An American Lion

MultiCam Camoflage in Action

I'll be getting some MultiCam in the mail soon. I've just ordered some pieces--I've never seen anything like this.

MultiCam© is a single camouflage pattern designed to help the wearer hide in varied environments, seasons, elevations, and light conditions. It was designed to address the real-world need for concealment in different environments, with one basic kit of gear. While there are many great location-specific patterns. MultiCam© is designed to work well across a very broad range of environmental conditions when observed in both the visual and near Infra Red (night vision) spectrums.

The United States Army is involved in efforts to procure this uniform for our troops in Afghanistan:

No one really understood why the Army picked the sort of old-school loden colored camo. Especially since the service had already developed the MultiCam pattern with Crye Precision and Natick.

And isn't that what it all boils down to? Everyone wants MultiCam. "Spec Ops guys get to wear it...why can't I?" I even scoped out some photos of Air Force PJs sporting MultiCam during a deployment to Djibouti. And practically every cover shot from our friends at Tactical-Life.com features a MultiCam clad "operator" firing the highest speed shorty carbine around.

Look, I like MultiCam like the rest of them. But I also understand why the Army did what it did. They spent millions of dollars and lots of time studying what would work best in a range of environments with an eye toward making the Soldier's loadout easier -- one functional combat uniform for a range of environments. MultiCam was tested alongside the current ArPat (I was at Army Times Co. when the service was deciding the pattern and was following it closely with my friend Matt Cox there) and several other options and the ArPat camo won out. It was new. It was revolutionary and it was unpopular. That's what makes me think it might have been the right choice.

Our troops should get these uniforms, costs be damned. The technology and the camoflage inherent in these uniforms is more appropriate for Afghanistan than the "digital" pattern that our troops are currently using.