Post by balooSomebody please put me out of my misery!! What does DPM stand for?
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Disruptive+Pattern+Material
says...
"Disruptive Pattern Material (DPM) is a camouflage pattern used by British
forces as well many other armies worldwide, particularly in former colonies.
Direct copies or variations of DPM have been used by Canada, Jordan, The
Netherlands, New Zealand, Oman, Pakistan, Portugal, Russia, Saudi Arabia,
Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates, to name but a few.
The main variant is a four-colour woodland pattern with olive, green, brown
and black, there is also a two-colour desert variant in tan and brown. DPM
has been criticised for its use of black, as "there's no black in nature!"
but once faded, it becomes dull and subdued.
The British army had used a disruptive pattern material for the famous
Denison Smock issued to parachute troops from the early 1940s. The first
examples of this design were hand-painted.
A general issue British DPM was developed in the 1960s, and in 1966 the Army
introduced for the first time a camouflage field uniform, the Smock, combat,
1966 Pattern and Trousers, combat, 1966 Pattern. These replaced the plain
olive green 1960 Pattern Smock and Trousers which had replaced the Second
World War-era khaki Battledress. In doing this the British army was the
first to adopt a camouflage uniform universally.
The 1966 pattern DPM design used the four basic western European temperate
colours of black, dark brown, mid-green and a dark sand to make a very
effective camouflage that has survived in its basic design, with slight
changes to the colours, until current times.
Before the 1966 Pattern equipment had reached all units a slightly revised
design of garments and DPM fabric were introduced in 1968 as the 1968
Pattern range. A Hood, combat, DPM, was added to the range, fastened as
required to the back of the Smock with three buttons.
The 1966 Pattern DPM fabric was changed very little for the 1968 issue,
though it seems that some 1968 Pattern garments, notably trousers, were made
in the 1966 Pattern fabric.
The pattern changes slightly with subsequent issues; 1984 Pattern has fewer
dots and the brown is much darker, 1990 and later has a band of new shapes
and is smaller, 1994 has an orangey colour instead of a tan. DPM items in
the Combat Soldier 95[1] (CS95) clothing system have similar colours to the
1966 uniform.
Although slight changes have been made to DPM and the colours, the pattern
is easy to recognise. There are also jungle versions of DPM where the
colours are brighter, on one variation the tan is darker than the green.
Desert DPM is only two shades because a four-colour desert version was used
by some Middle Eastern countries, notably Iraq.
From 1990 a system of Personal Load Carrying Equipment (PLCE) has been used,
initially produced in olive green . The olive type was quickly replaced in
production by a DPM version, and now almost all British issue webbing and
rucksacks are DPM.
Issued DPM equipment is IRR (Infra-red Reflective) coated. This coating has
a specific reflective wavelength in order to blend in with natural colours
in the infra-red light spectrum. This reduces the visibility of soldiers to
night vision devices, which detect infra-red light, as trees and other green
plants reflect deep red and infra-red light (the Wood effect). "
What he said...
--
Stephen Rainsbury
ESL Agathoid Explorer Scout Unit
www.agathoid.org.uk(remove this bit)