Canada's Guy Cramer, a camouflage expert, wants the record corrected.
Recently we wrote about how the Army's $5 billion uniform debacle started when Marines adopted a digital camouflage uniform. The Army wanted its own new uniforms — and so the waltz down the expensive yellow brick road of uniform failure began ...
Cramer, however, pretty much says the Marines stole the idea for digital camouflage from Canada:
The USMC became very interested in [Canadian Digital Pattern camouflage] once the pattern had been validated by both Canada and NATO ... the USMC was granted permission to use the same pattern (but in different colors). The USMC used the exact same print screens and recolored the pattern to meet their requirements even going so far to call the new coloration MARPAT (the Marines made a slight change to the print screens adding a small USMC Globe and Anchor to print every few feet).
So at least in terms of inspiration Canada shoulders some of the blame for the Army's stupendous waste of funds on camouflage that doesn't camouflage. But don't expect them to get a bill or anything anytime soon.
The U.S. Army, consequently, and a bit ironically, has decided to ditch the digital camouflage after all. They're spending another $4 billion on something called "MultiCam."
SEE ALSO: Here's a timeline of the U.S. Army's uniform disaster >
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