Camouflage Capabilities

Is it possible to develop a single camouflage pattern that would protect soldiers in all kinds of environments? The answer, at this point, is decidedly negative.

The United States Army learned that the hard way with its selection of the Universal Camouflage Pattern, or UCP, as its standard combat uniform in 2004. It took intervention from Congress for the Army to modify its strategy for a universal camouflage uniform when it passed legislation in 2009 requiring the Army to conduct a program to select a new camouflage for use in Afghanistan, and to replace UCP as the standard Army camouflage pattern.

The immediate result of the congressional mandate was to replace UCP in Afghanistan with another camouflage pattern called MultiCam while retaining UCP, for now, as the combat uniform outside of Afghanistan. The legislation also sparked the decision to conduct an extensive search for a replacement for UCP.

In July 2010, the Army’s Program Executive Office Soldier issued a request for information, asking industry to submit camouflage patterns that the Army could consider for its next-generation family of camouflage. The RFI specified that patterns would have a common design geometry with adaptations colored for woodland, desert and “transitional” environments for clothing, and a fourth multi-terrain pattern adapted for use on personal equipment like rucksacks and armored vests.

This is not to say that the dream of a universal camouflage pattern is dead. Companies have efforts of this kind on their drawing boards. But some of these would require advancements in technology— as well as a reduction in costs—before that dream becomes reality in the U.S. military or any other.

The Army’s camouflage solicitation, which closed last June, sought camouflage patterns and colors of similar geometric patterns to address the environments in 43 threat areas around the globe. “We were directed to evaluate camouflage holistically and globally,” said Jeff Myhre, product manager, soldier clothing and individual equipment, “and come up with something that could plug and play where soldiers are operating currently and on into the future.”

The Army introduced UCP “as a means of reducing the overall amount of equipment and uniforms that soldiers needed to carry,” according to Myhre. “UCP was a first-generation shot at cracking the code that would allow soldiers to wear the same uniform as they move between environments. There have been some developments between then and now” that the Army intends to exploit.

“The military has come to the realization that all-terrain universal camouflage does not work in any environment,” said Guy Cramer, president and CEO of HyperStealth Biotechnology Corp., a competitor in the Army’s new camouflage contest. “The tradeoff has hindered the hiding of soldiers.”

The basics of camouflage involve two elements: blending and disruption. Blending, of course, refers to the ability to mix in with the surrounding environment. Disruption refers to the phenomenon whereby the camouflage breaks up the solider into confusing parts, making a target harder to identify by an observer.

“Most camouflage will use one or the other or both to some extent,” said Dom Hyde, managing director of Hyde Definition Ltd., also a participant in the Army solicitation. “Blending is probably best when it works, but when it fails, it fails completely. It can actually announce the figure.”

Blending works best at short ranges, a few hundred meters, according to Hyde. “After that it gets lost and produces a monotone effect,” he said. “Blending is a difficult trick to pull off.” Disruption adds a level of confusion to the scene. “The human eye skips over stuff that it deems to be irrelevant,” said Hyde. “Disruption allows a target to be misidentified. You need to break up the body every six to nine inches. When blending fails, disruption can buy you some time.”

According to Hyde, the Army’s UCP pattern was actually a step backward. “It is inferior in terms of disruption [compared to] its predecessors,” he said. “The colors chosen for UCP also leave something to be desired. Desert tan is an acceptable color for an arid environment, and urban gray is common in urban environments, but the foliage green is really more suitable in semi-arid environments.”

The U.S. Army may have believed that mixing these three colors together would produce a single all-terrain pattern that was good enough to be universally applied to all uniforms and equipment issued to every soldier in the Army. “Common sense dictates that there is no such thing as a true universal camouflage scheme,” said Hyde. “Experience in Iraq and Afghanistan has proven that UCP is less effective in most terrains than other options.”

HyperStealth has designed camouflage that provides blending and disruption based on its study of fractals. “Fractals are the holy grail of camouflage patterns,” said Cramer. “A fractal is a repeating geometric shape found in nature. These are shapes the human brain catalogs subconsciously and will tend to ignore more so than a traditional camouflage pattern.”

HyperStealth created a fractal-based camouflage uniform for the Jordanian military in 2003, after which the company came to the attention of DoD and its contractors. “The uniform blends and disrupts the human target,” said Cramer. “The key finding was that the camouflage masked the movement of soldiers as they move across a field. That is difficult to do with existing patterns.”

Also taken into account in the design of the Jordanian uniforms was the diurnal cycle of daytime and nighttime. “A desert pattern might work well during the day but may shine at night,” said Cramer. “Jordan was interested in a camouflage pattern that would work well for night operations and that would work okay during the day. Creating camouflage patterns often involves coming up with compromises.”

