kamouflage.net camouflage data

This photo, taken during the 2004 Byeslan school hostage crisis, shows the Russian NATO camouflage pattern being worn by members of the MVD Special Rapid Reaction Units (Russian: Специальные отряды быстрого реагирования, trans. Spetsial'nye otryady bystrogo reagirovaniya, SOBR). [Image: Getty Images.]

NATO
Russian Federation

Introduced toward the end of the 1990s, Flora is a very effective camouflage pattern for use in central Russia — far more effective than U.S. woodland, digital or Flecktarn would be. The camouflage works well at a range of 50 metres, when new, and at 100 metres, after several washes. Its success, as a camouflage pattern, is attributed to good research for the brown and green colours used, as well as the distribution of horizontal shadows in typical forest undergrowth.

Unfortunately, a camouflage pattern that works well in the Moskovskaya oblast' probably won't be suitable for the Northern Caucasus, where the vegetation has been parched to a yellowish colour, or in the mountains, where clay and bare rocks are visible. Under such conditions, Russian soldiers frequently use surplus Soviet camouflage uniforms or commercially produced camouflage uniforms. Many of the designs used by commercial manufacturers are based upon successful Western camouflage patterns.

Introduced around 1998 — this date is an estimate, based on the fact that this pattern does not appear in Dennis Desmond's Camouflage Uniforms of the Soviet Union and Russia, 1937 to the Present, which was published in 1998, but appears in Aleksandr Rogozhkin's 1998 movie Checkpoint (Russian: Блокпост, trans. Blokpost) — NATO appears to be one of them. A four-colour camouflage, comprising black 'branches', earth brown swathes and medium green swathes on a tan background, this design is clearly derived from the famous four-colour U.S. woodland camouflage pattern.

Rogozhkin's Checkpoint seems to show NATO being used by Internal Troops of the Ministry for Internal Affairs (Russian: Внутренние войска Министерства внутренних дел, trans. Vnutrenniye Voiska Ministerstva Vnutrennikh Del, VV MVD), operating in Chechnya. Photos taken during the 2004 Byeslan school hostage crisis show the camouflage pattern being worn by some members of the MVD Special Rapid Reaction Units (Russian: Специальные отряды быстрого реагирования, trans. Spetsial'nye otryady bystrogo reagirovaniya, SOBR).

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