Rarer ACUs: 2008 Test Pieces, Universal Camouflage Pattern Delta & Limited Issue Updated UCP ACUs
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- Опубліковано 4 вер 2024
- Our first video in our new series "A Close Up on Combat Clothing". In this one we're taking a look at and comparing some lesser known experimental and limited issue ACUs from the 2008 trial pieces which adjusted things like fasteners, pockets and fabrics to UCP-D the short lived updated pattern design and even a peculiar OCP uniform in the UCP design.
Music by Julian Crowhurst: www.juliancrow...
Addendum:
1) want to acknowledge the specialist rank is upside down. Those patches have been on as long as we’ve had the jacket and so it was completely missed.
2) It was brought to our attention that button cuff ACUs were seen in UCP towards the mid 2010s.
Thanks for clearing that up on the insignia. Something looked wrong there but I couldn't put my finger on it, but then I was in the Army four decades ago.
i was absolutely ready to be a keyboard warrior. good thing i read this first, lol
I've seen upside down SPC rank done as a prank before.
I just assumed that it was intentional.
@@MrDowdy11753 I wore it upside down after I re-enlisted from another branch. The correct way still looks wrong to me
It seems that the company TenCate is still making material in UCP-D, which is called "DEFENDER™ M SL2I", a lining material for Fire-Dex firefighter turnout gear, if you look on Fire-Dex's website in the "materials" section of their turnout gear page.
Top brass: "You will get to vote on which digital camo you all like best!"
Soldiers testing the different camos: "The tiger stripe is best."
Top brass: "You weren't suppost to do that."
My country use tigerstripe for decades before switch to digital recently.
For some reason I love UCP-D
I STILL wear it as work clothes !
It looks and probably works better than og UCP
It reminds me of the German flecktharn
I also love UCP-D and og UCP. Just the Army uniform I grew up looking at. I’m also a sucker for digi pattern so MARPAT is also one of my favorites.
Agree! What Marpat should have been! (Yeah...I said it...)
UCP-D looks like standard ACU's that went to basic at Ft. Benning lol
Quickscope One Eighty ahh, that red Georgia mud
lol yeah, you crawl in the dirt one time and youll never wash that shit out again
Lemme guess, clay?
@@AmishGangsterWith_a_Hellcat That sweet orange clay from the great state of GA!
@@quickscopeoneeighty9158 Amen brother.
I own two pieces of UCP-Delta, as top and pants both Large Long. Picked up at a gun show off a dealer I do some trading with for dirt cheap, like $30 for both. I think he had no idea what they were worth. I own a surplus store, they're on display on the wall. Great conversation starter.
@LTrain 45 haha like 15 min videos discussing uniforms?? Dumbass
What a great find. Jealous!
@LTrain 45 lol
I agree iv been selling ACU top and bottoms for $5 a pice and still can't get rid of them.
By chance are u the friend Mike b was talking bout who got that camo pattern?
I was issued 3 pairs of these in Afghanistan in 2009. We wore them full time, and when we went to KAF for a few days for some stuff, we kept getting yelled at for having "dirty uniforms", despite the ones we wore to KAF were brand new out of the bag.
Covers were also not issued with these so we had to wear the green fleece caps as headgear as per our brigade CSM. Man did the other unit 1sgs and CSMs have a conniption when they saw us.
That's actually hilarious lmao, btw what did you guys honestly think of the camouflage?
@@smesaric From a pattern standpoint, it was ALOT better than the standard ACU patter. We always joked that the only thing ACU was good for was fighting in a gravel pit, so basically useless.
The uniform themselves were basically the same material and fabrication as the FRACUS, or the fire retardant ACUs. It was a much less rigid material, so it was kinda like wearin pajamas compared to the way the ACUs would feel. They got kinda stiff sometimes, especially when dirty and sweaty. I'm pretty sure i've seen a dirty pair of ACU's stand up on their own.
The velcro was trash though. It didn't take long for it to lose it's ability to stay attached, so crap would fall out of your cargo pockets all the time if you were in the right position.
