This video covers the US Air Force's creation adoption and ultimate retirement of their semi controversial digital tigerstripe Airman Battle Uniforms. Music by: www.juliancrow...
In my civilian career with the Air Force one of the first things that became obvious was the relationship between the USAF and the Army is much closer than either branch wants to admit. Both share the same heritage, almost identical rank structures, and operate closely with each other. In my experience the Air Force usually follows the Army's lead when it comes to things used on the ground.
I saw Army guys in Kandahar (2018-2019) with Sig Saur pistols. Around that time the Air Force started the administrative process of fielding Sigs. In my experience, whenever the army does something, the Air Force usually makes a piss poor attempt to copycat. Same thing with OCP but with burnt orange lettering for the name tapes instead of black.
The Army is the Air Force's daddy. Which is funny because it also means that the Army is Space Force's grandpa. The USAF copying most of what the Army does for things like uniforms makes a lot of sense though. The Army is the largest and it's going to get better pricing simply because of its buying power. Makes sense for another branch to take advantage of that when you're procuring stuff like uniforms and boots. When Generals and Admirals say they want to make their branch distinct, the Pentagon should tell them to do so through actions like making sure your departing servicemembers can use their military skill to obtain equivalent civilian licensing/certification. Or maybe to better support personnel so they aren't offing themselves in record numbers. If your mark of distinction is a stupid camo pattern where it isn't needed, you're a shitty commander. Case in point: the US Navy's NWU type-1. The ugly blue camo that served no purpose and didn't offer any real improvement over the Utilities that it replaced, not to mention that most sailors underway just wear the coveralls. Once it came out that the NWU-1 was nowhere near as fire resistant as it needed to be, the Navy decided that instead of just using what had worked before in the Utilities or an Army pattern, they came up with their own unique woodland and arid patterns. Finally, the Navy seems to have gotten its poop in a group and the new naval working uniforms are going to be the same NWU cut which sailors liked, but just a solid dark blue for lower enlisted and khaki for upper enlisted. Which is fine, because there's no point trying to camoflage sailors on a big gray boat. Oh, and dress whites on a dirty ass ship = DUMB IDEA. Just use the dress black uniform, it looks better anyway. And instead of requiring certain boots, just use an off-the-shelf all black workboot with safety toe and EH rating. If your SEALs or Sea-Bees need camo for the field, just wear Army patterns. They're cheap, available and they work. Navy Corpsmen attached to USMC units are authorized to wear MARPAT.
USAF: Not enough money to get addition security forces who are working 12-16 hour days but we have the money to design a uniform nobody wants or needs.
Marines: did it right the first time Army tested good patterns, picked a nasty one, then sweitched to a good one Airforce: didnt even try, then switched to the army's new one
The Blue Tiger Stripe was trialed when I was growing up on McChord AFB. We joked that the only people that needed it were pilots to blend into the sky.
Great video. Former Army here. I always assumed a few high ups were at a bar and the Army said "check out how terrible of a uniform I made". Then the air force said "hold my beer."
@@Texasmilitarydepartmentvid9654 The current Army pattern was one of the possibilities when they adopted the ACUs. They also did not listen to the troops who almost all wanted a green/brown based camo.
Interesting. When I was in the USAF back in the early 70’s, our fatigue was plain olive drab. It served its purpose. My favorite uniform was the khaki which the USAF discontinued during my enlistment but I wore it to the end. The video simply highlighted the fact that the USAF mis-spent lots of $$$ for a fashion statement. Unless you’re in a special operations unit, you have no need for cammo uniform.
@@madgavin7568 Even during wartime, most USAF airbases are far behind the frontline so the threat of an enemy ground attack is minimal. It's the lone or small group intrusion that worries airbase security. Airbases are also flat with concrete and asphalt airstrips with very few trees so camo uniforms for cover and conceal doesn't make much sense; and who are they hiding from. You want your security forces to been seen to be a deterrent. From my experience, unless they're stationed at the gates, most USAF base security guards patrol in vehicles because they have so much ground to cover.
@@D__Lee Oh okay, but what about the surrounding vicinity of the airfield? You want to have patrols covering a few miles around the airfield right? To prevent the possibility of intruders. Which is where the camo comes into play for concealment in the foliage/vegetation (if its there anyway), or if its a desert.
During my tour, Viet-Nam era Tiger Stripe was very effective in heavy vegetation, but really sucked in desert use...lighter fabric would have made the Tiger Stripe more practical too...
