| | Desert Camo | The desert battle dress uniform, commonly called the
"chocolate chip" or "cookie dough camouflage" was
developed by the United States military in the
nineteen sixties for future use by U.S. forces as they
interceded in an ever escalating Arab/Israeli
conflict. The pattern never saw combat use in the
nineteen sixties, but was later used by American
forces in the Persian Gulf War.
Following the Persian Gulf war, the United States
Forces Command found problems with the DBDU, or desert
battle dress uniform. The black spots, which were
intended to simulate rocks and debris, also increased
the amount of contrast of the uniform. Another problem
was that the pattern was suitable only for the deserts
situated around the Persian Gulf. Given the
fabrication and production cost of making countless
thousands of these uniforms, the pattern would need to
blend in in any type of desert around the world. as a
result of these problems, a new pattern was needed.
While a pattern similar to the DBDU is in use by Iraqi
security forces and several other desert nations, it
has since been replaced by another pattern as the
military desert camo of choice.
The desert camouflage uniform, or "coffee stain
camouflage," is basically the same pattern as the
BDU, or Battle Dress Uniform, except that instead of
the dark brown, black, tan, and green colors present
in BDU, the DCU's pattern is composed of light shades
of tan, brown, and green. It was devised as a
replacement for the defective Desert Battle Dress
Uniform. This was the primary uniform for the the U.S.
led invasion of Iraq in two-thousand-three.
In the few years following the invasion of Iraq, a
still newer type of desert camouflage was introduced
to replace the DCU. This new type of camouflage called
MARPAT, short for "Marine Disruptive Pattern,"
utilizes square pixels of color to simulate the multi
layered surface of the natural environment. This
pattern comes in both desert and woodland colors,
though the pattern remains roughly the same. |
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