Borders, Frogs, Predators, Lizards & Pixels: Ukraine’s Search for a Standardized Camouflage Pattern
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- čas přidán 21. 07. 2024
- Ukraine has been in the news as of late due to the ongoing war which has spread throughout the country. Starting over eight years ago this conflict has seen Ukraine forced to implement a series of changes to their Armed Forces on nearly every level. One of the most widespread and seen, at least when wearers want it that way, is camouflage. In this one we take a look at Ukraine's long road to updating its standard issue camouflage pattern and the eventual adoption of MM14.
Combat SPN's Analysis of The "Digital Flecktarn" Pattern: spn-kiev-ua.translate.goog/st...
Chapters:
0:00 Intro and The Lingering Soviet Patterns
2:36 Abatrex: The Early Attempt
3:30 Border Digital: The First Camouflage
4:40 Perspective 2012 and New Developments
6:32 Momentum Builds: Digital Flecktarn
8:39 Setbacks and The Frog Patterns
10:28 Phantom Patterns
11:15 Euromaidan and The Start of The Russo-Ukrainian War
13:27 The Experimental Transitional Pattern
13:51 MM14 Appears
16:40 Volunteers and Wide Scale Changes
17:09 Cut and Fabric Controversies
18:02 Varan Enters The Scene
22:14 Problems Arise with Varan
25:10 The Fate of Varan and MM14
26:19 Conclusion
Intro Music by: www.juliancrowhurst.com/
Music by:
Is That You or Are You You by Chris Zabriskie is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommons.org/licenses/...
I'm glad we aren't the only country that camouflage selection turns into a giant clusterfuck. I liked that Frog and Veran stuff though. Awesome video, I learned a lot and I appreciate your efforts.
It's like that with almost everywhere. Just take a look at Russia and China. The sheer volume of camouflage patterns they shit out is pretty nuts.
That’s actually a problem every country has militaries are constantly tweaking or changing their camo it’s surprisingly harder than it looks.
I have talked to a military guy, Varan doesn’t really have a camouflage ability
I like A-TACS.
Who tf is “we?”
The MM14 looks like what most people expected UCP to look like when it first came out in 2004.
There were mockups online that showed UCP originally in shades of light green and tan, that it almost looked like digital multicam/scorpion.
Then when it finally came out and turned out to be gray…
That is what UCP should have been. It ended up being just urban camo in digital form.
Grey works every equally ... Equally badly!
@@wh8787 grey is actually great
well it's not just grey.. it's light grey/an almost white shade of grey. i mean Austria has been using plain grey (Feldgrau) uniform for decades and honestly it looks blends better than their new camouflage pattern.
@@KapitanVladimirArsenyev yes, obviously it has a variety of different shades, one of them isn't even technically grey, it's "sage" but the problem is that in any vegetative environment, it stands out badly. It also only works marginally well in a desert, so that leaves urban environments, arctic environments, and mountains. The problem is that camouflage in general isn't that useful in urban warfare (arguably UCPs most suitable application), and while it works OK in snowy environments, other specialised patterns work far better, and the US military didn't really do any fighting in arctic conditions, leaving a bit of mountain warfare in Afghanistan... There is a reason soldiers hated it and the US army got rid of it really quickly. Yes, my original comment was deliberately flippant, but the pattern itself was bad. Feldgrau is effective, but also a different thing.
I have an MM14 BARS suit, which was sent to me to review a few years ago by the company that produces them for the Ukrainian army, it's a fantastic cold weather suit but way to warm in the UK sadly even in the winter.
The colour works a bit like East German Strichtarn, picks up ambient light very well so can appear grey, brown or green depending on the surroundings and lighting.
It did do surprisingly well. Would be interesting to see you re-test it during the summer when your area is more lush and green.
Remove some of the insulation?
