Capitalists? The federal government needs to license the RealTree(TM) patterns... even for winter patterns... and desert patterns... and even for naval vessels!

Somali Pirate 1: Hey! What is that? Is that a US Navy ship about to fire anti-ship missiles up our keesters?
Somali Pirate 2: No! That's just a corpse of sycamore and oak trees afloat on the Indian Ocean. It's harm-- *BOOM*

 

[Elwenil]

Saying military vehicle should not be camouflage just makes very little sense to me. Seriously, that's just laughable.

On the subject of "universal" patterns, they simply do not work. ACU is prime example of a pattern that was supposed to be usable in multiple environments and it has the problem with most "do-all" things and that is it works ok a lot of the time but not quite good enough any of the time. Multicam is a great pattern and while it works well in many places it fails in a lot of others. Here in the mountains of Virginia it is pretty useless in the Spring and Summer but it does well in the fall and winter. It seems to work well out in the desert states year round. When you play Airsoft, you get to see a lot of military patterns in action and see what works when and where and what doesn't. ACU is an attention magnet just about year round and Multicam will stick out like a sore thumb in a lot of places. Similarly, the old woodland pattern that I prefer is really bad to use in the winter months.

Basically all patterns have their uses in a particular time and place but none so far have proven to be universal and such attempts at making a universal pattern have failed miserably. Camouflage is a specialized thing and it needs to conform to it's specific surroundings. The Germans knew this in WWII, which is why they had so many patterns in various theaters. Just my .02

 

[Elwenil]

On the subject of hunting patterns like Realtree, they have been proven to work ok in hunting but fail when used against humans. Anyone with depth perception can see a bark style pattern is not natural and therefore it draws the eye.

 

[zout]

The body shop I am aware of that repaints NG units - either desert tan or woodland - there is no camo in any of the equipment coming out - either one or the other. Does not mean later it gets its pattern but if they were going to do it - it would have been then.

 

[Flyingvan911]

In the Midwest I like CADPAT for airsoft in the woods. We have lots of bright green grass and vegitation. The best camo is designed for a certain situation. The Germans did do their homework.

 

[B3.3T]

There is no such thing as a universal camo. You just end up with something that doesn't work most of the time; universal waste of effort. The German patterns were very terrain-specific.

 

[Dodge man]

The best camo is designed for a certain situation. The Germans did do their homework.

The Germans (and Scots) had woodsmen that were professional game keepers and they knew what worked and what didn't and the German army was smart enough to listen them and to take their advice. The same with the Scots, their game keepers invented the Ghillie suits.