Source: MultiCam recommended for Afghanistan - Military News | News From Afghanistan, Iraq And Around The World - Military Times

Source: MultiCam recommended for Afghanistan

Secretary of the Army John McHugh is about to decide on a recommendation to field MultiCam to soldiers in Afghanistan.

“A recommendation has been made to the Secretary of the Army, and he will make an announcement soon,” Army spokesman Lt. Col. Jimmie Cummings told Army Times.

Cummings would not comment on the recommendation, but Army Times sources say Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey has recommended that the Army issue MultiCam to soldiers in Afghanistan.

The announcement comes eight months after the late Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., directed the Army to look at new camouflage patterns. Murtha said “a dozen” Army sergeants told him that the Army Combat Uniform’s pattern is ineffective in Afghanistan.

Murtha’s directive prompted Program Executive Office Soldier to launch a multiphase search for potential camouflage patterns to replace the Universal Camouflage Pattern of the ACU.

PEO Soldier’s camouflage initiative came after the March 2009 release of a two-year Army study that showed how MultiCam, a pattern made by Crye Precision LLC, outperformed the UCP in woodland, desert and urban settings.

“Photosimulation Camouflage Detection Test,” conducted by the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center between March 2007 and March 2009, pitted the current UCP pattern against alternative camouflage patterns. MultiCam and three other patterns outperformed the Army Combat Uniform’s UCP.

In another study, Natick also chose MultiCam over UCP. “Computerized Visual Camouflage Evaluation” was conducted between November 2005 and July 2006. It found that “MultiCam performed significantly better than the UCP in most conditions.”

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For more on this story, read the March 1 edition of Army Times.

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