A Multi-Cam future

I have always preferred the Multi-Cam. In a nice little sales pitch for the Army FCS, you can see one of may shots of the Army Starship Troopers in Multi-Cam. Being that the present ACU doesn't camouflage you from anything but concrete block dust - perhaps the future is good.

Now, if we can just get all services to wear the same thing.... don't worry Navy, it will hide paint too. It's OK Air Force, it will look nice in a swivel-chair. I don't tell Marines what to do. Why is Multi-Cam so good? Check here.

Multi-cam for the Anglosphere!

See how far ahead of the curve you are if you read CDRSalamander every day?

British and American soldiers soon could be hard to tell apart if the U.S. Army adopts a camouflage pattern similar to one that the British have already picked out to conceal their troops in Afghanistan.

U.S. soldiers with 2nd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment in eastern Afghanistan are wearing new uniforms featuring the "MultiCam" camouflage pattern as part of a trial conducted by the Army to determine the best way to help troops blend in with their environment.

Last week the British Ministry of Defence announced that its troops would soon start wearing a new uniform with a version of MultiCam dubbed the "Multi-Terrain Pattern."

... and I hope everyone gets on board with this - something any deer hunter could have told the staff weenies who thought velcro was a good idea.

He added that any new uniform should do away with the fabric fastener pockets and attachments that are on his ACUs.

"[The fabric fastener] gets dusty or dirty and it doesn’t work anymore. You can’t keep your sleeves or collar down and it’s not tactical. If you have to adjust something during a mission it makes a loud noise," he said.

Good news - and potentially GREAT news for the Navy if they do one smart thing here. The CNO should walk down the hall to the Army Chief of Staff and tell him that the Navy wants in. We will adopt what the Army goes for if it is multi-cam. Out with BDU/DCU - in with multi-cam = a smaller and easier to support Seabag.

Then again, something we called for here almost two years ago.

Multi-cam; deployed

Via a link from Chap - another demonstration why we should be in multi-cam.

It is the right answer for this war and that theater. The only reason we are stuck - especially the unsupportable Navy DCUs - with what we have is the same reason Army Group Center had no winter clothes and our Navy makes you own three sets of camo uniforms in your sea bag; REMF bean counters and tender egos who think the war is all about their conveniences and pet projects.

They don't have to actually wear them or deploy - so they will take the bureaucratic short cut - what requires the least work for them. Those in harm's way be damned.

ACU AFU?

Well, though it is better than the NWU, when it comes to combat, the world ain't made of cinderblock.

Congress is about to order new combat uniforms for troops in Afghanistan after hearing complaints that camouflage that was fine in Iraq doesn’t work so well in a mountainous and often muddy environment.

“Soldiers deployed to Afghanistan have serious concerns about the current combat uniform which they indicated provides ineffective camouflage given the environment in Afghanistan,” lawmakers say in the report accompanying HR 2346, the 2009 supplemental appropriations act.

The bill passed the House of Representatives on Tuesday, 226-202. It heads to the Senate for approval.

The Phibian's answer remains the same; multi-cam. At least the ACU is good for one thing.

There - solution for both the USA and USN .... and the USN could replace 3 uniforms (BDU, DCU, NWU) with one. Easy, low cost, quick, simple ... therefor won't happen.

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As a side note; the only service that has it right is the USMC. With both a woodland and desert pattern, they avoid some of the multi-cam compromises, and with their IBA and other "bling" now coming in the coyote color only, they can be used for both without too much loss of utility.

I like the hat - a lot

The green one up front. I want one. Seriously. How much, and where do I send my order.

The caption reads:

U.S. Navy special warfare combatant craft crewmen assigned to Special Boat Team (SBT) 22 align the sights of their M-4 rifles during small-arms training at Stennis Space Center in Mississippi Feb. 19, 2008. SBT-22 crewmen use a special operations craft-riverine armed with an M-240 belt-fed machine gun, a GAU-17 mini-gun and an M-2 .50-caliber machine gun. Each special boat operator must be proficient with each weapon and with personal firearms. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Robyn Gerstenslager) (Released) Photographer's Name: MC3 ROBYN GERSTENSLAGERLocation: STENNIS SPACE CENTER

The real Navy.

Note the BDU, not NWU. These guys actually need a real camo uniform, therefore they wear one (though they really need Multi-Cam). As for the hat; why couldn't TFU come up with something like that? Instead we have a USMC wannabe uniform. Sigh.

In any event, it isn't radical. Admiral Halsey would like it, I bet.

Task Force Uniform - a picture of success

Take out the Marine - and all you need to know about the dog's breakfast that is/was/will be TFU's work can be seen in one picture.