They weren't fielded for very long, we wore them for about 7 months out of our deployment, and only got the uniforms and a low-tech chest rig that practically no one used. We all had issued tan rigs that we used instead. We didn't receive helmet covers so we had to use our ACU pattern ones. After we got home from deployment, they got stuffed into a duffel bag and I never really look at em anymore. Pretty sure I still have 2 pairs. When I cleared CIF to ETS, it was on my clothing record, but CIF said they didn't want em.
EDIT: I'd like to note that we were issued these and referred to them as ACU-D uniforms, although it was annotated as UCP on our clothing record.
@@Sepu1tra Very interesting, thanks for sharing, I love hearing about these sort of odd pieces of kit. As far as I recall they issued UCP-D and OEF-CP simultaneously to get soldier's feedback on the patterns, do you ever recall being asked to evaluate the effectiveness of UCP-D? I'm curious how they even conducted the trials, and why UCP-D lost to multicam. What was your opinion on UCP-D vs multicam?
@@Sepu1tra What unit were you with and where were you at in AFG in 09"
@@ZKB423 2/508, 4th BCT 82nd. We were originally in Lashkar Gah, but then moved to Kandahar Province after 5/2 got moved around.
I was stationed at Ft Lewis in 08' and was part of the test. My unit Got Test A and Test B. Everyone loved the Buttons on the cargo pockets as the velcro on the issued ones would wear out quickly same for the wrist velcro. The test A were my favorite. Wore them on our 09' Afghanistan deployment, cant remember what happened to them..
5th brigade?
In Afghanistan I ran into one of the units in the 82nd that were issued UCP-D. I asked one of the solders how well UCP-D was actually working in the field.
I wish the English language had words to adequately describe the look of absolute disgust that came over his face.
_It's like UCP, but we added some mud!_
YO wtf I never realized any of the OCP style ACUs were made in UCP.... That's actually really cool!
I actually like UCP-D and i think if they would have just played with the colors a bit, they could have ended up with a viable camo. I consider OCP a win tho, and that's actually my camouflage of choice for my Area of Operation. It works relatively well during all 4 seasons.
I think that viable version of UCP-D is called Desert Marpat :P
As a specialist in the army, the upside down rank angers me
Not mafia material then, Shit has me dying 😂
No, that's just a E3 1/2 rank
I had a feeling that looked off but didn't focus on that lol
Me too brotha
I expect that kind of laziness from an E-4.
That Delta variant looks great!
Who tf put Slade's Sham Shield on upside down?
My Sham Shield?
@@SladeMcCuiston That's what a specialist insignia is called.
My eye started twitching uncontrollably every time that appeared on screen.
@@SladeMcCuiston 1:18 The jacket in question.
I noticed that too. Somebody better put him in the front lean & rest with a quickness.
Just a suggestion but I'd love to see the history of the Soviet afghanka uniform!
Should do a video on the improved hot weather combat uniform that has become popular with soldiers in the us army recently
The hot weather's are amazing,
The only advantage that UCP has over OCP (imo) is that it took alot longer to fade out. My OCPs started to look like crap after like 6 months ( I followed the laundering instructions too). The only time I've seen UCP noticeably faded is from some nasty girl I met who had 10 year old UCPs. It might as well have been a cook's white uniform it was so faded.
I’ve worn IOTV’s in UCP back in Fort Benning. When we trained with them, the vest altered color that resembled UCP-D. I can see why the camo never came to day.
The UCP Delta was actually createddue to Soldier feedback saying that they only work when they're dirty
Finnish M05 camo next, or A close up on the Gorka field jacket(s).
The gen 2 acu cut is actually a really nice uniform cut. Good job on the army for actually listening to feedback on their testing.
I like the test uniforms better than what we have now. 👍
Thanks for this Video.
Once saw a Pic of UCP-D and found it interesting, but I couldn't find much Info on it.
that strichtarn doe 😍😍😍
I had a soldier join my National Guard unit that was part of the ACU test program at Ft Hood I believe. He wore one of the test uniforms and if faded horribly, it was almost white. I know there were obvious differences in the design, but I can't remember what they were at the time.
