kamouflage.net camouflage data

On 23 October 2002, Chechen terrorists seized a Moscow theatre. Among the units mobilised, to deal with the situation, were the 'black masks', a sub-group of the Russian MVD's Otryad Spetsial'nogo Naznacheniya (trans. Russian: 'special purpose group', OSN) «Vityaz'». [Image: militaryphotos.net.]

Tigr
Russian Federation

The Ministry of Internal Affairs (Russian: Министерство внутренних дел, trans. Ministerstvo Vnutrennikh Del, MVD) issues regular army uniforms to its Internal Troops (Russian: Внутренние войска Министерства внутренних дел, trans. Vnutrenniye Voiska Ministerstva Vnutrennikh Del, VV MVD) and special operations units. At the time of writing, the latest camouflage pattern to be issued to the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation was Flora, which is very effective in central Russia.

Unfortunately, a camouflage pattern that works well in the fields near Moscow isn't necessarily suitable to all of the diverse environments, in which the VV MVD and other Russian special forces are required to operate. For this reason most special operations units supplement their issue uniforms with commercially produced camouflage uniforms purchased by sponsors or out of their own pockets.

Introduced in 1994, Tigr (Russian: Тигр, 'tiger') appears to be one of them. A four-colour camouflage, comprising ragged horizontal stripes of black, earth brown and medium green on a khaki background, Tigr bears a very strong resemblance to some Portuguese camouflage patterns.

Initially this camouflage pattern and its urban variant, Ten' (Russian: Тень, 'shadow'), seemed to be worn almost exclusively by members of the Detachment of Special Purpose 'Vityaz'' (Russian: Отряд специального назначения «Витязь», OSN 'Vityaz''). However, photos taken during the 2002 Moscow theatre hostage crisis and the 2004 Byeslan school hostage crisis show that the Ten' camouflage pattern is now also worn by other formations within the VV MVD.

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