kamouflage.net camouflage data

A British military pilot, operating out of Kabul airport, June 2004. He wears the British two-colour desert disruptive pattern, which is a variation of the 1984 woodland disruptive camouflage pattern. It was developed in a very short time, to replace the earlier four-colour desert disruptive camouflage pattern. {Image: SHAPE photos.]

British Desert DPM
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

In 1991, when Britain went to war with Iraq, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) had stocks of a desert version of the national Disruptive Pattern Material (DPM) camouflage. However, the MoD was unwilling to issue the four-colour desert DPM uniforms because, in 1986, Iraq had been allowed to purchase surplus uniforms made of the same cloth. The MoD naturally refused to send its troops to war dressed identically to their Iraqi enemies.

In the short time available, a new desert camouflage was devised. The basic 1984 DPM pattern was retained, but it was decided to drop the brown and reverse the screens for printing the other two colours.

Unfortuantely, the new three-colour pattern was still too similar to the original desert four-colour desert DPM. Therefore another colour was dropped — and this also helped to reduce production time and costs.

Also known as 'rust and sand', the resultant two-colour desert DPM consists of rust brown brush-strokes on a light sand background.

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