Hmmm..I don't think so(about comparing Strichtarn and UA Armed Force patter).MM-14 created for steppe.On Donbass region,Kherson i,Mykolaiv oblast's(districts)it's a great camo,but not in European wild.Like a MTP too))
@@user-oi3hu6nf1s He’s saying strichtarn cm angles color depending how on the lighting. It can look brown sometimes and green other times.
@@Rokaize Aaah,yeah, that's true.Espetially,at 2014-early 2015,rare examples
There is also "Mavka" pattern adopted by many SOF in Ukraine
I have fallen in love with MM14 over this past month I will admit, but Varan is very interesting and looks quite effective if the printing process wasn't so bad.
My Stepson is an Ukrainian Army Officer and always referred to the MM14 pattern as "the pixel". I guess he didn't ever heard about its official designation. In peacetime Ukraine you could buy a full uniform in street fairs for a few coins. I own several items and they are very well crafted.
Yeah, it's widely known as "pixel", indeed. I bought one myself in a local store a year ago, it cost me roughly $45
Yeah, that's not an uncommon name. Either "pixel" or "digital" is a standard name for any pattern that features pixels.
Damn, varan actually looked really cool and effective. He was right, too; I could easily create something that looks almost exactly like mm14 by dying an army acu
Not effective, know from a guy who’s unit used the uniform.. very un affective
@@walczyc9572 everyone knows acu wasn’t un-affective. He just wants to create mm14 I’m guessing
The way varan fades is EXACTLY the same as the New Zealand MCU fades, even down to turning a slight, faded purple colour as you wore/washed it
There was also a dark blue version of the initial digital pattern for internal troops, it is more grayish than the Navy version.
Also Soviet Butan not the same as Ukrainian Dubok.
Yep.
National Guard camo that existed in mostly 2015.
Varan might be the best looking modern camo pattern while being highly effective.
Fascinating. I have been following the Ukrainian conflict since 2014 and had the privilege of speaking with some Ukrainian military/tactical industry members and still didn't know all of this.
real camouflage ukraine no fake off all ok
Actually, we divided MM14 on two versions - Gilyateyka (that one uniform with norwegian pockets and poor quality(it was named after minister of defence btw)) and Pixel - the one is used today with better quality and changed pockets placement and other stuff.
"Finally! We made the perfect camouflage! The wearers are practically invisible."
"Great work! Now have them all wear this brightly colored duct tape so they won't get shot by our own side."
To be fair, Russians are also doing this, wearing white and red duct tape
@@mykhaylovarvarin9078 at least white and red doesn't stick out or "glowing" in the environment like yellow duct tape.
@@fabiandimaspratamathesecond That is why we have now many forces wear dark-blue ductapes.
@@fabiandimaspratamathesecond white is one of the most noticeable colors for the eye because it is rare in the wild nature if there is no snow.
@@fabiandimaspratamathesecond Does red color stand out? Consider why red is the primary warning color.
Besides, it doesn't matter from a distance. The stripes are too small and they are no longer visible from hundreds of meters. But they help a lot when fighting in urban areas. Where it is more important to understand who is in front of you than in principle to determine whether there is someone in front.
Great Vid. It's interesting how MM14 is now almost iconic to the war with Russia and as somewhat of a Ukrainian symbol.
Definitely the scrappy underdog camo
Actually Kazakshtan and Turkemistan Army use similar pattern based on ACUPAT. But Ukrainian MM14 seems superior.
@@stevemc6010 I would argue, as it works.. and our soldiers like it
@@walczyc9572 You know it doesn't work well.
It's about enough to make you say "Screw it, we're just going to have plain green uniforms!"
We could have saved a lot of money in Iraq by just not wearing uniforms because white ppl skin blends with sand.
@@Graymenn bruh. It doesn’t blend in after it gets scorched by the sun’s radiation
Olive drab for temperate enviroments and khaki for desert ones. That's it!
@@arx3516 You have a point, you know. And an armband or two, in color, to distinct friendlies from hostile.
Feldgrau only 4ever
the Varan looks really nice, shame they weren't able to find a way to make it work.
