I have heard from many that the ACU doesn't work as it's supposed to. I am however impressed by the ATACS and Multicam looks. I don't see pics of them in dense foliage though.
Any thoughts?
I was in the test group in 2002 or 03 when they tested for the new patterns. There were actually four or five digital patterns, if memory serves. There was one like the ACU that I liked better, it had a lot of sage green in it and still had the neutral gray scale colors. We had the marine colors but they were a bit different, I forget the difference. I think there was an all gray one too. Each company was issued an extra pair (woodland was still uniform, that or DCU's) and they wore it during YTC, JRTC and NTC training. JRTC was last and where they made the decision I'm told, so it had to have SOMETHING to do with IR or urban use, as hunter orange blends in better down there! ACU is also actually not the pattern's name, but that's what it's called colloquially --the uniform pattern is ACU.
The ACU wasn't supposed to be a purely generic one size fits all pattern (then again, maybe it was). It was supposed to be good in urban environments, and in fact, when it first got issued that's what it was called. The new urban MOUT uniform. BTW, our company had the ACU's, the winning color. I suppose looking back, out of all the ones they had there, it does work best for night missions in urban environments and isn't bad for desert I suppose. You gotta remember, they aren't exactly looking for camo that blends in during the day. They're looking for camo that works best at dusk/dawn and at night, that's when 90% of missions were ran (at least we operated almost exclusively at night). I'd say the ACU under those conditions may be best: urban, concrete, dusk/dawn/night.
So all the new patterns, they're designed around the NODs, it's obvious. If you have too much difference in shade between the neutral color palette, that really stands out at night. So you pick a palette that works, rather is designed around, the Munsell scale that NODs typically generate their image in, then it'll work much better at night.
Worst? Woodland and DCU. Woodland acutally glows. ACU not too bad. Multicam blended the best. It just grays out basically. ATACs, the set I have, didn't look too bad but whatever they used for the band on the boonie hat, that glows. Regardless of what you use, motion is the key thing to give you away --contrast just helps usually.
Bottom line with camo, if NODs aren't an issue, then just go with whatever blends in best in your area. It may be something like mossy oak or realtree and not a military camo. The civilian hunting camos can be very specific and work much better within those constraints. During day, the ATACs blended in better here in these deep dark woods than did the multicam. Woodland still works best here for that, that or ranger green IMO.
