Overview
Colloquial names for DPCU include "Jelly Bean" cammo, "Rabbit Ears" cammo, "bunnycam", "cammo jym jammies", "cams", "rabbit behind rocks" and the "now you can't see me suit".
The first uniforms using the disruptive pattern camouflage (called Disruptive Pattern Camouflage Uniform – DPCU) were issued in 1983 for test purposes. In 1986 the final production version was introduced with a number of changes. It is influenced partly by early US Jungle Camouflage patterns, such as "Duck Hunter"/"Frog-Skin". DPCU was developed following aerial photographs of the Australian terrain to determine which colours and patterns would be most suitable for camouflage uniforms.
The selected five colour pattern consists of a greenish sand coloured background with randomly arranged spots of orange-brown, mid-brown, leaf-green and dark green overlaid. While a mid-grey tone was included in early test uniforms, this was omitted in later unifoms in favour of a second brown tone.
The standard DPCU works in areas from arid bushland through to tropical jungle all over Australia.
Since the finalisation of the colour scheme, the Army uniform was modified to the standard NATO format, with a single rank slide in the centre of the shirt, zip pockets on the shirt and pants instead of the button-flap original, and larger sleeve pockets to fit unit patches on.
Read more about this topic: Disruptive Pattern Combat Uniform