Thank you for the video, I have a full set of Varan from P1G-Tac (not the ZSU) which I play airsoft in (Sweden), and it's crazy effective. It blends in absolutely perfectly in fields/tall grass, and in spring/fall people get mesmerized by the effectiveness. Even in summer it's good in brown-dominant areas. I love it to bits and was hoping to buy other stuff in it right before the war happened.
I'm a camo-freak and I can clearly see the Varan being a very, very thought-through pattern - none of that "needs to look good" uniform designer crap, it was made to blend in and disrupt, and that it does splendidly. Like Pencott Greenzone.
Камуфляж Varan застосовується в десанті.
“Wh-what are you doing, st-steppe frog?”
My friends dad was in Ukrain for 5 months. Since he was ex millitary (German Bundeswehr) he used his „Tropentarn“ or „5 Farben Flecktarn“. He said it worked well where he was stationed but when rotating trough tick forests he would always put on a leaf ghilly cape (or whatever it’s called in English)
In English we still call it the leaf ghilly but spelled ghillie. Is his father an advisor? A pmc?
As a graphic designer I find it really interesting how difficult the development of these patterns seem to be. I feel like you should be able to design and test them fairly easily. But that's clearly not the case. Thanks for a fascinating video.
If you look at the companies that make hunting camouflage they iterate quite frequently but the trend is for much more terrain specific patterns. The most popular ones literally being collages of realistic images of flora (leaves, sticks, tree bark, grass, etc.) as they appear in certain seasons. Militaries don't go for this as it would require every soldier to not only have potentially dozens of uniforms but walking too far would necessitate changing as the one you have suddenly drops in effectiveness as the terrain changes. Making uniforms that are effective in several kinds of terrain, in various lighting conditions, and under multiple night vision technologies is quite difficult.
@@darthhodges Yes that's very interesting, I guess it's not possible to get past a certain level of effectiveness unless you are willing to be environment specific.
And the testing, I suppose, is always going to be arbitrary to a degree, since you can't really predict the exact conditions that the pattern will be used in.
But fashion does seem to play a rather large role as well at least when it comes to the shapes and stylistic conventions like the digital patterns or the undulating shapes of older styles.
In Sweden for instance we have a pattern that is essentially made up of a lot of angular shapes. And I can't really think of any reason other than artistic for that particular choice.
@@mikaelsundblad5381 Your final point is all too often true. The US Army's UCP, US Navy NWU, and the US Air Force Digital Tiger Stripe patterns all were very expensive to develop but all were ineffective as camouflage. Critics specifically called them, as a group, a multi-million dollar government fashion contest. Uniform History has videos on all of them.
@Mikael Sundblad - Designing a pattern isn't really all that hard, once you've created the math processes to do it.
The process creates a suitable noise structure and convolves it with a symmetry axis disrupting structure, the resulting pattern would match environmental textures and disrupt the soldiers shape. Then you can apply some styling at the micro scale to affect how the pattern looks up close, but doesn't affect it's actual use. Getting a pattern with a high CDI (Chicks Dig It) factor is a much harder affair and has so far eluded me. Coloration and pattern exist seperately and are decided on based on an environmental audit. Lab level testing is fairly easy, but complex to setup and get useful outcomes. Field testing is a whole other ball game, very few get it right, usually due to not using consistent targets.
@@rrossouw100 "CDI Factor". Rofl, I'm stealing that! Thanks for insights, too. :)
Hi from Ukraine! Great video, much work and research have been put into it. Thanks for covering our camouflage history. Keep it up! Best of luck.
Stay safe 🙏 ❤️
Nails the foreign pronunciation at 15:16, flubs the pronunciation of English. In a wonderful video covering a serious subject at a time of massive crisis, you brought not only a great amount of info, but also a big smile. Thanks for a great video!
I'm from Ukraine and ur pronunciation was great 👍
The use of Swiss steel pot helmets is interesting, too.
Great video! The history of the various uniforms around the world as always fascinating. Slava Ukraini! 🇺🇦
героям слава!
