Army leaders are considering whether to allow soldiers to wear Multicam alongside the new Operation Camouflage Pattern the Army plans to introduce next summer.
The Army has selected a pattern, Scorpion W2, that is nearly identical to the Multicam pattern the Army has been issuing to soldiers deployed to Afghanistan since 2010. In fact, Scorpion was developed for the Army in 2002 by the same company, Crye Precision, which later developed Multicam.
With so many soldiers who have already received Multicam, the decision by Army leaders could save soldiers from buying even more new uniforms once the Army makes the switch to OCP.
Never before has the Army introduced a new camouflage pattern that is so close to one that it has already issued to soldiers. Plenty of questions have been raised over what uniform can be worn as the Universal Camouflage Pattern is phased out.
It's difficult at first glance to tell the difference between Multicam and Scorpion W2. The one distinguishing difference is Scorpion W2 appears to be faded when compared to Multicam. With such little difference, soldiers have asked whether they can simply keep wearing their Multicam uniforms once OCP becomes the Army's official camouflage pattern.
Army officials who met with Military.com editors and reporters Tuesday said it's a topic that is still being discussed by the Army brass.
Of course, the Army will still need to navigate through an expected set of Congressional hurdles before the service can officially replace the Universal Camouflage Pattern with OCP. Last year, Congress mandated that services can no longer introduce new camouflage patterns unless they can be used by all four services.
Army leaders have still not addressed this point and have not signaled any discussion with the other service leaders about similarly adopting OCP. When asked last month if the Army has shared any dialogue with the rest of the military concerning OCP, Gen. Dennis L. Via, head of Army Materiel Command, said he did not know of any such discussions.
