When you think modern, high-tech, and cutting-edge, the word “digital” comes to mind. Digitization has changed clocks, music, and, to make a vast understatement, typing. We’ve even digitized our military’s camouflage patterns. Make no mistake—a camouflage uniform itself is still very much analog. But the pattern itself, made of rectangular pixels at varying sizes, arises from computer-generated data. And while we’re living in a digital present, the history of digital camouflage goes further back than you might think.
From Russia with Digicam
Long before computers could handle graphic design, the Red Army of the U.S.S.R. was exploring the rudimentary principles that underlie digital camouflage. By 1968, the Soviets debuted the
Kamuflirovannyy Letniy Maskirovochnyy Kombinezon, or the “Summer Camouflage Deceptive Coverall”—the Soviets never being much for catchy brand names. This pattern implemented sharp edges at small sizes rather than the more impressionistic, broad-stroked camouflage patterns of American and British outfits. Soviet researchers discovered that this angular pattern was more effective at evading night vision than other patterns.
The True North, Strong and Pixelated
Look north of the border for the first true digitization of camouflage in action. In 2002, the Canadian Armed Forces debuted CADPAT, or the Canadian Disruptive Pattern. Unlike Soviet attempts at digital camouflage, the Canadian iteration was truly digital, using fractal patterns to generate the seemingly random assortment of pixels in varying sizes and colors. Why fractals? Fractal patterns, which seem like abstract math, are naturally occurring patterns you can find in everything from vegetation to snowflakes. Counterintuitive as it may seem, computerized camouflage obscures better than more natural designs.
The Advent of MARPAT
Inspired by CADPAT, the United States military made a significant advance in
the history of its uniforms when it rolled out its Marine Pattern, or MARPAT. The American take on digital camouflage was all about the embrace of the micropattern, an assortment of pixels considerably smaller than those in prior iterations. MARPAT renders its pixels in varying color schemes for varying environments, with one set for desert operations and another that uses shades of green for woodland missions. At this time, MARPAT is proprietary to the Marine Corps, but the Armed Forces have not yet closed the book on the history of digital camouflage. We could soon see—or rather, fail to see—digicam for each branch.
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