Balaclava (clothing) - Military and Police Uses

Military and Police Uses

In the Indian subcontinent, balaclavas are commonly referred to as monkey caps, due to their typical earth tone colours, and the fact that they blot out most human facial features. Monkey caps sometimes have a small, decorative, woollen pom-pon on top. They are commonly worn by troops on Himalayan duty for protection from the cold.

The United States Marine Corps has recently begun issuing balaclavas with hinged face guards as part of the Flame Resistant Organizational Gear program.

The balaclava became a part of standard OMON (special police task force) uniform as early as the Perestroyka years of the late 1980s. The original intent was to protect the identity of the officers to avoid intimidation from organized crime. Due to increased problems with organized crime of the 90s, TV shots of armed men in black balaclavas became a staple of sorts. As the organized crime went down, however, balaclavas became an instrument of intimidation as much as identity protection, as they don't allow one to see the facial expression of the enforcement officer or identify him conclusively. Armed Russian police commonly conduct raids and searches of white-collar premises (typically in Moscow) while wearing balaclavas. Such raids have therefore come to be known in Russia as "maski shows", an allusion to popular comic TV show of the 1990s.