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A member of Belgium's Airsoft Brugge, dressed in a Russian uniform

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A member of Belgium's Airsoft Brugge, dressed as a member of the anti-terrorist sub-group of the Russian MVD's Otryad Spetsial'nogo Naznacheniya (trans. Russian: 'special purpose group', OSN) «Vityaz'». As such, he wears the four-colour Russian «Ten'» ((trans. Russian: 'shade') camouflage uniform. [Image: Airsoft Brugge.]

Ten'
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, Ten' (Russian: Тень, 'shadow') appears to be one of them. A four-colour camouflage, comprising ragged horizontal stripes of black, dark blue and medium blue on a light blue background.

Initially this camouflage pattern and its woodland variant, Tigr (Russian: Тигр, 'tiger'), 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 MVD units, especially OMON (Russian: Отряд милиции особого назначения, trans. Otryad militsii osobogo naznacheniya, Special Purpose Police Squad).

camouflage data

1cm grid

Ten'
1994–present

Specimen of Ten'

Specimen kindly supplied by Brad Turner

Actual size: 21.49×27.94cm

 also known as:
  • pyatnisto-fioletovoye obmundirovaniye ('spotted violet uniform'; abbrev. PFO) pattern
  • urban tiger
  • Vitiaz' urban PFO tiger pattern
  • Vityaz' urban PFO tiger pattern
country of origin:

Российская Федерация

National flag: Russian Federation

Russian Federation
used by:
  • OMON (Russian: Отряд милиции особого назначения, trans. Otryad militsii osobogo naznacheniya, Special Purpose Police Squad).
  • Detachment of Special Purpose 'Vityaz'' (Russian: Отряд специального назначения «Витязь», OSN 'Vityaz'').

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