Slava 🇷🇺
Amazing depth in this video. Really appreciate all the research that went into this. Great work!
That alpenflage helmet cover at 3:50. Nice.
I noticed that too :-)
I love seeing Ukrainian forces. One soldier wearing alpenflange, one wearing Flecktarn, one wearing m81 BDU, one dressed in a stolen museum Wehrmacht uniform, and all of them from the same squad 😂
Steppe Frog, what are you doing?
😳
MM14 is FAR better than the US ACU. The later is good only in a gravel quarry, and then only if overcast.
Some of the vids out there where Ukrainian troops are in the bush you can really see this camo is actually good.
Don't be silly, it works everywhere- it blends with gray grass, gray trees, grey bushes, gray sky, etc. And actually "ACU" is the cut, Army Combat Uniform, which is still used today. The pattern is properly called UCP, officially Universal Camouflage Pattern, unofficially Useless Camouflage Pattern. To be fair, it actually works pretty well for urban warfare, although it's only function in the field is to make you *easier* to see. Oh, and it also blends well with Grandma's couch, too.
@@cammobunker Also works well against grey concrete walls when both the walls and the wearer are covered in dust.
Another outstanding video. How about one on the Greek lizard stripe, does not look like it changed much over the decades until the introduced a desert variation for Afghanistan. They are one of the last European armies to still have an analog camouflage pattern.
Varan camuflage looks quite original and interesting
What a marathon of development, errors and bad luck...
Thanks for another great video 😎
I'm digging that Varan pattern. Too bad it fades so quickly.
A great video. I got a chance to be related to the events of 2015-2016 volunteer in uniform and gear development for the Armed forces of Ukraine and worked for p1g until 2018. This video brings some good memories. Thank you.
KLMK isn't exactly a pattern, it's what a specific jumpsuit is called, though it doesn't seem to be an official designation. The pattern itself is often called berezka, and was also used by Soviet border guards in green and yellow.
Thank you Uniform Daddy for another great video
fantastic video, you've definitely done a lot of research. I personally was impressed with the varan, if they could get the fading problem fixed, that seemed quite effective.
The frog was brilliant. None ever thought to disguise his troops as higlighters.
Nice pronunciation and analysis, greetings from UA!
There are many videos and photos of Ukrainians fielding pieces of equipment in the old US UCP camo. The US is probably supplying Ukraine with many outdated UCP pieces, a handy side effect of having a camo similar to that of another nations old pattern
Nice video, thank you, had a lot of questions about their camo watching footage recently - this covered them all.
These videos are great. I’m surprised this video doesn’t have a couple hundred thousand views.
In a lot of cases, you could say that greed, corruption and politics went in the way of progress, but for Ukraine, it has often been even more than that. Those people have it tough on many accounts and very tough on yet even many more.
I was quite surprised to see a local suspicious guy selling these patterns of uniforms and gear in 2018. Or was it 2017... so I got some stuff after I looked at all the labels and very much touched everything. This pissed the guy off. Years later I would be banned from his shop by him (haha, banned) after I knocked him to the ground after he assaulted a pensioner who said that the soft, insulated vests with this pattern were too expensive. At about 15 euros, I didn't quite feel that way, but pensioners around here often live with between 180 and 280 euros. Still no reason for that guy to try and push the pensioner outta his shop and down a flight of stairs, though.
But before I got banned from his shop I had bought a bunch for... not so cheap and I was impressed with the uniforms. The camo worked in the fields and in the light forests and some pockets were quite practical. I used it only for airsofting and the heavier use of zippers on the uniform did not bother me and caused me no issues. I liked it. But after all of this, the pattern is still smuggled out which leads me to think that there were other problems now which could have been avoided, leaving Ukraine in a better position for days like these. I am surprised that the digital flecktarn failed, it seems really cool! I'd love to try it out.
That German soldier modelling Flecktarn with the G36 looks absolutely terrifying.