RDML Patricia Wolfe, Combined Task Force 48, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, visits operations in Haiti. There she met with the Defense Logistics Agency team embedded in the 3rd Expeditionary Sustainment Command and the Joint Logistics Command.

If they took my advice and that of others - and years ago went to one camo pattern, Multi-Cam - then all would have been fine. Instead, we have this - where TFU's crown jewel is by itself, hidden in the back. The wearer in the greatest heat-sink in the bunch sweating more than anyone else.

Poster child for the results of happy-talk - and no one held to account.

TFU, AFU; Q.E.D.

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UPDATE: Via takeforaction on twitter - here is another example of the chaos that is Navy uniform policy.

Hat tip CM.

RECC quiz

John, help a sailor out. The below pic of of some Georgian POWs on a Russian APC.

What is that short, fat barreled AK? Some M-16 is to AK-74, as M-4 is to _____?

Another little detail; note the Georgian BDU. Over the last year they have been moving from the old woodland BDU to the Canadian woodland like digi-cammies. Shame - if I were them I would have picked multi-cam - not that it would have helped these poor guys any.

I hope, somewhere, there is a Georgian who is capturing all these pictures of their POWs and building a catalog of faces to names so they can account for everyone. Russian history being what it is and all.....

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UPDATE: JCS spy sends the gouge.

Caliber: 9x39mm SP-5 and SP-6 subsonic cartridges
Action: auto, selective fire, gas-operated, striker-fired.
Length: 894mm
Barrel length: 200 mm
Weight: empty: 2.6 kg, loaded w. scope PSO-1: 3.41 kg
Magazine: 10 or 20 rounds detachable box

VSS (Vinovka Snaiperskaja Spetsialnaya = Special Sniper Rifle) was designed for special operations. Designed at TSNIITochMash (Central Institute for Precision Machine Building) by team lead by Petr Serdjukov, the new rifle was intended to replace some AK-47/AKM rifles, fitted with silencers, in the hands of various Special Operations (SpetsNaz) troops of Soviet Army, KGB and MVD. To achieve desired lethality against targets, protected with body armor, TSNIITochMash had to develop a new subsonic cartridge, based on the 7.62x39 case, necked out for 9mm bullet. The bullets used in new cartridges are long and heavy (about 16 gram), and of ball (SP-5) and AP (SP-6) type. The latter bullet features a hardened steel penetrator as the core, and can defeat most military issue body armors at ranges up to 300-400 meters. VSS is in use since late 1980s, and is widely used in Chechnya against separatists. VSS is quite popular among its users for its stealthy capabilities and great lethality of heavy 9mm bullets. The effective range of VSS is limited to 300-400 meters.

The VSS is a gas operated, selective fire weapon. The long stroke gas piston is located above the barrel. The rotating bolt has 6 lugs and locks into the receiver, which is machined from solid steel for greater strength. The trigger unit differs significantly from AK-47 type firearms, being striker-fired. The safety switch and charging handle are AK-style, but the fire selector is a cross-bolt button, located inside the triggerguard, behind the trigger.

The barrel at the front has a set of tiny holes, drilled in the rifling grooves, which lead into the integral silencer. The silencer is the integral part of the weapon, and while it could be easily removed for storage or maintenance, the VSS should not be fired wit silencer removed.

Standard sighting equipment consists of side rail on the receiver, which usually accommodates the 4X PSO-1 scope, graduated for 9x39 ammo. Any other scope or night vision sight can be mounted on appropriate mount. backup iron sights consist of tangent rear and blade front. Rear sight is graduated up to 400 meters.

The wooden, skeletonized buttstock is fitted with rubber buttplate and can be removed for compact storage and transportation, the compact forend is made from polymer.

Feeding is achieved from 10 or 20 round box magazines, made from polymer.

Gen. Dempsey takes Salamander's advice

Shall I quote myself? What a silly question.

From my 26 May 2011 post about his next position as CJCS,

...good luck General Dempsey, congratulations!

Before you leave as Army Chief of Staff - could you get rid of Shinseki's "everyone-gets-a-trophy" stoopid berets? Now get to work.

Wait for it .... wait for it ....

BEHOLD!

The U.S. Army said Monday that it was abandoning the beret, after a failed 10-year experiment.

The black beret, which proved deeply unpopular with American soldiers, will be replaced by a patrol cap for everyday wear, U.S. Army spokesman Col. Tom Collins said.

The move came after outgoing Army chief of staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey, asked the Army's sergeant major "to go out and talk to soldiers across the force and see what was on their minds," Collins told AFP.

"One of the things that soldiers consistently brought up was the desire to wear the patrol cap as part of their duty uniform," he said.

