Mirage, MultiCam, UCP – a quick comparison

There’s been talk of the US Army conducting a test to select the uniform camo to replace UCP (ACU) for use in Afghanistan. Its probably pretty much certain that MultiCam will be in that group to be tested. What’s maybe not so certain is whether Mirage Camo from Bulldog Tactical Equipment would be included.

So, since the folks at Bulldog were kind enough to send me one of their uniforms, I organised a photo shoot last Sunday to do a quick comparison of Mirage to MultiCam and UCP in some different settings. Whilst in no way as extensive – or across as many different types of settings – as the Army would do, it might at least give you some indication of effectiveness. To my eye, the Mirage camo seems to be slightly more “low-visibility” and natural-looking than MultiCam. But see what you think….

Thanks to my buddies Jason and Ed for starring as “Mr. MultiCam” and “Mr. Repro-UCP”, and to Benji Hanson for the photography. This has been a Strike-Hold! production.

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You’re currently reading “Mirage, MultiCam, UCP – a quick comparison,” an entry on Strike - Hold!

Published:: 31/08/2009 / 20:41

Category:: Camouflage-IFF, Clothing

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“Strike-Hold!” is the motto of the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the US Army’s 82nd Airborne Division, in which I served during the 1980’s. It also seemed like a fitting name for a site dedicated to all things related to elite forces, special operations units – and gear, operations and history. Whether you’re real-deal or milsim this is the place to be.

Lawrence, Editor-in-Chief

Dixie 8.31.09 / 9pm

Mirage seems to keep its texture a bit more, even at distance. It’ll be interesting to see if its included in the test group.

stupid civie 8.31.09 / 11pm

Wow. The UCP pattern damn near glows under some lighting conditions.

strikehold 9.1.09 / 11am

All – it turns out that the UCP-ACU used in the comparison is in fact a reproduction, not authentic issue. This is why it probably looks a bit brighter than usual. The MultiCam gear is 100% authentic Crye Precision kit.

1. stupid civie 9.1.09 / 4pm
  
  strike, I see. Still, you had a recent image from sniper training in Germany in which the brightness contrast was just as severe.

Eric 9.1.09 / 10am

UCP looks very “bright” compared to MC and Mirage. Mirage looks a little darker and may blend in better with some of the greener areas of Afganistan. At the very least, it will be intereting to hear about the test results.

Dana Heinsen 9.1.09 / 11am

Dixie & Stupid Civie hit the nail on the head. Mirage definitely seems to blend in more. Mirage Camo tends to be the last uniform my eye attracts to, which is the best thing for our Troops. Cheers to Strike-Hold! for putting this photo shoot together.

Mike P 9.1.09 / 2pm

I never realized how much the ACU stands out! Holy Moses! So where are we on the new camo for our troops?

What goes into deciding new camo too? I can imagine the headache in changing everything but having the edge in staying hidden is a huge plus.

Although, do the ACU’s defense… does the ACU in the pics look a little faded than normal?

James 9.1.09 / 8pm

I’d like to see photos in various terrain at distances of 50+ yards.

Camouflage that looks good up close is just a big dark blob as longer ranges (such as Realtree)
For some examples of what the terrain looks like in Afghanistan check out Michael Yon’s Blog. Lots of really good photos there.

Decent Weasel 9.2.09 / 6pm

Really agree with James here. I like the colors in Mirage quite a bit better than the others; in my experience the light green in multicam stands out badly in non-vegetated or autumn/winter environments. The trouble is that Multicam, Mirage and ACU all seem to have the same problem ultimately; whether by having too small of a pattern or colors that are too close together, they just blob out into one solid human-shaped silhouette that says “hi.” The only difference seems to be whether that human shape is gray, greenish or clay-colored. One problem with the digital camouflage craze is it seems to have led to selective amnesia on what a pattern is actually supposed to do (break up the human shape) and that it can’t accomplish that by just imitating the background at one set range.

strikehold 9.4.09 / 9am

At some range, all camouflage patterns “blob out”. What matters is whether that blob is recognisable as a human shape, whether its colour matches the environmental surroundings, and also whether its been optimised with anti-infra-red (and or thermal) treatments to defeat electro-optical devices.