Regular UCP faded to white badly as well.
@@newdefsys I still have my first issue of UCP that I wore for a year in Kuwait. Some of my PCs are kind of white, but the uniforms themselves are still decent.
I've been following your channel since you were still pretty fresh but I'm not sure I've commented.
I've always been impressed with your presentation. I couldn't imagine a thing that could make your videos any better.
Always looking forward to new videos, fella ☝
Ugh. I still remember the day when we were to.d to wear the ACU back in December 2005 when I was in Baumholder, Germany. We thought it was a joke. I carefully folded up my complete BDU uniform set with cap, wrote a nice note as to the day I last wore the uniform and sealed it up in a large zip loc baggy. I remember being issued the BDU uniform in June of 1983 and I was pretty excited then since we were all wearing the OG-107's back then. Same goes for the helmets, I've seen a lot of them! And I'm sure you're well familiar with the ERDL family patterns. And if someone tell someone out they were issued field uniforms, it's not a lie. Infantry Soldiers were issued remaining stock of OD green jungle uniforms (slant pockets) and jungle boots to be worn as field uniforms. I remember this around 1986. And back then, Ft. Campbell used M-151A2 MUTT's until the HMMWV was issued in April of 1987.
Excellent video. One minor fluke/error made was that it was stated that the button cuffs for the ACU uniform were not standard and only became as such when the OCPs were rolled out. When I went through OSUT in 2014, we were issued ACUs which had the buttoned cuffs with one button and multiple button holes as seen in the current uniforms.
Regards and thanks for making this video!
1:21 um.... what’s up with that sham shield
But still great video as usual
Absolutely loved the video! Always had an interest in what the UCP-D was and how much use did it see, thanks!
13:12 Definitely love that bit of trivia. I remember seeing someone with that cut of ACU in 2017 for the inauguration, and it always weirded me out. I know that Proper makes UCPs now in the newer ACU cut, but I struggled to imagine such a private purchase would be tolerated... Than again, I also saw someone mixing OEF-CPs and OCPs too, so what the fuck do I know
I just bought one today. 2013 contract in UCP. Has the same exact type of cut as the current issue OCP.
Definitely USGI issued.
@@TheCarDemotic Just curious, how were you able to tell the it was 2013 contract?
Have you had a chance to look at the OCP summer uniforms? They are a hot weather improvement to standard OCP with different cut and fabric.
There meh. I'm still waiting for the new camo patterns
Wow such rare ACU
Many pixels
Fantastic video! I've been really confused about all the ACU variants and this s the exact video I needed.
I kinda would like to get a hold a non fr set of UCP-D for my collection if they even exists.
I wish they would add ventilation holes and remove extra materials on the Patrol caps.
the current OCP PCs and the ACU PCs trap the heat during the summer times
Awesome video. I seen that last version of the ucp camo in the ocp style cut.
I love that type
Alright. I don't know who didn't like velcro, or thought it was "giving them away", but I enlisted when BDUs and DCUs were a thing, and deployed with them my first time. Buttons fucking SUCK, because you have to perform actions to close them, AND on the cuffs, they don't have infinite adjustability. Sometimes you want one cuff tight, so hot brass can't find its way inside your sleeve, but most of the time, it's adjusted just loose enough to slip over your hands when donning or doffing the jacket. You can do that with velcro, and you likely cannot with a button.
Second, no one is 'sneaking around' in 21st century warfare. You're not lying in wait, perfectly concealed, where the slightest noise will spoil your ambush. You're stacked up with 60# of armor and gear, and literally everyone knows you're there. Velcro sound isn't a problem in this century.
Finally, those pen pocket mods were 100% put there because Old Farts were pissed the new ACU wear instructions specifically said you could have pen clips visible. For the previous 20+ years, the pen pocket on the BDU could be used for a pen, but you couldn't allow the pen barrel to deform the pocket, nor clip the pen clip to the pocket flap. This made the standard pen pocket largely unusable, and you'd toss your pen inside the button flaps on the centerline of the BDU. With a velcro zipper flap, there's no place for that. The standard forearm pockets worked fine at securing writing implements, so I can only assume it was Old Farts doing their Boomer bullshit getting those changes implemented.
