Assets and Evolution of Digital Camouflage Patterns

The Universal Camouflage Pattern (UCP) debuted with the new Army Combat Uniform (ACU) in 2004 and was created to blend into urban areas, desert, woodlands, and mountains. A digital pattern, UCP did not provide enough concealment in Afghanistan, and after tests for a pattern specifically for soldiers in that country, uniforms in MultiCam®, also known as Operation Enduring Freedom Camouflage Pattern, were distributed to soldiers deployed to and already in Afghanistan. Because UCP has proven to not provide universal concealment, the Army announced plans to start testing for a new pattern for ACU.
UCP is one of a handful of digital patterns that have been used over the past 10 years. UCP is based on MARPAT, a copyrighted USMC digital camouflage, which is similar to and derived from CADPAT, or Canadian Pattern Disruption Material. When compared to solid three-color patterns, digital camouflage blends 30- to 50-percent better. Created by a computer design program and printed onto nylon, digital camouflage uses pixilated colors, which create a dithered pattern with few distinct lines.
CADPAT became the standard Canadian Army pattern in 1997, but the first digital camouflage was used 20 years before by the U.S. Army 2nd Armored Calvary Regiment in Europe. Called Dual-Tex, this digital camouflage pattern was developed by Lieutenant Colonel Timothy R. O'Neill, a West Point Professor of Engineering. O'Neill displayed through tests that Dual-Tex reduced the detection of the wearer by 50 percent when compared to the three-color NATO pattern. Dual-Tex only lasted from 1978 to the early '80s and was replaced by the NATO pattern.
Patents for CADPAT, as well as MARPAT, cite O'Neill's work in order to support the effectiveness of digital camouflage. After CADPAT went into effect, the Marine Corps wanted to use the pattern. CADPAT, however, is copyrighted, and the Canadian government instead provided information about materials and manufacturers to the Marine Corps, who went on to develop MARPAT in 2001.
UCP is a variation of MARPAT and uses a combination of alpha and foliage green, light brownish gray, and grayish yellow blocks of color. As a replacement for the Battle Dress Uniform, this ACU camouflage pattern was tested with soldiers in Iraq by Army Program Executive Office Soldier. Acknowledged at the time to be effective in all environments, UCP did not blend well into the terrain of Afghanistan and was replaced in that location only with OCP, a gradient-based camouflage pattern.