In addition of course, the pattern also has to be effective at disguising (aka, “camouflaging”) the human shape and appearance at closer ranges. And finally, it has to ALSO be of a distinctive appearance for IFF purposes.

To make a pattern that achieves all of those requirements AND also works in multiple terrain environments is a very tall order indeed!

Riaan Rossouw 9.3.09 / 7pm

Hurray, somebody finally cottoned on.
Few copies of the Cadpat actually result in a useful macro pattern. Marpat woodland is the only other colour way that I’ve seen which does this.
It is so KISS simple to create a decent pattern. The hardest problem is picking the right colours…

camo comparison « The Camo Side of Dominic Hyde 9.4.09 / 2pm

[…] 4 09 2009 Over on Strike-Hold!, Lawrence has put together a bunch of photo’s showing how Bulldog’s Mirage camouflage […]

r1p_c0rd 9.5.09 / 7pm

the ACU is about as much use as an ashtray on a motorcycle: the only time it is every effective is when it isn’t being used for it’s primary purpose… which this test clearly shows.

the MultiCam is the mainsteam benchmark multi environental pattern and i think deffinately holds it’s own in this test.

but i too would have to agree that the Mirage pattern seems to be most adaptive in these tests.

the issues i have with all three of these is the distinct lack of a macro element and i think that the argument for that is that the genreal approach to macro patterns is that they must be darker to imply shadow to be perceived as depth/negative space and these darker elements would narrow the environmental scope of the design but who said that macro patterns must be darker? the use of darker macro elements combined with lighter macro elements has been demonstrated very well with the Pencott design. it would be interesting to see how that would have stacked up in this test….

Unifrom test by Strike-Hold « Doc Jack's Blog 9.6.09 / 6am

[…] Strike-Hold […]

Decent Weasel 9.11.09 / 8pm

r1p_c0rd, totally agree with you (and LOL@ the ashtray on a motorcycle comment). I remember when they released ACU I could sort understand that they didn’t want to use black, but it seemed weird to me that they didn’t compensate for that loss. Desert patterns have to avoid dark, overly contrasting elements too, but that doesn’t mean they can’t have a macro, it just means you have to pick, say, chocolate brown or OD instead of black.

Matt 9.6.09 / 4pm

Outstanding review of the various patterns out there. Pictures say a thousand words.

Matthijs 9.11.09 / 12pm

Nice test, although I think it’s a bit unfair to have the MultiCam-dude wear a webbing vest.. The Mirage pattern looks a bit like German Flecktarn to me, like it!

UCP is going down! I hope. « Doc Jack's Blog 9.18.09 / 6am

[…] Strike-Hold “Mirage, MultiCam, UCP- a quick comparison” […]

DocProf 9.25.09 / 4pm

Believe it or not, there is a lot of science in these patterns.

The UCP works because it tricks the human eye and the way your brain processes what it is seeing into thinking there isn’t anything there.

Multicam works by catching the light reflecting off of objects around it. If you’re in a green environment, it looks more green. In brown, it looks more brown….

Mirage’s strengths are that it combines both concepts into one pattern.

Decent Weasel 9.25.09 / 8pm

>The UCP works because it tricks the human eye and the way your brain processes what it is seeing into thinking there isn’t anything there.

Can you be more specific? I’d love to get a better idea of how UCP works but what you’ve said sounds nonspecific enough it could apply to any camouflage at all…

Riaan Rossouw 9.27.09 / 8pm

The Cadpat works by firstly matching the terrains fractal dimension – it’s visual roughness. Think of it as the statistical frequency of the visible edges. If you run a suitbly sized highpass filter on an image you’ll see the texture.

Secondly the colouration of the areas “co-operate” to form a macro pattern. This can be visualised by running a lowpass filter on the image. In the case of Cadpat this results in a light band on a dark olive background. Inverse for Marpat – dark band on medium olive.
This doesn’t happen in the UCP, the colour assignments to the various shapes are all wrong. The UCP-D colouration still won’t work – in my opinion.

