Camouflage at IDEX 2023 in Abu Dhabi

A few weeks ago I posted some camouflage patterns I found at IDEX 2023 in Abu Dhabi that I thought our camo lovers might be interested in, wrote bob morrison.

~

I was going to post more on this topic within a week of my return, but sadly a deadly bug cut me down and the resulting sinus related headaches severely curtailed every time I watched Bright computer screen time. One day ~ this is a bit of a pain in the ass for my job. Luckily, I’m on the mend now, even though I’ve pretty much used up the plethora of pocket tissues I’ve pulled out of my ration packs over the past few decades.

They were filmed at IDEX 2023 and presented at IDEX 2023 Camo Quiz In the February 24th article, I first want to draw attention to the patterns in the guide photos on this page.of course it is Italian M04 Vegetation Camouflage A pattern we looked at years ago. At IDEX 2023, this pattern was worn by a small group of Marines in the Legion of San Marco, and apart from the usual slight color variations due to different manufacturing lots and wear levels of specific garments, the combat shirt’s The rear panel photo is indoors, and it’s pretty unremarkable in the diffuse natural light behind the camera. However, despite what appears to be a complete color change, the second photo on the page is of the exact same Marine Corps combat shirt taken seconds later, when he was standing under the bright field lights. In my opinion this shows the dangers of trying to accurately assess camouflage color from photographs.

Turning to the previously posted composite image of the four camouflage patterns, which I have now labeled as A through to Mansample Second and C It’s actually a photo of the back of two combat shirts with the same pattern but slightly different color percentages, one taken around noon and the other a few hours later the following afternoon when there was more dust in the The atmosphere gives the impression that they are different patterns. As we will see later, both are Korean.The other two patterns, labeled A and ManKuwaiti and Malaysian respectively, this is the first time I was able to see both.

Over the last decade or so I’ve photographed three different Kuwaiti Special Forces/Special Operations units at KASOTC (King Abdullah II Special Operations Training Center) in Jordan, and none of them are wearing M2006 digital desert patterns Uniform, mostly worn by traditional Kuwaiti Army units. According to leading online sources of camouflage pattern research, the Kuwait M2006 is a predominantly brown and tan four-color pattern with similarities to the USMC Desert MARPAT, so I was surprised Found out that it actually uses a green-dominated color palette. I don’t like to be too specific about camo colors unless I have a garment in good condition or a reasonably sized sample of the material to compare to other uniforms and samples in my collection in different natural light conditions, so I’ll say the main The color is a soft light green, the secondary color is a darker shade of green, and the two tertiary colors that impart depth are light stone and dark chocolate brown.Two photos of Kuwait M2006 are here [Pattern A] These photos were taken in natural light outside the IDEX exhibit hall, and the wearer who kindly stopped to let me snap his combat shirt is a brigadier general.

I suspect that the reason this Kuwaiti pattern is described as predominantly brown may be that the small camouflage swatches the experts are referring to were taken directly under tungsten lights. However, just to confuse the uniform worn by the Kuwaiti Army Colonel in the photo at the bottom of this article (and the Major wearing the US OCP) not only have different color percentage areas, but it appears to be mostly pink sand with light and dark secondary Green and a slightly lighter chocolate brown as a tertiary color. No doubt the light is slightly pink due to the dust in the air in late autumn, so the white vehicle behind it looks a bit off-white, but I reckon any warmth in the light isn’t enough to make the light green base camouflage pink sand. Could there really be two different camouflage patterns, or is it just a matter of different manufacturers supplying the fabric?

pattern Second and C Both are examples of the South Korean (i.e. Republic of Korea) M2016 Special Operations Command four-color desert number pattern originally issued to members of the elite 707th Special Task Group. The unit has been deployed to the United Arab Emirates for over a decade to help train Emirati special forces, and we spoke to both female and male personnel. The members of the unit, although very friendly and spoke good English, were camera shy, and while they were willing to let me photograph the back of a combat shirt, they insisted that the only badge I photographed should be the low-visibility flag. As mentioned, the variability of the light in this desert war zone and the amount of dust in the air, not to mention the degree of weathering from the sun, make them almost look like two different patterns, but they are really the same . In my opinion, the main/base color is light tan with light chocolate brown and mustard brown as secondary shades and light stone as the tertiary. Mainstream South Korean Army personnel have worn the five-color temperate digital camouflage pattern (see below) since 2010, but there does not appear to be any design overlap.

final camouflage pattern [D] What I am looking at briefly here is the three-color Arid/Desert theater version of the four-color Malaysian M2013 Temperate digital camouflage. Another rare find is that this desert camouflage version uses a pinkish light stone color as its base color, while the temperate camouflage version has less pink and uses khaki instead of verdant green as one of its secondary colors; Another secondary color for the arid and temperate patterns is warm brown, and the temperate camouflage uses black as its tertiary color.

As mentioned in a previous short, I wasn’t able to film the walk-through sequences of the soldiers in these uniforms, but they all stopped briefly for me to take pictures, none of which were “candid”. That’s all for this section, but I have an interesting assignment at the end of the month, and with any luck I might discover something new on the camo front.

[images © Bob Morrison unless noted]

~