Not totally gone ...

The beret will still be part of the Army's dress uniform, but will no longer be worn in the field as soldiers complained that it was impractical, he said.

... but I'll take it.

What is my scorecard? Multi-cam adoption: check. Beret gone: check.

Now, if I were only as successful with the Navy ....

Not my America

See the pic on the right? This is wrong - this is not what police in a Representative Republic should look like.

Before anyone pops a circuit breaker: I have disliked and opposed the militarization of the police in the Carter, Reagan, Bush41, Clinton, Bush43, and now Obama administration.

This isn't a federal problem per se anyway - so put your AFDB away; this is a local problem.

Police officers should not be dressed in any way like those in the military. They do not need fatigues to go after protesters in urban and sub-urban environments.

They also do not need to dress like some perverted mix of Imperial Storm Troopers, SS, and the dudes from Aliens.

If you want to dress like that, join the military or one of those groups of goofs that run around the woods shooting paintballs at each other.

Serve and Protect. Don't look like some paramilitary tool. You scare the public, and to the military you just look like poseur wannabees. You are better men and women than that - and the taxpayers you serve deserve to be represented in a more professional way.

See HotAir for the details....and yea; they give multi-cam a bad name.

$.02.

NZ SAS knows camo ....

Yes, as the Navy that has eight approved camo uniforms (BDU, DCU, NWU I, II & III, MARPAT Tan & Green, ACU) for its Sailors - I track this stuff - because all eight could and should be replaced by one.

Once again, Multi-Cam shows up where it excels - on the front - as approved by serious minded people.

From the New Zealand SAS in action.

Oh, and no Maggie - I don't know his phone number.

Hat tip Ronin @ Jawa.

NWU parade of fail

OK, they look nice ... but ... the logic train is just pathetic.

We wish to decrease the Seabag; so we increase it.

We wish to save Sailors money; so we require many and more expensive items for them to purchase.

We want to simplify - so we complicate.

Chew on this.

"The NWU Type II/III approval is a culmination of a four-year effort comprising all of the expeditionary stakeholders, ensuring we capture the true operational requirements our Sailors' need to succeed on the battlefield," said Master Chief Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technician Robert McCue, NWU Type II/III Conformance Test Monitor. "They provide unmatched capabilities to the warfighter enabling tactical advantage and enhancing mission success thus saving lives."

The NWU Type II (desert) uniform will be worn by Navy Special Warfare (NSW) operators and Sailors assigned to NSW units or units which directly support NSW operations. The NWU Type III (woodland) uniform will be the standard camouflage uniform for all personnel, to be worn in non-desert environments, including most stateside areas. The only difference between the two uniforms is the camouflage pattern.

The NWU Type III will replace the existing tri-colored woodland camouflage utility uniform, will be the standard camouflage uniform worn in CONUS, and can be worn while deployed as prescribed by combatant commanders. Occasion for wear of the NWU Type III will be the same as the current woodland camouflage utility uniform per NAVADMIN 188/09.

Nice to see the Master Chief likes to play Bu11sh1t Bingo too ... and if you are a Sailor in the desert and not NSW related ....

You know - you could have just gone with multi-cam and saved everyone the trouble - but that would be too simple and cost effective.

One of our Sailors summed it up in an email well.

I thought the whole plan with this sea bag change was to reduce the size of my seabag. I mean if I have to have 15 different NWU styles based on where I am stationed, then really what was the point?

"Well wife, these NWU's are for when I am on at a sea going command, but not at sea; these are for when I am ashore, but not in CONUS; These are for when I am IA to OCONUS but still in NATO Europe; these are IA but in HOA TOA; these are for IA in the 'Stan; these are for sea going and deployed on a ship; and finally these were for that last staff tour I did where the O-9 couldn't make up his mind what he wanted to wear. Oh and that is my flight deck gear for just in case. So that means you just can't bring any of your clothes cause we are now over our limit for household goods just in my uniforms."

Or was it just trying to be all "hopey changey" while thinking of the children? I would kill to be back in the standard bell bottom dungrees.

All this in more time than it took to fight the Second World War.

Just griping from the sidelines? Perhaps. Demonstrating a perfect example of the slow, inefficient, and ineffective bureaucracy that we have? Yes.

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For some side fun - who wants to take the time to demonstrate the NWU's failures already from the above pic?

I'll start. Note the wear difference and fading (ship's laundry hasn't changed, I see) ... there is more - have fun in comments.

On a serious note - let me put on my white vest - in case no one knows .... in a flash fire, velcro burns like the plastic it is. I don't think NWU are NOMEX .....

Glad to see coveralls are going down fighting though.