Also known as the Advanced Combat Uniform, is the US Army’s
Advanced Combat Uniform utterly useless as a primary camouflage battle dress
uniform in the Afghan war theatre?
By: Ringo Bones
I’ve seen a growing number of Airsoft teams over the years
adopting the US Army’s Universal Camouflage Uniform – also known as the
Advanced Combat Uniform or ACU – as
their primary battle dress uniform for Airsoft gaming. But have they ever heard
of the news that the ACU is utterly useless in the battle theatres of
Afghanistan?
After 8 years and billions of dollars spent, the US Army
back in June 2012 has just given up on an ambitious effort to clothe all of its
frontline infantry soldiers in Afghanistan on the “universal camouflage
pattern” even though it served them well in the urban combat theatres of Iraq
since Operation Iraqi Freedom back in March 2003. According to frontline
infantrymen who are recently and some who are still currently serving in
Afghanistan, the Afghan terrain is primarily brown in hue and there is no brown
whatsoever in the Advanced Combat Uniform (ACU) design.
Even though the ACU’s fractal geometry-based pattern looks
very futuristic and very 21st Century, I’ve seen it used as the
cover art in various Gene Roddenberry novelizations on “futuristic” Sino-Indian
War scenarios as far back as 1987. And the design might have been originally
conceived on a mid-1980s era Cray YXP supercomputer inspired when IBM
researcher Benoit B. Mandelbrot published The Fractal Geometry of Nature back
in 1983. Given that the geometric structure of vegetation and rocks/geologic
formations always seems to follow Mandelbrot’s fractal geometry - then it is
safe to assume that the US Army’s newfangled Advanced Combat Uniform would
perfectly blend in any “natural fractally-pattered environment”, right?
Sadly, this is where theoretical design needs some more
tweaking for it to work in the real world of Mother Nature. US Army infantrymen
serving in Afghanistan had cited that in their own first-hand experience, the
ACU made them stand out in the background terrain of the Afghan war theatre –
as in they are using a “clown-suit” as a battle dress uniform. And in my
experience, the US Army’s Universal Camouflage Uniform / ACU in Airsoft gaming
situations only works when your game-site is an urban one. Must be the reason
why the ACU battle dress uniform pattern sells like hotcakes for Airsoft
enthusiasts living in Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong.