The Army’s current effort is a departure from its past approaches, according to Myhre. “DoD has always focused on specific areas of operation and [attempts] to crack the code for designing camouflage for that area,” he explained. “This is the first effort in history to look at camouflage holistically. We are looking at where U.S. soldiers are operating now and where they may operate in the future to develop a family of uniforms they can use anywhere on the globe.”

The transitional uniform is meant to allow soldiers to use the same gear as they move from one micro-environment to another. “In Afghanistan, you have areas that vary from sea level to 7,000 feet in elevation,” said Myhre. “You have heavily vegetated areas and arid and desert areas. We want to be able to address those environments and give them better concealment capabilities.” Hyde Definition has designed and marketed digital, fractalbased camouflage patterns, beginning in 2008. “The result is that the wearer disappears into the textures and background noise of the environment,” said Hyde.

The company’s PenCott Multi-Environment Camouflage line works by mixing the different contrasting colors and tones into and against one another to give the illusion of several more colors, and to create a combination of blurred and sharp edges and shapes. “Complex patterns like this are harder for the human eye to process,” said Hyde, “and recognizable shapes such as human limbs, or the lines of pockets and seams, become more difficult to make out.”

The PenCott pattern includes both a micro-pattern and a macro-pattern for close range concealment and long range disruption. It also includes a middle range pattern to further confuse the eye. “The illusion of depth is created by the juxtaposition of high contrast shades with light tones,” said Hyde. “Through an optical illusion, they appear to recede or sit behind the warmer mid tones in the pattern.” The company has already researched, developed and released the “woodland,” “desert” and “transitional” variations of PenCott, as specified by the Army’s solicitation.

The proposal Hyde Direction has submitted to the Army calls for a multi-environment camouflage system and is based on two parts: a reversible camouflage over-garment and a basic universal duty uniform. “The reversible camouflage over-garment would be made from a lightweight, breathable material that would enable it to meet the key requirements of concealment and comfort, and would feature reversible combinations of different uniform colorations,” said Hyde.

The universal duty uniform is intended to be the standard uniform used alone for garrison, utility, and general fatigue and admin duties, as well as the undergarment for field and combat operations. The duty uniform would be available in two weights, light for summer and hot climates and heavy for winter and in cold climates, and in two colors: olive green, for verdant environments, and coyote brown for arid and semi-arid environments.

Hyde Definition has also recommended to the Army that the uniform patterns be printed on strong, lightweight, tear-, infrared- and flame-resistant material. “Although this was not part of the official RFI,” said Hyde, “we included this recommendation because we feel that the current uniform design is suboptimal as a field garment and that a loose fitting over-suit style would optimize PenCott’s camouflage and concealment properties.”

The Army is currently in the process of source selection for its camouflage program. Five companies will be chosen in November to move on to the second stage of the competition, which will involve field evaluations of the products. “At the beginning of the calendar year we expect to go to the manufacturing process,” said Myhre. “The field evaluations will begin in the spring. The ultimate goal is to evaluate those five families of uniforms and select the one that provides the best value to the Army. We expect to brief senior Army leadership in late 2012.”

Myhre expects the Army’s camouflage program will benefit from advances that have been made since it last introduced a new uniform. “There have been advances in dyes and in the methods used to apply color to fabric,” he said. “Today’s camouflage patterns do a much better job of masking targets, especially under night observation. Colors and shapes no longer bump into each other. They tend to fade in and face out, making for better concealment of soldiers.”

Future camouflage uniforms are likely to be considerably different, even from those being proposed in the Army’s current competition. “We have gone as far as we can with conventional printed fabrics,” said Hyde. “The future is in adaptive camouflage.”

Soldiers as Chameleons

Hyperstealth is developing two products along those lines, one called Smartcamo and the other called Quantum Stealth. Smartcamo uses an intelligent textile that changes its color to match the background of the wearer in many environments. “It can change from woodland to desert and everything in between,” said Cramer. “The U.S., Canadian and British militaries have told us that this is something they would like to provide their militaries.”

Before Smartcamo can be incorporated into uniforms on a widespread basis, its price would have to come down. “Right now it would cost about $1,000 per uniform,” said Cramer. “This might be within the reach of some special operations groups but not for regular soldiers.”

Cramer predicts the technology will first be adapted to vehicles before being incorporated into soldiers’ uniforms. “The product requires a power source, which is no problem for a vehicle,” said Cramer. “It would mean a soldier would have to carry another couple of pounds of batteries. It would also not be out of line to spend $10,000 to apply Smartcamo to an Abrams tank.” Last year Cramer announced the development of Quantum Stealth, a cloaking technology that bends light around a target. “Part of the Quantum Stealth technology is based on quantum mechanics, and the prototype material has demonstrated the ability to actually cloak targets as visually undetectable,” said Cramer. “It doesn’t require a power source and it is not very expensive, but because of the nature and capabilities of the product, you probably won’t see it in the public eye in the near future.”

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