I was remembering a vehicle I saw in Bosnia.  It was a semi-trailer type piece of equipment - very large and boxy.  It was parked amongst a number of large trees and was somewhat shaded.  It was painted in the standard US military green/black/brown camo scheme.  I really had to look to figure out what it was.  I was surprised when I realized what it was, and I wasn't real far away from it.  Had it been parked in any other place I think I would have had a much easier time of seeing/ID'ing it - but parked where it was, the camo paint scheme was surprisingly effective.

What are some of the best vehicle camo paint schemes in use by military forces?  How do ours compare to those of others?  Could we be using a more effective pattern - maybe some kind of enlarged digital or multi-cam pattern or something? What other ways are there to camo vehicles?  I know about using brush and the like, but are there others?  

Any pics of good/bad pattern and terrain would be welcome too!

Discuss...........  


-K

hows about one of those camo net thingies?

In the field they quickly get covered with dust or mud or gear so it really doesn't matter much.

The US had a formation (3rd ACR?) paint their vehicles in a digital pattern in the 1970s/early 80s. I think it turned out a bit like MERDC: More trouble than it was worth.

I'm not convinced that any camo scheme is notably better than any other, frankly.

NTM

Quoted: hows about one of those camo net thingies?

Yes, camo net thingies.  It's late.  THe sourceof all evil is the giant circuis tent sized camo nets we had to put up over our Brigade and Division CP's.  Especially with MILES gear on.  I once directed all soldiers to loose their headgear with the MILES halo attached when we were putting up the circuis tent.  Some prick (and he really was a prick) E7 had a hissy and ordered us all to put our K-pots back on.  I explained to him that that was a safety hazard - especially with the big battery box on the back of them - because the net could catch on them.  He told me that he didn't care and to put them back on.  As he was telling me he didn't care one of the nets slipped off the spreader and caught a guys battery box on his helmet and threw him to the ground - hard.  He just layed there and everyone surrounded him thinking he had a broken neck.  I thought the medic was going to shit his pants!  Fortunatly he was alright, just a bit sore for a few days.  I gave the prick E7 a "Thats why you asshole" look and walked away.

But what about just the paint?  You don't generally see much camo netting on moving vehicles.  Yes it does happen - but not as a matter of SOP that I saw in the US military.

-K

Quoted: Quoted: hows about one of those camo net thingies? Yes, camo net thingies.  It's late.  THe sourceof all evil is the giant circuis tent sized camo nets we had to put up over our Brigade and Division CP's.  Especially with MILES gear on.  I once directed all soldiers to loose their headgear with the MILES halo attached when we were putting up the circuis tent.  Some prick (and he really was a prick) E7 had a hissy and ordered us all to put our K-pots back on.  I explained to him that that was a safety hazard - especially with the big battery box on the back of them - because the net could catch on them.  He told me that he didn't care and to put them back on.  As he was telling me he didn't care one of the nets slipped off the spreader and caught a guys battery box on his helmet and threw him to the ground - hard.  He just layed there and everyone surrounded him thinking he had a broken neck.  I thought the medic was going to shit his pants!  Fortunatly he was alright, just a bit sore for a few days.  I gave the prick E7 a "Thats why you asshole" look and walked away. But what about just the paint?  You don't generally see much camo netting on moving vehicles.  Yes it does happen - but not as a matter of SOP that I saw in the US military. -K

Well look at it this way, one of the poles or the spreaders could have come down and hit you or one of your troops on your unprotected melons.  Some safety calls are subjective and you have to choose what is more likely to occur.  While the net on the miles bat box is a concern, statistically I would be willing to bet that far more troops get hit in the head with falling camo poles and spreaders.  Similar hazards exist when putting up OE-254s.  Of course you could have always removed your Miles halos from your skid lids and then re-attached & dummy corded them after the nets were up...  

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: hows about one of those camo net thingies? Yes, camo net thingies.  It's late.  THe sourceof all evil is the giant circuis tent sized camo nets we had to put up over our Brigade and Division CP's.  Especially with MILES gear on.  I once directed all soldiers to loose their headgear with the MILES halo attached when we were putting up the circuis tent.  Some prick (and he really was a prick) E7 had a hissy and ordered us all to put our K-pots back on.  I explained to him that that was a safety hazard - especially with the big battery box on the back of them - because the net could catch on them.  He told me that he didn't care and to put them back on.  As he was telling me he didn't care one of the nets slipped off the spreader and caught a guys battery box on his helmet and threw him to the ground - hard.  He just layed there and everyone surrounded him thinking he had a broken neck.  I thought the medic was going to shit his pants!  Fortunatly he was alright, just a bit sore for a few days.  I gave the prick E7 a "Thats why you asshole" look and walked away. But what about just the paint?  You don't generally see much camo netting on moving vehicles.  Yes it does happen - but not as a matter of SOP that I saw in the US military. -K Well look at it this way, one of the poles or the spreaders could have come down and hit you or one of your troops on your unprotected melons.  Some safety calls are subjective and you have to choose what is more likely to occur.  While the net on the miles bat box is a concern, statistically I would be willing to bet that far more troops get hit in the head with falling camo poles and spreaders.  Similar hazards exist when putting up OE-254s.  Of course you could have always removed your Miles halos from your skid lids and then re-attached & dummy corded them after the nets were up...

Normally I would agree with you, but when making a safety call you have to go with the most likely scenario.  With the size of the camo net we were dealing with we saw FAR more troops get snagged by their MILES gear, often the head gear but not always - but almost no incidences of camo poles falling on heads.  Troops getting pulled around by their K-pots was common.  Sometimes they would just come off, sometimes not.  In fact, the reason I had told people to take off their K-pots was that it had just happened.  They were raising some of the poles and the net caught a battery box in its way up.  Jerked the guys head around and down a bit before his helmet just came uff and was suspended 10 feet off the ground for people to point at.  

As for taking the HALO's off - yeah, right!  Then we wouldhave been out of training uniform and they would have really had a cow.


-K