Recently the House Armed Services Committee passed a bill to require all the military services use the same type of camouflage uniform by 2016. Apparently now SECNAV is getting in the mix by criticizing NWUs "The Navy 'blueberries' – I don't know what the name is, that's what sailors call them – the great camouflage it gives is if you fall overboard".
Not sure exactly what has spurred all of this, I am thinking the budget squeeze has definitely helped coupled with the Army's ACU fiasco that they have spent years and a lot of money trying to fix, but this recent article highlights some of the absurdities of the 4 services developing 10 different 'camouflage' uniforms over the last ten years. I love the last line concerning the wear of Navy NWU Type III 'woodland' instead of Type II 'desert' uniforms in the desert because the Marines thought it was too close to their beloved pattern (which aren't much different than the CADPAT previously develped Canucks BTW):
"The Pentagon’s long and expensive search for new camouflage uniforms had previously defied logic. Now it would defy camouflage itself. It ended with U.S. service members wearing green in the desert."
Not sure exactly what has spurred all of this, I am thinking the budget squeeze has definitely helped coupled with the Army's ACU fiasco that they have spent years and a lot of money trying to fix, but this recent article highlights some of the absurdities of the 4 services developing 10 different 'camouflage' uniforms over the last ten years. I love the last line concerning the wear of Navy NWU Type III 'woodland' instead of Type II 'desert' uniforms in the desert because the Marines thought it was too close to their beloved pattern (which aren't much different than the CADPAT previously develped Canucks BTW):
"The Pentagon’s long and expensive search for new camouflage uniforms had previously defied logic. Now it would defy camouflage itself. It ended with U.S. service members wearing green in the desert."