U.S. Army to scrap pixel-camo uniforms.

[patches]

It's apparently true the USMC patented the MARPAT.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MARPAT

 

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qi...18174917AAjw8VW

[SEABEEBRIAN]

Just like with the original Medal of Honor and Gillespie, the Marines were concerned that the design would be copied by outside organizations and its uniqueness would have been lost. I think though that the rest of the government should be able to use the design though.

[Nkomo]

d6t,

The pictures of your Mirage set are identical to mine.

[HoovieDude]

If I recall, "the Army" was all for adopting the "MARPAT" but "the Marines" had a fit over it. Which is rather petty in my opinion, since much of the field/combat uniforms, arms and equipment over the years was shared by all branches when it was feasible and fit into the respective missions. Personally, I think the idea of each service having it's own distinctive combat uniform and associated kit is ridiculous, as well as a monumental waste of money. With the respective "flair" BOS tapes, insignia, covers, etc..or lack of, each service wore on the previous versions, each was still able to hold onto their identity, while maintaining some form of "uniformity" in the field. Not too mention, each services distinct service dress for the times when looking purty was needed. Add in the fact that many Navy and AF personnel are issued the ground forces uniforms when doing joint missions, is just more of a waste of money as now there are duplicate issues of kit being paid for.

 

But, hey, good for collectors.

[M60 Driver]

A Copyright inside the US Military? THAT is REALLY stupid! What are they trying to protect? I wonder who has the copyright on 5.56 ammo. Are the Marines and the Army allowed to use the same ammo?

You hit it - thats what I mean! The "mine is bigger than yours" thing in the military is quite stupid since they are all fighting the same war for the same country!

 

Indeed the Marines have copyrighted the MARPAT although I think they bought the US rights from the Canadians who were the originators with CADPAT. The knockoffs patterns have to be generated from an algorithm that is 30% different from the copyrighted pattern, whatever that means. Not only camo patterns, but my vendors have to now get permission to use the name of a service branch on their clothing. One vendor, Rothco, had to remove from its catalog the womens booty shorts with "ARMY" on the butt. The jarheads gave the company the rights for the USMC version of the booty shorts.

 

As for multicam, Crye owns that pattern but as Crye developed the pattern with funding from the government, the government does not have to pay Crye a royalty although we the tax payer do not get to share in any profits that accrue to Crye from sales.

 

And yes, your local surplus store should be overloaded with ACUs. I have far too much stock for how slowly it sells and my neighboring surplus store is no longer buying it off the street.

[d6t]

d6t,

The pictures of your Mirage set are identical to mine.

 

Interesting to know. 3rd SFG must have had some of the same stuff that we did.

 

FWIW those photos I have online are of at least three different uniform sets; they are not all from one set. There were some minor variations in the trousers, I believe...but I can not be 100% certain.

[Third Herd]

Robert McNamara is rolling over in his grave, as Secretary of Defense during the Vietnam War he standardized as much as could be done on uniforms. Each branch of the service had it's own dress uniforms by wore the same fatigues and boots.

[sigsaye]

If I recall, "the Army" was all for adopting the "MARPAT" but "the Marines" had a fit over it. Which is rather petty in my opinion, since much of the field/combat uniforms, arms and equipment over the years was shared by all branches when it was feasible and fit into the respective missions. Personally, I think the idea of each service having it's own distinctive combat uniform and associated kit is ridiculous, as well as a monumental waste of money. With the respective "flair" BOS tapes, insignia, covers, etc..or lack of, each service wore on the previous versions, each was still able to hold onto their identity, while maintaining some form of "uniformity" in the field. Not too mention, each services distinct service dress for the times when looking purty was needed. Add in the fact that many Navy and AF personnel are issued the ground forces uniforms when doing joint missions, is just more of a waste of money as now there are duplicate issues of kit being paid for.

 

But, hey, good for collectors.

This is also one of the reasons the Navy had to develope it's own ground combat uniforms (this has nothing to do with the "Aquaflage" crap worn by shipboard Sailors). The Marines were fine with SeALs and CBs wearing MARPAT, but did not want "Regular Sailors" wearing it. So, the Navy had to waste a bunch of money to develope it's own. I fully agree, it's stupid to have all these different patterns and typs of combat gear floating around. Just stupid. When every one was wearing the same Woodland patterns, I had no problem sorting the Marines from the Sailors from the Soldiers from the Airmen. Even looking from the bridge to the flight deck where Marines, Beach Masters and CBs were clustered in a heard, I could sort them out. So could pretty much every one else. Stupid.

 

Steve Hesson

[Camopro79]

The MARPAT (Digital Woodland) Camouflage Pattern has been first introduced by the US Navy Marine Forces in 2001. It progressively replace the US WOODLAND (M81 Pattern) Combat Uniform previously used by the United States Marine Corps in 2002. The Woodland variation of the American Disruptive Pattern Digital Camouflage was developped following a bilateral military exchange agreement sharing the Canadian Army CADPAT Camouflage Pattern Technology. The CADPAT camouflage is a computer-generated pattern that creates a "Dithering Effect" by using small pixels to eliminate hard boundaries between distinct colours and incorporates Low-Contrast Near Infrared Protection designed to counter Night-Vision & Detection devices. The MARPAT (Digital Woodland) is based on the Pixelization of Four-Color (Black, Brown, Light Brown & Dark Green) and it is primarly designed for Woodland, Jungle and Tropical Environments. I am canadian and our army forces are much more smaller than USA Military and dont have the budget to develop and produce many camouflages so all sectors of military are sharing the CADPAT camouflage (Great shade of greens that blend very well in most areas). If you want the best store in Canada for CADPAT camouflage you should go at royalmilitarysurplus.com (located in Canada). I bought many items in CADPAT camouflage over the years and now I shop exclusively with them. Last time I checked there was over 400 items in both Temperate Woodland and Arid camouflage patterns (Jacket, Pants, Tactical Vest, MOLLE vest and gear, Full kits, etc). They are also the biggest store (No out of stock with them!). You can also shop by camouflage pattern (Which I find really useful to have a good look at all the selection and the difference between camouflages). They have a great encyclopedia of military camouflage (Link below). They also have 2 webpages dedicated to the canadian CADPAT camouflage (the 2 other links below):

http://royalmilitarysurplus.com/SHOP-BY-CAMO_c53.htm

http://royalmilitarysurplus.com/CADPAT-TW_c54.htm

http://royalmilitarysurplus.com/CADPAT-AR_c86.htm

 

I hope it will help you!