Frag Out! Magazine
Issue link: https://fragout.uberflip.com/i/1446249
The life of this unique camou- flage pattern was rather short and turbulent. The research works were launched around 1967 when the US Armed Forc- es started to look for a camou- flage pattern that would conceal soldiers in early Soviet night vision devices. It was directly linked to USA possible involve- ment in combat operations in the Middle East region where enemies could be equipped with such night vision devices. This situation led to the devel- opment of the famous "Choco Chip '' six-color desert camou- flage pattern around 1972. But the problem was printing and dyeing technology at that time and the lightly colored uniform fabrics were ineffective in night vision. In the European condi- tions the problem was solved – Woodland camouflage adopt- ed in early 1980's was working in both daytime and nighttime (under night vision). But the problem was near infrared re- flectance of tan/sand-colored fabrics – they worked perfectly during the day but in the dark they became ineffective. Idea of the pattern was brought to life when the first Soviet night vision devices made their way to the United States. Due to their low reso- lution, it seemed that the most effective way to disrupt the image is to create addition- al "noise" making the user of camouflage harder to detect. During the tests it appeared that a two-shade complex grid pattern (light and dark green colored, Axolotl and Laurel Green) with some irregular S T O R Y B Y : B A R T O S Z S Z O Ł U C H A P H O T O S : M A R C I N L O T K O W S K I , J A N S O B C Z U K "IS THAT A REAL CAMO??? DON'T BULLSHIT ME. ARE YOU SERIOUS? I GUESS SOME OF THE DESERT NIGHT CAMOUFLAGE (DNC) USERS WERE ASKED ABOUT THAT PATTERN. THE HISTORY OF THE DNC IS A PERFECT EXAMPLE OF HOW YOU CAN CREATE A CAMOUFLAGE PATTERN WHICH AT THE DAY OF FIELDING WAS ALREADY… COMPLETELY USELESS. FROM FROM HELIKON-TEX HELIKON-TEX CLOTHING