About damn time. Get rid of that awful pseudo-tiger stripe pattern:
WASHINGTON, D.C. (AFNS) – Air Force leaders announced the service will move to a single combat utility uniform, adopting the Operational Camouflage Pattern, or OCP, already in use by the Army and Airmen in combat zones and in certain jobs across the Air Force.
About friggin time… The ABU was a horrible gift from some moron USAF Good Idea Fairy that should have never happened. I hated that uniform and it permanently creased sleeves. Yes, the sleeves had perm-creases because some upper NCO or officer thought it was a neat thing to do…
It was only a matter of time. I’m no longer in, but wearing my ABU pants out on a ruck session will feel distinctly “retro” now (like BDUs before that)
Probably the only camo uniform I can think of whose stated primary purpose was not to provide concealment but to be “distinctive”. Moronic.
I have seen stranger things in China, Malaysia, etc., there are plenty of places where the use of camouflage patterns is solely as a uniform without the purpose of or properties necessary for concealment. I never did get around to snagging any of the stranger ones. ABU had the distinction of being not the absolute worst at its nominal purpose, though I have seen women’s spring blouses with better attributes.
its the Army’s fault in the first place that the Air Force had to adopt the ABU. If they never would have retarded the ACU so friggin badely, than we probably could have just followed suit.
Honestly when i deployed i was rocking OCP, but if i had to choose between ABU or ACU the Airmans uniform is way better for hiding in cubicles or proning out on the flight line.
You know about the Navy’s navy-blue digital camo monstrosity, right? It only hides you in the water, and it’s not something you’d wear if you intend to go in the water.
Really this shit is getting out of control. I remember when the Marine Corps went digital. At that point, those of us that had already been in for awhile were pretty reluctant to change. Mostly b/c we had to pay for the damn things out of our own pockets. We all held out as long as we could until our company 1st Sgt threatened to sand blast our skin if we didn’t buy them.
If I was in the Navy and my ship sunk, leaving me floating out there, the last damn thing I’d want to look like is water!
ABU… unfortunately, I still have all my issue hanging in the closet. Yes, I’ve been retired a few years. When I deployed to Kandahar, I got Crye multicam. And that KDF armor… I know, I know.
As a Shirt having to manage the changeover to ABU from BDU, the troops were excited. They were giddy at being able to vote on the pattern and win out with “Tiger Stripes”. Cool baby. What’s old is new again. Then when they actually arrived and everything was sage… well a collective sigh let out. Anyone with an eye could see that an airman was camouflaged from sage brush and nothing else. Sad. OCP is a step in a better direction even if the majority of airman never see off base much less even a flightline.
EXACTLY!!! The Army and Air Force should share land uniforms, likewise the Navy should use Marine land uniforms.
Or at least make it battleship gray camo so they can hide aboard ship.
I’m old school (wore OD Green fatigues ‘73-76) but I’ve kinda wondered why all these camoflage uniforms aren’t theater-specific rather than branch-specific?
I believe the Marines are the only service to currently maintain a desert-pattern uniform. OCP is supposed to be a one-pattern-fits-all uniform.
It’s the Marines’ fault. My understanding is that is that one of their biggest reasons for picking up MARPAT was because they wanted something that was distinct from the other services, rather than any major shortcomings with the woodland and desert patterns of the time. Obviously, all the other services said that if the Marines got new uniforms, they wanted new uniforms too.
I never fully understood the need for a multi-terrain camouflage pattern. Yeah, Multicam largely works as advertised, being relatively effective in both wooded and arid environments. But why not just stick with two (or more) patterns that are ideally suited for their specific environments? That makes more sense. The only logic I can see behind the decision for a one size fits all pattern is that bean counters figured that one combined uniform would trim budgets.
That would be logical, and wouldn’t generate make-work for an officer staff and some civilian hangers-on.
This varies by region, but in mountain/desert areas you could be in three or more totally different color environments just by going up and down in elevation: gray granite at the top of mountains, evergreen forests high up the slopes, brighter green deciduous forests lower on the slopes, and various colors of desert (sage green, red/orange clay, or yellow sand) in the bottom of the valleys. I can see a benefit to having a single pattern that’s adequate for all of those vs. having the ideal desert pattern and sticking out in the forest.
Curiously enough, the old six-color “chocolate chip” desert pattern works pretty well in some autumn woodland environments.
I’ve seen pics of the OCP in wooded environments, in Afghanistan, and in northern Iraq/Syria. It does pretty good in all those. Haven’t seen any with it in flat-out desert like Kuwait or Saudi though.
The uniform fiasco is mostly the Corps’ fault. They felt the need to always be special inside the post-WWII DOD, when the Depts of War and Navy were combined. Fast forward to 1980, when they need the Eagle, Globe and Anchor added onto the BDUs that every other service thought were fine.
Fast forward another 20 years, 2000, and Uncle Sam’s Most Coddled think they need to look different than everyone else, even though there were several years of joint uniform improvement projects. The Corps runs their own project, incorporating their trademark EGA and demonstrates their respect for the concept of jointness. The Corps argument was the blob based DCU and woodland patterns had shortcomings under night vision (arguably some truth). In the end the Corps produced a pretty effective set of camouflage patterns in a decent uniform design, in a calculated manner to effectively waste taxpayer dollars. The rest of the services, led by the Army, doubled down on dumb, with service-specific patterns.
Fast forward another 15 years and the Army bumbles into the Scorpion, intellectual property they have owned for years after finding it remarkably effective. Good decision by the Air Force to follow the Army lead in the OCP/Multicam/Scorpion uniforms, which are well vetted, well supported and well accepted by the Air Force at war. The good news is 15 years from now, the E-3 born in 2011 will be complaining about their outdated uniform.
The Woodland pattern and the Chocolate Chip desert BDUs were fine.
After the second or third day of constant wear they were only better.
What looks good in garrison shouldn’t determine what works best in the field.
Once they’re dusty, sweaty and muddy they’re better camouflage.