Buffed AF
Lol that poor guy just wants to look "good" on photo :-)
Thank for this video!
Greetings from UA!!!
A-TACS AU is my year round camo. Works extremely well in winter, and in Summer. Most Woodland environments have tree trunks at the Ground to 6,8, 12ft+ Mark. As a soldier, you'll be standing or prone while engaged. A-TACS AU also has another interesting trait. It can 'Absorb' colors around it. So a AU uniform in Woodland takes on Green shades due to Light refraction/reflection/absorption. It's hard to explain without seeing it.
A-TACS AU is outstanding. One downside of Multicam/MTP/Scorpion is that it's EVERYWHERE. China, Russia, South America, Mexico, Chechnya, and more.
The U.S. Needs to issue a Pattern and lock it down, like the Canadians have with CADPAT. Being able to ID a Friend or Foe is important. Sucks if you're the guy who stumbles up with his M4 on his back on a group of 6 Russians kitted out in Multicam.
Problem is.. everytime US introduce new camo.. other countries quickly copied it. Since M81 Woodland, then UCP/ACUPAT (yes at one point Azerbaijan and Serbia copied it), then Multicam (W2 Scorpion is not included here because of its similarity with Multicam). Not only Russia copied Multicam, even PLA of P.R.China also interested in it copied Multicam as standard issue during 2015 parade but it was quickly cancelled, they introduced new camo now Type 19 "Starry Sky" pattern.. but the Multicam camo still made its way to People's Armed Police (PAP) with slightly altered color.
The only camo which didn't get copied by other countries is AOR.
The fading of veran, reminds me of how our US Army summer OCP's all faded horribly when they where first introduced initially.
Some really great research here.
As someone who owns several of these patterns and uniforms, an has researched them for my own Instagram posts, I still learned a ton.
.
.
One quick umm, actually though, sorry: a couple times you show Kazakhstan's Army's pattern as either a MM-14 knock-off or as MM-14 looking more green under certain lighting.
wow, what an investigation! thanks for the video
What are you doing, Stepfrog?
Great work as always! I’d like to throw out desert tiger stripe or all terrain tiger stripe for consideration.
That Varan pattern looks pretty awesome. I was surprised at the pictures of its effectiveness I’ve seen online.
The Frog pattern is very interesting. I’m an airsoft player and I have a very similar camo that similar to the Frog pattern. I bought it in the local airsoft shop, and I believe whoever produced that clothes are getting inspired from the Ukrainian Frog camo. Very nice one!
Excellent video as always, learned a lot from this one.
Was waiting for this one
I love your content man. I was just wondering if you could do the history of the Australian Army camouflage and its variants maybe. Thanks.
Favor realizar video de camuflaje de las fuerzas armadas de Colombia, Buen canal, saludos
Colombians have some fantastic military equipment
A great video, exactly what I was looking for.
Steppe Frog looks great for dove hunting season. Got to say though, I really liked the digital flecktarn.
Tons of research done :) Appreciated.
Basically a better version of what the UCP wanted to be.
Can you make one on the Gorka type of uniforms? I would really love to learn its history and development
Горка была создана для горно-стрелковых батальонов во время войны в Афганистане
On 27:20 there is another camouflage, its called MAWKA CAMO, made by Velmet, check it out , pretty cool multicam-like design
Varan is a very interesting pattern, but to my knowledge, it was/is only to be used by the Airborne?
Yes, you're right (it was 'till 2018)
@@user-oi3hu6nf1s Наразі "варан" не використовують вже, розробку закрили?
@@philippmoskalenko3971 комерція залишилась,можна й придбати,але не є формою одягу ДШВ.Та й не сильно використовують,особливо зараз.Принаймні,не спостерігав
@@user-oi3hu6nf1s зрозуміло, дякую. Виглядає вона досить унікально, хоча не знаю напевне наскільки вона відповідає вимогам маскування.
MM14. What UCP wanted to be.
And I thought the US's camouflage woes were complex.
