Army plans to phase out $5 billion pixelated uniform design

The Army will be phasing out a pixelated uniform design that soldiers have criticized as an ineffective camouflage, The Daily reports.

The design, which debuted in 2004, cost $5 billion to develop and roll out to the service branch, according to the report. Soldiers have criticized the gray-green uniform for standing out where it has been worn.

The Program Executive Office Soldier, the Army branch in charge of equipping soldiers with gear, had rushed a decision before test trials were completed, the report said. The trials were supposed to take two years and address the issue of soldiers going to war in three-color desert fatigues and strapping dark gear over their chests, resulting in contrasting colors that stood out at rifle distances, according to the report.

Instead, before trials were completed, the Program Executive Office Soldier asked uniform engineers to select colors and create a pixelated pattern, similar to another design for the Marine Corps that first appeared around 2002, the report said.

Cheryl Stewardson, a textile technologist at the Army research center in Natick, Mass was quoted in The Daily saying that the decision was motivated by the thinking that, “If it’s good enough for the Marines, why shouldn’t the Army have that same cool new look?”

Hat tip: Business Insider’s Robert Johnson