Multicam doesn’t quite hit the texture matching, but it does form a macro pattern.
From what I’ve seen so far Mirage hits the texture matching, but the macro patterning is achieved at up to medium range only.

Decent Weasel 9.28.09 / 6pm

Riaan –
you are my hero and stuff. Do you think that Multicam’s got enough contrast to make the macro actually pop? From what I’ve seen it’s got so little contrast between the colors that the macro isn’t especially vislble at range.

Riaan Rossouw 9.28.09 / 7pm

Hi Weasel
No hero, just my hobby and part time job for the last 5 years – helping the South African camouflage development effort
.
Multicam exploits a whole bag of tricks aimed at fooling the human visual system.
Is the contrast high enough? From what I’ve seen, not quite, but then I’ve only seen it in forested areas.

Have a look here: http://media.photobucket.com/image/multicam/myspacedesigns_military/army/multicam-crye-background.jpg
Run lowpass filters on it and see how the pattern changes over distance. I use wavelet decomposition – a bit different.

Decent Weasel 9.28.09 / 8pm

South Africa? Had a boss from SA back in the day; real cool guy. Always great to hear about new cammo. I’ll be expecting to see something amazing from you guys before too long 🙂

Dell 10.2.09 / 2am

Natick Labs tested UCP, Multicam, and Mirage (among others) in 2007-2008. Multicam performed better than both Mirage and UCP. Mirage is included in the new study.

Riaan Rossouw 10.2.09 / 5pm

Very interesting…Source?

Dell 10.2.09 / 5pm

Good source. Of note, that Multicam peformed better as a type of universal pattern. The new test is obviously oriented towards a specific area of operation – not necessarily multi-spectral – and the results should be interpreted accordingly. However, across multiple environments, the Multicam does significantly outperform UCP and Mirage.

Riaan Rossouw 10.3.09 / 7pm

I was hoping for a PDF or some data….

Decent Weasel 10.5.09 / 3pm

Like this one? 😉

Riaan Rossouw 10.5.09 / 8pm

Got that one already.
I thought you had some other info, since you mentioned “obvious orientation to a specific AO”.
Drop me a mail – I’ll send ya some interresting evaluation info.

Decent Weasel 10.5.09 / 8pm

Drop you a mail where? Or is this for Dell’s eyes?

Riaan Rossouw 10.5.09 / 9pm

Hi DW

Anyone interrested can drop me a mail.

riaan (at) wettest dot co dot za
wetTEST is a water test equipment company I’m involved in.

C 2.24.10 / 5am

Hmm…as much as I like multicam, I can really see the light “green glow” come out on the multicam uniform in more than one of the photos. The mirage camo seems to have a more dull outline which appears to be better in all environments. However, the mirage camo does appear to be a bit dark in some of the lighter environments. The ACU obviously sucks as it actually looks artificial and not natural like the surroundings.

2010 in review « Strike – Hold! 1.2.11 / 9am

[…] Mirage, MultiCam, UCP – a quick comparison August 2009 33 comments 5 […]

Rusty 6.22.11 / 7pm

None of them are as effective as they could be. To be the best long range camo, which is what you want, then you have to break up the shape of the body because your eyes are attracted to, and recognize shapes. If you can break up the shape of the body such that the eye doesn’t recognize it, then you are really on to something. So I want to see more light and dark contrasting patches underneath that camo pattern. For instance, the whole left shoulder could have a dark base, while the right shoulder has a much lighter base. On top of those contrasting patterns, you use contrasting patterns to break up the larger shape. So on top of the dark shoulder, you have a mix of lighter splotches, and on top of the lighter shoulder, you have a mix of darker splotches. There would be some splotches on both shoulders that are the same color though. This pattern would repeat throughout the uniform in large areas. Thus what you have done is create a camo patter that works at long range to break up the shape, just as the camo patterns above break up the shape of say, a pocket at close range.

Decent Weasel 6.27.11 / 3pm

Amen to that, Rusty.

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