Thx for this video. Please, check the pattern called Mavka made by ukrainian private company Velmet. It's a variation of multicam that made according to the specific of ukrainian nature. Also the quality is amazing.
That camo also used by Special Operations Forces
I don't know if you guys remember the acclaimed 2015 documentary "Winter On Fire" that came out about the Maidan protests, but in that there was footage of militia members wearing something that looks exactly like US Navy NWU Type III (their woodland pattern) which I found very interesting since Type III was not widely available yet, at the time it was only worn by the Navy's expeditionary warfare units. I always wondered, if it was actually Type III, how did they get it?
Yet another great video from you 😃 I found this really interesting. I hate to see Ukraine went down the same path as your country's military went down. So much money must have been wasted to adopt a standard camouflage.... And just looking at the camouflage that's officially adopted, I feel it has too much resemblance to UCP. I didn't realize they have 2 different environments to work in. I think the idea of having two different camos is impractical. I was going to say they should have used multicam, before you mentioned they wanted a camo they could have a pattern over. But overall, I think they should just have a transitional pattern, then not have to worry about having 2 camos. I also found by watching this, their woodland camo looks too dark for green environments
Great video and very timely.
It’s surprising to me how alike the current Ukrainian digital pattern is to UCP dyed in Rit Camel dye. Great video!
Great work as always!
I have a TTsKo uniform and a ssh with a klmk cover lucky i got it b4 shit went down hill
Good reference video!
Excellent. Thank you
I love the digital camo I call it " that acu ucp camo" it's not acu but like it in a way
It is what UCP should have been
@@karakas9905 110% agree
Those Swiss surplus helmet covers in the beginning tho.
MM14 seems like a great fit with their terrain I like the look of the green dominate one but seems like the tan dominate is more of a all around pattern
Another great video guys. I personally would really like a video on A-TACS pattern, I'm curious to see if anybody uses it in a professional manner, and if not, why? I feel like it would do wonders out in the desert.
Chechen units fighting on the Russian side have been filmed wearing a lot of A-TACS FG.
Russian National Guards use domestic copies of A-TACS: Ataka.
this lizard 3d camo is really good. also reminds me of the west german border guard camo. a very good winter camo.
When are you covering the US4CES? Would love to see a video dedicated to that camo
Beautiful pattern 👌
I would love to see a follow-up video on all the strange camos used by separatist forces and Russian forces in Ukraine
The predator camo would work great in the norcal woods
nice vid, veran looks the best just need to be well manufactured
Amazing video, can you look into Croatian patter (CROPAT). Greetings from Croatia
Is that a Swiss alpenflage helmet cover I see at 3:50?
I can't wait for u to do similiar videos with other countries like Peru for example that would be cool
I like this video. Very informative.
Does anyone know if the Abatrex pattern would ever be obtainable by civilians? The bottom multi coloured one looks beautiful
Frog is extremely effective. The problem is that it cannot be made universal. The Frog-forest is beautiful in the forest, the Frog-field in the field. But Ukraine needs universal camouflage, because at different times of the year, in one place, it would be necessary to change the camouflage variant.
Thank you from Ukraine! It was interesting to look back into the history of creation of our uniform. We will win, Glory to Ukraine 🇺🇦
💛💙
No.😁
Slava Ukraine! 🇨🇦 🇺🇦
What does a victory look like for Ukraine at this point? They still have to live beside Russia. America would never tolerate Mexico arming itself with Chinese nukes. I think Ukrainian and western leaders sold out Ukrainian citizens😢
Nobody cares. Also your country is corrupt AF...
Man, I wish some of these patterns were more available.
26:17 This looks awful lot like curent Turkish camo, M2008 "Nano".
It literally is.
Can you do a video about the history of the Norwegian camo pattern?
S-Steppe-frog what are you d-doing?!
i think the MM14 was the best options and love the look of it even if its not the best.
I was wondering about the history of this camouflage earlier today, great minds think alike I guess. Awesome video
Great video. Having subtitles would be better.