Someone posted this update to PEO Soldier’s Twitter feed via a mobile phone text message. I wonder if this was a meant for another recipient since all other posts to PEOSoldier’s account were made either from Twitter’s Web site or an iPhone application.
The latest (as of last night) we’ve heard is that Gen. Casey is now mulling it over.
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Rick Maze is reporting that Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., the powerful and controversial chairman of the House subcommittee responsible for defense funding, died Monday.
Murtha died at 1:18 p.m. at Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington, Va., where he had been hospitalized for an infection following gallbladder surgery.
Murtha was on the GearScout radar for his efforts to change the camouflage pattern worn by troops in Afghanistan from UCP to anything that works better. He was responsible, directly or indirectly, for bringing all kinds of defense-related money and programs into his district.
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Some news from the contract offices today: DLA canceled its solicitation for 168k (max) Advanced Combat Shirts.
Most likely the Army is just reacting to the budget by cutting a few liabilities, or maybe the combat shirt buy is being held until the Army decides on a camo pattern for the Afghan theater. We know that there’s been a lot of back and forth on the UCP-D vs. MultiCam during high level meetings here in D.C. over the last week, but no decision has been made. Regardless of this cancellation, the fact that the decision wasn’t announced by the end of January makes me think the photosimulation test wasn’t a slam-dunk for UCP-D.
Also on the contract buzz today was Natick’s notices that it’s buying soft armor packages for testing from Safariland and First Choice Armor. Looks like this is related to an aircraft or aircrew protection program.
UPDATE: I just spoke with DLA/DSCP’s spokeswoman Diana Stewart who explained the Advanced Combat Shirt is safe. In fact, they reafirm that every deployer is getting one. Steward told us the DLA/DSCP got a little ahead of themselves by putting out an open bid just as the Army decided to transition the program into its contract sustainment cycle. Part of sustainment means shifting the competitive procurement process to a mandatory procurement process.
Mandatory procurement means DSCP needs to write a new contract that ensures an uninterrupted supply of the item–likely handing over the bulk of the buy to NIB/NISH once they are approved to produce the piece. DLA/DSCP are also using the hiatus to give PEO time to pass off the latest technical data package since the Army has made a few tweaks to the shirt recently. We also have to mention that Massif, the shirt’s designer, is likely involved somewhere in this process trying to maintain some of the revenue involved in the continued procurement of what began as their product.
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We had a few minutes with the Blue Force Gear guys to look at a couple of their new products; the Ten-Speed Chest Rig and their 10-Speed SSE dump pouch. Have a look at the phots for the details.
U.S. Army 1st Lt. John Cumbie, left, assigned to D Company, 2-12 Infantry Regiment, 4 Brigade Combat Team, 4 Infantry Division, speaks with a village elder during a patrol in the Kolak village in Kunar province, Afghanistan, Dec. 17.
Thanks to combat camera’s Sgt. 1st Class Leonardo Torres, we now have some pics of 2-12 wearing Multicam outside the wire in Kunar Province, Afghanistan.
U.S. Army 1st Lt. Ross Wienshenker with 2nd Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division, and Staff Sgt. Jason Hughes with 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment, 5th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division discuss their upcoming mission to the Arghandab River Valley at the Joint District Community Center, Arghandab District, Kandahar province, Afghanistan, Dec. 13, 2009. (U.S. Air Force photo by Master Sgt. Juan Valdes/Released)
After somebody showed us these photos of guys in the 82nd Airborne Infantry Division decked out in UCP-D, we heard that certain elements of the 508th were issued coyote brown vests in addition to the new camo pattern. It’s hard to tell if this is an extension of the army’s camo test or if the battalion S4 just got a good deal on the coyote. But, it could mean the army has moved into another phase of their camo evaluation. They could be deciding whether its worth it to spend the money on UCP-D vests and accessories or to move to Marine Corps style solid-colored add-ons for versatility.
This backs us into the bigger but unconfirmed camo bombshell, one of our sources over at PEO Soldier just told us that the command is going to recommend the theater-specifc adoption of UCP-D during the Chief of Staff’s decision brief. PEO’s official response is that the camo test is still underway and they haven’t reached any conclusions.
UPDATE: We just received a comment from PEO Soldier’s Col. Bill Cole, program manager for Soldier Protection and Individual Equipment, stating that PEO has not issued any coyote brown equipment. They also told us that they have made no recommendation on alternate camouflage patterns for the Army Combat Uniform.
“Any recommendation will come after the Army has finished gathering and analyzing a large volume of data gathered through the photosimulation study and Soldier surveys,” he wrote. “Senior Army leadership will be briefed on the data and results and recommended courses of action in late January, after which a decision will be made on whether to provide Soldiers in Afghanistan with different camouflage alternatives.”
So, it looks like the Army is still sifting through the camo test data and weighing its options. With the Chief of Staff’s decision brief coming up fast after the new year, the PEO/Natick/AWG’s PowerPoint ninjas are going to be pretty busy over the holidays.
U.S. Army Sgt. John Clayton with 2nd Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division makes his way through a river while on a joint patrol with soldiers from Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment, 5th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division in the Arghandab River Valley, Kandahar province, Afghanistan, Dec. 13, 2009. (U.S. Air Force photo by Master Sgt. Juan Valdes/Released)
Here’s a nice in-theater pic of six members of the nine-man team that was formed to help evaluate alternative camouflage patterns for soldiers in Afghanistan. The team spent 17 days in-country, taking photos of AOR II, the current Universal Camouflage Pattern, Multicam, Desert Brush, UCP-Delta and Mirage.
They went outside of the wire every day, provided their own security and even came under enemy fire on one occasion.
The mission produced more than 1,000 photos that will be used to create a photosimulation test that hundreds of soldiers will take this month. The effort could result in a new pattern for Afghanistan by late January.
See my story on the Army Times.
Read MoreHere are the twelve contenders that went up against UCP in Natick’s 2007-2009 Photosimulation Camouflage Detection test. The five patterns at the bottom didn’t make the cut because they didn’t perform well enough to be considered, or were too similar to other patterns in the test. The Spec 4 patterns were specificaly DQ’d because their desert variant was available for the test.
With a little creativity, Natick could have made a badass photo calendar. All they needed was a set of well proportioned female models holding guns and the study would have paid for itself.
Matt Cox is reporting at ArmyTimes.com that the Army’s Natick labs performed a two-year study in 2007 that ranked UCP as the least effective universal camo pattern of the five patterns they tested. He FOIA’d the government for the Natick’s Photosimulation Camouflage Detection Test report and got it after PEO Soldier refused to provided it.
While it’s great programmatic drama, I have to wonder what would happen if someone at PEO Soldier actually just came out and admitted that they chose the best camo pattern that branded soldiers from the other services while providing adequate camouflage without going broke.
Read More Mirage, nope. All-over-brush, nope. AOR, nope.
Matt Cox is reporting the Army has come up with a new camo pattern to address the deficiencies identified by congress and soldiers serving in Afghanistan. They’ve added coyote brown to the UCP pattern. The Army will test “UCP Delta”pattern, shown above, left, along side Multicam, right, in theater within a month.
Why Multicam? Because Natick already tested it (twice) and declared it a superior option to UCP. How do we know? Check out armytimes.com.
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