I have a question about the uniforms. The ACU seem to be used all over. I have seen it from Korea and even in Germany (Stuttgart). I think the US Marine Corps with their MARPAT is better, one desert and one woodland. My questions are; will the multicam replace the ACU in the US? I have also seen the multicam been used by the British and the Australian forces. The second question is; why not use the Marines two different uniforms?

Perhaps a stupid question

Leaving snow out of it for the moment, most armies use two different camouflage patterns, or at least camouflage colours, which are optimised for certain areas. These tend to be at the opposite ends of the colour/darkness spectrum and are typically a woodland cam (dark, greeny/black colours) and a desert cam (light, sandy colours).

These cams tend to work very well against their target backgrounds, but their performance drops off as they move along the spectrum towards the end they are not designed for. By the time they are somewhere in the middle – say: grassland, arid scrub, urban areas – they are either too dark or too light to be ideal; and beyond a certain point they stand out like ticks on a dog’s balls: think of Woodland DPM against Salisbury Plain grassland or Desert DPM against a brick wall for example.

Multicam adopts a different approach. In effect it is optimised somewhere near the middle, and has colours and an overall brightness that means it never quite reaches the point of being utterly wank, no matter what background it is seen against. Put next to a terrain specific camouflage on its own turf it will never be quite as good; but it is never lethally bad either, and across the whole range of backgrounds it gives better overall performance: it is a multi-terrain camouflage.

Originally Posted by Ghostrider

I have a question about the uniforms. The ACU seem to be used all over. I have seen it from Korea and even in Germany (Stuttgart). I think the US Marine Corps with their MARPAT is better, one desert and one woodland. My questions are; will the multicam replace the ACU in the US? I have also seen the multicam been used by the British and the Australian forces. The second question is; why not use the Marines two different uniforms?

Perhaps a stupid question

If I read it right..... The US Army will phase out the ACU in favour of Multi-Cam. Marines are staying with MARPAT (woodland and desert).

No idea if the US Air Force (with the exeption of SOCOM units) will also adopt Multi-Cam or stay with the ABU.

Multi-Cam is "Afghanistan-outside-the-wire-only" issue for the ADF. There's no plan to make it general issue. Which means DPCU (Aus pattern woodland) and DPDU (desert) will continue to be used.

I would suspect that every combat force should be issued two separate color schemes. One for winter and one for summer, since spring and fall are blends.

Originally Posted by cdwoods

I would suspect that every combat force should be issued two separate color schemes. One for winter and one for summer, since spring and fall are blends.

It really depends on where you operate. The Australian DPCU worked effectively (in Australia) regardless of season or terrain (except in the snow, and we never fought a war in the Australian Alps and don't train for it) until Desert Storm when the desert pattern was introduced.

Originally Posted by Spartan613

It really depends on where you operate. The Australian DPCU worked effectively (in Australia) regardless of season or terrain (except in the snow, and we never fought a war in the Australian Alps and don't train for it) until Desert Storm when the desert pattern was introduced.

When I was in the service; we used a white over-suit during the winter. They are quite equal all over the world. I have seen the two Australian uniforms (I call them two when there are woodland and desert) I was watching a documentary about the Australian elite units in Afghanistan (The Australian SAS and the Commando Regiment???)

During the cold war; I went to Nijmegen and a unit from the 82nd Airborne (based in Berlin), they were wearing a solid grey BDU. When the ACU appeared, the uniform seemed to be a mix of woodland, desert, and this grey BDU. Then I can raise question marks about to have different uniforms, it is quite easy to identify and separate a Marine from a Soldier, and/or an air force member.