Deleting the knee/elbow pad insert slots made a lot of sense. They were super hot to wear every day, and if you were planning on being 'in the shit', you'd just wear real pads over top the uniform.
It never made sense to me that you couldn't have visible pens in BDUs. Then again, I kept hearing that from people who also told us we couldn't put things in the BDU blouse's pockets.
Velcro for name tapes kinda sucks though. I'm fine with velcro for unit patches and the flag, but I've had many instances where I would put on or take off body armor and my name and US Army would get ripped off easily. Thankfully there is the option to sew those on.
@@mr_beezlebub3985 I never had that, but then my IBAS were always new out of the wrap. I am sure the loop side got shitty after a few deployments. By the time the loop panels on my uniforms were dodgy, the uniform on the whole was fucked from wear anyway.
@@alphasierrazulu It stemmed from being able to "add to regulations, but not take away". 670-1 wasn't specific either way, so you had local policies of 'no visible pens' and 'no pocket can visibly be carrying any item' that became ubiquitous over the decades. When the ACU debuted, the Army explicitly excluded all those bullshit cruft policies. It was fucking incredible to be able to actually USE your uniform.
Velcro works great for about 2 months and then you can't close your pocket ever again.
It's apparent that some of the ancient methods of the Shamurai Arts have been lost to time with the advent of Velcro. If a button on the cuff isn't in the position that you want then you simply break out your sewing kit and move the button to where you want it.
I remember when these first came out and thought some parts of it were pretty cool like the slant pockets and the folding collar but I still to this day wanna know what they we’re thinking when they though this was the best color combination for all environments and wondered why they didn’t go the same route as the Marines did going with 2 different camo versions.
That adjustment strap on the pants would be lovely now. Especially for an oddly shaped guy like me
Personally i like ucp (all variations)
I have six pairs
The test piece at 4:11 would have been much better as a standard uniform. The only reason I could think of that the Army would discard it is because it would look too simmilar to the Bundeswher's flecktarn
Douglas Godinich are we watching the same video?
Due to the FR fabric being particularly prone to ripping, especially in the crotch we were issued nomex uniforms when those were destroyed and they had a 2 piece fight suit cut and were far better to wear in the desert heat, but the pattern was still ineffective
Funny how after ten years, they still really haven't fixed that. I remember hearing that the FR-ACUs were only supposed to have a lifespan of about a year, but it's incredible that after all this time, they hadn't just sewn better reinforcement on the trousers
John Konrad the lifespan of 1 year, was great exaggerated, mine were patched together in less than than 4 months
@@theveazel13 Wouldn't be the first time PEO over-promised and under-delivered XD
In a way, I think UCPD looks good. Still it is a bad universal camo choise, but it looks quite cool and I guess in an urban enviroment it would work rather good.
I remember someone on militaryphotos long time ago tell me it was like lazily adding mud to UCP, always colored my outlook. Nowadays, I kinda like it and UCP for the nostalgia... But no way can I still imagine them actually being useful XD
@@johnkonrad5040 There is a parking lot in my area with blue/grey grappel stones on the ground. There itwould be perfect ;)
@@sandragruber4596 Grandmother's other slightly browner couch might also be a good bet.
@Gerd Wiesler The irony being that UCP-D was developed exclusively for Afghanistan. Seems almost the UCP was only every for Iraq
Love ucp delta. There is a bunch of mil grade uniform fabric on ebay right now.
Where is British DPM Camo
Great video! Love the detail you went into. Any chance you'll be covering the 1 piece Nomex flight suit? I feel theres a lot of good history with the 1 piece flight suit and accompanying leather A-2 Jacket, nomex flight jackets, massif jackets, etc. Also are you planning on covering the 2 piece OCP pattern flight suit currently used by the US Army and Air Force? Thanks for all that you do!
