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All I ever see for the US military now-a-days is the guys out in the sand, and I'm wondering if there is even a winter scheme now, especially for the vehicles. I actually started wondering because my Environmental Sci class just finished watching The Day After Tomorrow.

Nope.avi


The US Marine Corps is currently only using 2 patterns: Desert MARPAT and Woodland MARPAT. Very simply these uniforms are divided based on where a unit is deployed to.

The US Army is currently only using 2 patterns as well: ACU and MULTICAM. Multicam is specifically being worn only by forces deployed to Afghanistan, while all other army forces wear ACU.

Additionally, there are no current winter vehicle schemes either. The two "official" color schemes are 1 tone desert tan and 3 color NATO woodland. Some substandard equipped units use one tone OD green to paint part or all of their vehicle because of either lack of equipment or time constraints (this is most often seen with Humvees toward the beginning of OIF, as well as a few Abrams.)

The only units I forsee ever having "winter" camo are Special Forces units, which have the budget, small numbers, and necessity to conceal themselves with specialized camouflage.

Of course, if soldiers spent 5 years in a winter environment complaining about improper camo, I'm sure they'd eventually come out with a policy adendum and a few batches of "winter" camo.

The NATO three color camo is easily adapted to winter as seen in this link:

http://www.panzerbaer.de/colours/a_rela ... nter-a.htm

In the top picture the black and brown are oversprayed with white. In the second shot the black is oversprayed with white. In the third picture, the green is oversprayed with white. The last shot is the field expedient method that troops will use until winter camo can be properly applied.

US manuals state that the current three color camo should be sufficient for most areas however the scheme can be locally adapted to match current conditions such as replacing green with sand when in a desert environment. So if US combat vehicles are deployed to an area with continuous snow cover you would expect to see the three color pattern modified per one or more of the German examples above.

As for uniforms, I'm certain there are war stocks sitting in a warehouse someplace of plain white parkas and snow suits as well as white "Mickey Mouse" boots, but nothing close to a winter version of ACUs, MARPATS or Multicam.

I saw some of those mickey mouse boots at a surplus store just outside of Fort Drum

Thanks guys, looks like I might have my work cut out for me for infantry, but the vehicles shouldn't be that hard.

Just a followup, this appears to be a photo of US marines wearing some sort of thin winter over garments.

http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/8153 ... marzp7.jpg


And this is what US forces wore in winter environments in the late cold war era, possibly into the 90s (the official US Army video game featured troops wearing this camouflage on winter maps until the game adopted digital camouflage).
http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land ... 08_JPG.jpg

I have a doubt on this subject. It is mainly a matter of language because I am Italian.

For me "winter" means cold weather not necessarily snow. So a winter uniform is just heavy or warm clothes, its colors depending on the environment. The woodland pattern may be more than adequate.

In case of snow you may use white (more or less splotched) waterproof coveralls.
A white uniform may be necessary for ski troops only or for mountain troops when operating in completely snow covered ground.

In case You may ask to Your Canadian neighbours for a few Winter CADPAT.

Funny how nobody complained abut wearing MOPP 2 while training in Germany in cold weather. MOPP 2 being rubber boots and chemical protective overgarments.

Point is you would probably see US forces in whatever pattern it is that MOPP suits currently come in. I suspect in Europe it would be woodland camo but could be wrong. Of course, we wore both solid OD and woodland pattern in GW1 so I wouldn't be surprised to see coyote brown ones in Europe.

After a quick Google, the Marines for sure have arctic camo:

http://www.hyperstealth.com/USMC-Snow-C ... index.html

http://kitup.military.com/2011/02/imint ... -camo.html

Great, thanks!