Controversy
The U.S. Army reported to the media that the basis for the UCP was the Urban Track pattern, which had been modified through the removal of black from the pattern and pixelated. Why the Urban Track pattern was used, given that it received the poorest ratings in visual detection from the Natick Soldier Center's testing, was unexplained. The U.S. Army's public explanation of UCP's origin has been shown to be false, as visual comparisons of pattern samples have shown the UCP to be simply a re-colored version of the U.S. Marine Corps' MARPAT scheme, which in turn was based on the earlier Canadian CADPAT camouflage pattern. A more recent explanation provided by the development team is one of political interference. Apparently they were advised to take the colours of the winning pattern and combine it with a pixelated pattern. This is unlikely to be a full explanation as the UCP colour scheme bears little resemblance to any version of the winning "desert Brush" scheme.
The omission of black in the color palette has been the subject of much debate. Black is generally perceived in camouflage schemes as shadow and a degree of black, or an alternative dark color (e.g. brown in desert patterns), invariably enhances a pattern's disruptive effect.
Some Soldiers have reported that the pattern is less than ideal in most environments, particularly jungle and tropical terrain. As the U.S. Army is currently involved in the Middle East, the uniform may have been biased towards the current operating environments.
When passed by the Senate, House of Representatives Bill 2346 required the Department of Defense to "take immediate action to provide combat uniforms to personnel deployed to Afghanistan with a camouflage pattern that is suited to the environment of Afghanistan.” The Army is currently evaluating alternative camouflage patterns to determine if this was a necessary action. In recent tests conducted by the U.S. Army's Natick Soldier Center, results indicated that three other patterns did significantly better than UCP in desert and woodland environments. Currently four commercial submissions are being tested to replace UCP for Army use.
Read more about this topic: Universal Camouflage Pattern
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