I kinda like the way this looks. I would actually wear this stuff and made my own sorta with a sharpie
In the uniform I own the jacket seems to be an older version having the big velcro tabs to close the jacket and having the IR tab sewn directly on to the velcro, but the trousers seem to be a newer version as the cargo pockets are closed with buttons except for one of the buttons being missing with no marks of a button ever having been there
Here in the netherlands still wearing the same old crappy uniform developed in 1993 with a new uniform in development for more than 10 years....
Almost like a tax payer grift eh?
Didn’t you switch to multicam yet? And weren’t you making your own digital camo before going to multicam? Greetings from Belgium lmao we have the same camo since the 80s but the uniforms change every five years
The latest gen ACU cut uniform was also made in OEF-CP, I have a jacket in my collection, it's US Army contractor made not a commercial Propper made one.
12:20
Ucp d works shockingly well
Im the only soldier I know that like the looks of the acu. I acknowledge it doesn't work well as camouflage in a mostly green environment, but in terms of subjective looks I dig it! I think officers should have collar ranks to distinguish them, can't tell you how many times I accidently saluted a specialist.
I wish they went with ucp in ocp colors. Probably look like a lighter marine Corp woodland uniform but I imagine it would make a good comprise between woodland and desert cammo.
Note that there are rare UCP combat pants made by Crye Precision. The combat pants was meant to be worn with Massif ACS(Army Combat Shirts, Although Massif made one is famous but there were other manufactures that made ACS too, such as Goodwill and SEKRI, but I digress.)
Those Crye combat pants were mainly issued to the ''Rakkasans'' 187th infantry regiment 101st airborne division, as far as I know.
The pants design features noticeable external knee pads, and pant itself are made with flame retardant material like FRACU.
Along with the combat pants, also the specific Crye knee pads were made. The knee pad is in Foliage Green (UCP-ish) color, which is not available for commercial sale, thus really hard to come by, I'd say more than the pants itself.
There were shitload of garments and pieces in UCP pattern made during adoption period. Such as good-old M65 field jacket, ECWCS, LWOL, IWOL, EWOL, ICVC coverall, Mechanics Coverall. ACU-Alternative, Maternity ACU, FR-ACU, A2CU, and aforementioned Crye combat pants, to name a few.
Everyone hate this pattern but I love UCP. It's one of the most badass looking pattern in my opinion.
It's amazing to me that with all the digital patterns out there, the USA adopted what was essentially a grey field uniform.
Good use of a NVA Zeltbahn.
We got our Acu when I was at Lewis. We looked like ghosts running through the woods. 😂
Good information but WHY is the SPC rank upside down?!!!
Where’s the best spots to look for the UCP- d uniforms? I can’t find them anywhere I know they’re rare but what websites are the best to look at?
Awesome video as always, would love to see the new summer/hot weather uniform, and how it came from the jungle uniforms that were issued in Hawaii at the 25th.
Hey I love your videos Im just wondering if you will ever make the South Korean military uniform.
PLEASE make a video about the Norwegian nkamo pattern!
Since we see it a lot in the background in this video, could you make a video about strichtarn and it's variations?
Nah, the UCP-D TAP (called the molle 2 chest rig in the video) is actually pretty cheap, got mine a year or so ago for like $50 on ebay. People list them for a lot but they almost never sell for that much.
Really like this format!
1:15 should I even ask why this specialist has his rank upside down?
Rank is upside down....
Can I make a request? What about AUSCAM and the Royal Australian Navy's abomination, the Smurf Cam? Would love to see those two covered.
Best ACU pattern.
I don't care what anyone says, brown UCP is one of the sickest looking pattern of all time, effectiveness be damned.
Agree
ACU Patrol Caps were worn entirely with pin on ranks at first, only later on were we allowed to sow on our ranks (Sham shield) the first regular head gear for all Joe's and officers was the Berret and man did everyone love getting to wear PCs in garrison
The SPC rank insignia on your SLADE uniform is upside down.
Love your channel. Keep up the good work
The upside-down rank is doing wonders for comment chatter. Great way to bring the community together.
