How U.S. Army spent $5BILLION on 'failed' pixel camouflage... because they 'wanted to look cooler than Marines'

Camouflage made of grey and green pixels was designed to work in desert

But soldiers say uniform 'universally failed in every environment'

Design was based on Marine Corps uniform and experts say it was result of a 'political' effort to stay 'cool' in comparison



The U.S. Army is set to replace its 'Universal Camouflage Pattern' less than a decade after it was first introduced at a cost of $5billion.



The design, which combines grey and green blotches in a pixellated pattern, was supposed to disguise soldiers equally well in desert and in more temperate terrain.



But critics claim that the camouflage did not work properly in either environment - and some have even suggested that its main purpose was to make the Army appear 'more cool' than the Marines.

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The inspiration for the innovative design, known as UCP, came after the start of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to The Daily .



While soldiers were issued with desert camouflage uniforms, their darker equipment - including flak jackets - stood out against the light-coloured clothing, making troops dangerously conspicuous.

So researchers at the United States Army Soldier Systems Center in Natick, Massachusetts got to work designing a replacement which could be used by soldiers wherever they are in the world.



But their delicate work was held back by official meddling, accord to some of the people involved in the process.



'It got into political hands before the soldiers ever got the uniforms,' Cheryl Stewardson, a textile technologist at the centre, told The Daily.



Redundant: The design is being replaced even though it has already cost the Army around $5billion



The problem was apparently that Army commanders were envious of a cutting-edge new camouflage recently developed by the Marine Corps which incorporated pixels rather than the more traditional waves of colour.



So officials from PEO Soldier, which is responsible for procuring equipment, ordered developers to adapt their new grey-green colour scheme into the pixel pattern - even though experts argued this compromise would leave soldiers vulnerable in battle.



'Brand identity trumped camouflage utility,' according to military journalist Eric Graves. 'That's what this really comes down to: we can't allow the Marine Corps to look more cool than the Army.'



The results, according to some of the soldiers who had to wear the new uniform after it was introduced in 2004, was a disaster.



New look: This MultiCam design is a temporary replacement for the failed Universal Camouflage Pattern

'Essentially, the Army designed a universal uniform that universally failed in every environment,' an Army specialist who served in Iraq told The Daily. 'The only time I have ever seen it work well was in a gravel pit.'



He continued: 'As a cavalry scout, it is my job to stay hidden. Wearing a uniform that stands out this badly makes it hard to do our job effectively. If we can see our own guys across a distance because of it, then so can our enemy.'



Now researchers are working on developing a replacement to the $5billion flop, and for the time being have introduced a temporary fix in the form of a new green and brown camouflage known as MultiCam.



The permanent solution will not be ready for battlefield use until some time next year.



When it is introduced, the UCP saga will formally come to an end, though not without a certain amount of recrimination within the military.



'You've got to look back and say what a huge waste of money that was,' camouflage expert Lawrence Holsworth said. 'UCP was such a fiasco.'