Vol. 01 No. 03
This week’s Combat Threads is going to be a little different. I am currently working on an abstract for Season 4 of the Sartorial Society Series “OUT OF SIGHT: CONCEALED DRESS, DRESS THAT CONCEALS.” For the series, I am preparing an abstract on the changing use of camouflage uniforms for identification in the 21st Century.
US Army in OCP camouflage, the pattern that replaced the very similar Multicam.
The introduction of mass-produced standardized camouflage uniforms in the post WWII period is seen as the conclusion of tactical over fashionable appearance on the battlefield. This is the departure of uniforms worn for identification on the battlefield to worn for concealment. From simple drab colors to digitized patterns, camouflage is viewed through the lens of utility and concealment. But, as camouflage has become the dominant uniform for nearly all of the world’s state and non-state-sponsored militaries, its use has become less concerned with concealment than with identification.
British Soldiers in MTP, the pattern developed with MultiCam and adopted partially its similarity to US camouflage.
After the adoption of MultiCam -- and later OCP -- by the US Army in 2010, many close allied nations (the UK and Australia) and nations looking to build ties with the US (Georgia and Ukraine) have adopted variants of the pattern. In this context, the pattern acts as an identifier of friend versus foe and a statement of allegiance. Camouflage uniforms have also become office attire for soldiers with no distinction between uniform for the battlefield and that of the office, which has led to branches like the US Navy and US Space Force to adopt camouflage patterns while the vast majority of their work takes place outside the tactical space.
Georgian soldiers in a copy of MultiCam which replaced their use of US MARPAT camouflage.
These uniforms serve as a marker of identification and projection of force well outside the battlefield. As the development of camouflage uniforms in the 20th Century was a response to technological changes in warfare, the changing use of camouflage also reflects changes in warfare both technologically and culturally. Camouflage uniforms have formed systems of identity and meaning far beyond their intended use of concealment.
Till next week,
C.W.M.
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