I like how they just put some brown over the blue and blue gray, as if that was going to cover up their botched "camo"
I think this camo looks great. I don’t understand all the negativity around it.
I really like that Delta Style 😎👍
1:05 The Specialist (E-4) rank insignia is put upside down!
What i don't understand is why they put velcro and zippers on this uniform. They are noisy and difficult to replace when they break, buttons on the other hand can be replaced by the soldiers themselves in kess than 5 minutes.
When the background Strichtarn - rain pattern - of your entire clip is doing better camouflage than the "camo"!
Did officers get away from using shiny pin on ranks on their soft caps? When I was in during the 1990’s we wore woodland BDU’s and the officers had subdued rank on their Kevlar’s but always had shiny ranks on their soft caps.
Aside from the abysmal UCP camo, there are only a couple of problem areas of the ACU cut uniforms, in my opinion. (Note: I have only worn ACUs as cheap grubby clothes, not actual uniforms)
#1. The trousers don't have enough rise and will eventually slip down throughout the day, even with a belt. Hiking one's trousers back up is annoying in civilian life, let alone in a combat uniform. They need to be raised to the natural waist and/or have provisions for suspenders, like on the old M-51 pattern trousers.
#2. The forearm pen pocket, while a good idea, is constantly jabbing any pens it has into the inner elbow when the arm is flexed. Relocation, probably to the upper arm pocket, would be practical.
#3. The jacket's front zipper is a design that gas jammed badly on me several times and makes it difficult to take off. A better zipper, or even a BDU concealed button closure would ameliorate that concern.
Civvie here..when i first saw the ACU i thought it was horrible because the colour dosent blend in with the dessert or even the jungle environments...i say to myself "why the army didnt use the marines desert digital camo?"
Though the UCP-Delta reminds me a digital version of bundeswehr flecktarn camo
Why so the specialist rank upside down on the ucpD ?
The specialist rank is upside down in the beginning
Love the videos keep up the good work
I still don't know why ucp was chosen. Was it just because they thought it looked cool?
Nobody knows exactly why it was chosen or where it even came from. Ostensibly, it was chosen because it worked well under night vision, the colors were supposedly actually chosen because of how they looked under IR/night vision with them testing a light, medium, and dark color and picking the winners from each category to use together in UCP/.
Uniformhistory covered it pretty well in another video. In addition to it, I heard from someone that the final decision came from a General seeking to bank the fabric printing upon his retirement in '05.
Honestly, probably no straight answer. IR effectiveness, lessons from the camo trials of '03, personal command decisions all plague what happened, and I'm not sure any of them are necessarily incorrect
it would be cool to see a video on the movie Children of Men's Digital Urban Camo.
So the A uniform other than the zipper chest closure which is crap on all uniforms. Was really good but i think the whole Velcro on the uniforms was not a good idea you cant be tactical with Velcro and I have no clue why UCP-D lost to the standars pattern
1:53 can we all take a second to appreciate this upside down Specialist rank?
Lighten up bud
Great video, really loved it. Very well done. Just a question Mr. Uniform History, do you know where a person could source UCP Delta ACH helmet covers? I enjoy collecting helmets and, in spite of years of trying, I've never been able to find an ACH helmet cover in UCP Delta. Any info would be appreciated. Cheers mate and keep up the good work.
Do one on thebnew uruguayan pixelated uniform!
What was the square piece of fabric on the cuffs in UCP-D for?
I managed to accidentally snap myself a UCP test piece with the bottons on the sleeves and the improved reflecor nylon tab. Paid £10 for the jacket not knowing this initially
Hey bro how come u never mention the chemical coatings, and how u gotta retreat some every once in awhile
Is this polish camo wz 58 "deszczyk" in background?
I don’t even collect American camo but damn that’s interesting! Good job UH!
Would it be possible to do a video on Irish army Dpm pattern. Big fan of the channel from Ireland 🍀🇮🇪
Are you planning on covering the hot weather OCPs at some point?
could we see something on KLMK next please?
What’s up with the upside down sham shield at 1:22
😍 I have a UCP uniform too.