Over decades green-toned, dark camo patterns dominated the patterns of European army's. Why? Whats that based on? Only slowly modern researches change the appearance and the way the military sees their camo patterns. One of the results is the (awful) UCP pattern adopted by the US Army. But also the advanced camo pattern MultiCam by Crye Precision walks a new way, with careful toned, subdued colors. But this pattern is also very heavy on the green side, with a lot of lime tones.
Nevertheless, it works!
But whats with other European patterns? British DPM (Disruptive Pattern Material) or German five color camo print "Flecktarn" for example, both very green and very dark. Whats the point?
One statement is "We compared a lot of satellite images". Well, that explains a lot! But soldiers don't dangle from tree to tree like Johnny Weissmueller, they move slightly above or directly at the ground, crawling for cover. And there the world is mostly brown and tan. Have you ever seen a green deer, rabbit or fox?
Now I already hear you "Hey, wait! What about Grass? What about dense brushwork?"... Now, lets play dumb, shall we? What kind of Grass and bushes do you know? Thick, natural grass: If its so fresh and green, that you need green camo, it will cover your body nevertheless, so if you don't wear blaze orange, it wont matter. Cut, cultivated short grass: If its "british-short" you can even wear a chameleon skin, you will be seen!
Speaking of bushes, you think of dense, green, leafy bushes, right? Well, if they are dense, green and leafy, they will conceal you, regardless what camo you wear. At least in summer... In autumn/winter you need (again) brown tones or, of course, white!
Next point on the "What the heck has happened" List: About 60 years ago, the german army developed a plethora of camo patterns, besides the infamous "Peadot Camo" one of the most widely spread pattern was the so called "Buntfarbendruck 31" (in english-speaking countries known as "Splitter or Splinterpattern"). It features tan, green and brown as colors and worked pretty well! After WWII many army's experimented with patterns based on "Splinter", most added new features, most prominently large areas of black color. Explanation was easy: To simulate shadows and blend in.
Now lets do some simple math:
Example 1: A Forrest, some underbrush, daylight: We have a man, in DPM, lying flat on his belly. Sun casts shadows over his body and surroundings. The green, tan and bown of his uniform match's his surroundings. The sun, as said before casts its shadow over his DPM uniform. So the sun casts dark spots on his uniform, which also features black areas. So we have factor of 1:1:1 in environment : light : dark constellation around him but a 1:1:2 factor on him, whilst black color and shadows double on him! What happens? He sticks out!
Example 2: Same soldier prone on a field, daylight: Although there is no shadow, his uniform again features black "shadows". Now he is in a 1:1:1 config in a 1:1:0 surrounding. What happens again? He sticks out! Yay!
Lets face it: Black and green sucks! Big time! Period!
A lot of future developments incorporate these facts already, although MultiCam lost against UCP in first round, its still in line for the Advanced Warfighter Program. In the UK tests of a 4 color mix of DPM and DDPM are running, whiles other armys start also to reconsider theyr plannings for new uniforms!
So, rise, shine and succeed!
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