Multicam patterns at night

[Son of Dorn]

This is just something I've been wondering about.

Multicam Black is intended for police and SWAT and counterterror stuff where I guess you want to break up your outline just enough while keeping the psychological impact of a guy in scary black gear with weapons and armor and probably his face covered coming at the bad guys with an assault rifle. Does it have any actual, like, nighttime/heavy darkness stealth functionality that does the job better than regular camo, or is it only for that psychological impact? I mean in the context of regular military or special ops doing nighttime operations, using MC Black instead of regular MC/Scorpion OCP/British MTP or the Arid or Tropic variants.

 

[White Mamba]

Black sucks day or night unless your a ninja

 

[newguy2k3v2]

I can say from doing a lot of running around at night that black probably stands out more than any other color through night vision. Corn, cotton and many other leaves that are dark green during the day you'd almost think were white at night time.

I still believe that what works best in the day is still going to work best under the widest range in the dark but ir reflectivity(?) Does throw a wrench in the works. I'm pretty sure it's a consideration on fabrics in the .mil

 

[Son of Dorn]

I can say from doing a lot of running around at night that black probably stands out more than any other color through night vision. Corn, cotton and many other leaves that are dark green during the day you'd almost think were white at night time.

I still believe that what works best in the day is still going to work best under the widest range in the dark but ir reflectivity(?) Does throw a wrench in the works. I'm pretty sure it's a consideration on fabrics in the .mil

So then it's probably just for the psych value and would do more to hinder concealment at night than help unless the surrounding environment had a lot of black/dark grey for it to blend in with? Makes sense. But then again I dunno why you'd bother making a camo pattern for that, 'cause it seems to slightly defeat the purpose of scaring the piss outta the bad guys.

 

[TheGerman]

At night its less about actual camo and more about the IR return you get. Black is probably the worst color outside as it'll contrast you with basically everything, including at night when there is somewhat of a moon/ambient light.

However, the most obvious thing you'll get when putting an IR illum on anything is the IR return/shine from materials and clothing that hasn't been treated for it, or are just naturally reflective under IR. One of the things people are oblivious to is that washing your clothing with detergent/softener actually leaves chemicals in the fabric that glow under IR and degrade any IR dampening in them.

This is why you only hand wash your 'night time' clothes in regular woolite and water.

For when you get a light shined on you at night (shoot at it), wear whatever camo pattern works in that area during the day.

 

[Son of Dorn]

At night its less about actual camo and more about the IR return you get. Black is probably the worst color outside as it'll contrast you with basically everything, including at night when there is somewhat of a moon/ambient light.

However, the most obvious thing you'll get when putting an IR illum on anything is the IR return/shine from materials and clothing that hasn't been treated for it, or are just naturally reflective under IR. One of the things people are oblivious to is that washing your clothing with detergent/softener actually leaves chemicals in the fabric that glow under IR and degrade any IR dampening in them.

This is why you only hand wash your 'night time' clothes in regular woolite and water.

For when you get a light shined on you at night (shoot at it), wear whatever camo pattern works in that area during the day.

That makes sense. So definitely just for psych value, then. And on that note, I'm wondering if anyone besides law enforcement uses MC Black for said psychological impact, the way the SAS has their black gear for certain operations when they need to look scary too. According to almost everything I've found, it was designed and intended for police use, not military, but I still wonder.