Tony V many of the grunts were shot at first because the tiger stripe wasn’t too effective. From DaLat to Bien Hoa, to Hai Phong, to SaPa to Hoi An to DaNang to Vung Tau.....tigerstripe sucked. ERDL green and brown variants were better off..... The underbrush was mainly browns/tans in those areas...a lot of pine trees. Near the Laotian border is where most of the “jungle” was. Today camo is a fashion statement. There is a desert tiger stripe pattern...it’s also very thin. It works very well in Afghanistan....I used it there. Just my .02 cents from a retired Marine When is the last time you were in Vietnam?? I’m here in Hue now....flew into Phu Bai airport yesterday. Check out some of my videos on my channel.
10 year Air Force vet, and as you mention the Air Force designed this uniform (costing millions of taxpayer dollars) to differentiate us from the other services. When the uniform was being developed the other services already had their digy uniforms which made the then current BDU / DCU uniforms unique to the Air Force. The ABU was a giant waste of time and money, and it had the added benefit of being the shittiest most uncomfortable uniform for deployment I’ve ever experienced and I refused to wear it down range until the DCU (which I’d buy with my own money) became unauthorized. As a security forces (military police to everyone else) troop we were the only non SF combat oriented career field in the Air Force and the ABU was a curse, it was super thick so you’re already boiling in it (not a problem for 99% of the Air Force that work in AC all day) then strapping on armor and the rest of your gear, made things fucking awful. And then after all that wasted money, and tortured troop they decide to ditch the Abu which I’m glad they did, just sorry I never got to wear them. I think the person most directly responsible for this travesty of a uniform was Gen. Hertog (I think that’s how you spell her name) and Mam if you read this please go die in a fire 🖕. Just kidding I don’t really want her to die, and apparently I have to say that otherwise I’ll incur the wrath of RU-vid
Such a waste of money, they should have just stuck with BDU's till our stores ran dry, then pick up whatever the army was using at the time like they are now. I doubt that they would have gone through the BDU supply by now in 2019.
Very true. It was embarrassing as prior service Air Force, that the "Smart, College with bombs" Branch, implemented a camouflage so stupid that uniform contractor issued a public apology. Then again, the Army leadership created the abomination that is UCP while having a superior camouflage on hand and the Marines, "the make do" Branch, actually had a unique and functional camouflage.
The last 2 decades have been nothing short of a uniform debacle for the US Military. The USMC requirement initially started innocently enough when General Jones was Commandant. I happened to be on the inside scoop for a lot of the events that transpired in not just the adoption of MARPAT, but also the love affair with he Coyote Brown color that features prominently on everything from boots to e-tool covers. What this uniform identity crisis (UIC) caused, in all branches, has been a gear and uniform frenzy. And don't get me started on the Army Blues....
The Chief Master Sergeant shown demonstrating the "blue beanie" uniform at 1:03 was assigned to my team at the Combat Support Center on the Air Staff. Air Force Times ran a large spread showing him in the new BDU. It was a bit embarrassing for him, as most of us mocked the uniform (he took it pretty well). Thanks to the internet, someone soon created and started passing around several jokes, mostly composed of color enhanced photos with captions embedded to show what most already thought of the outfit. The pièce de résistance was a series of photos taken of General Jumper and the Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force when they toured forward units overseas. Somebody richly enhanced the blue tint to show just how incongruous the uniform was with the arid environment, and the resulting images made them look like smurfs. Shortly after this fiasco, the program was radically altered. Now don't think the criticism was limited to just this uniform. Many were making fun of the Army's new black beret about the same time and the Navy's strange decision to develop a blue camouflage NWU for wear on shipboard (man overboard - where, where?). Of course we in the USAF were also seriously considering a proposed new Air Force dress uniform that was amazingly reminiscent of something a London bobby (or Keystone cop) would wear. This was nothing new. In the 1960s we had a tropical uniform consisting of shorts and a pith helmet which made you look like a postman on his rounds. Even the old blues I wore during the 70s and 80s sometime resulted in my being mistaken for a Greyhound bus driver. Former Chief of Staff General Merrill McPeak didn't help matters much when he designed our next uniform, a blazer with silver braided cuffs that looked so much like airline pilot uniforms that some people started referring to us as US Air. If you want to see how some of these outfits looked, check out these two links. www.wearethemighty.com/articles/air-force-uniforms en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniforms_of_the_United_States_Air_Force
Wow, incredible stories, thank you for sharing! It seems that a lot of choices about uniforms and gear often boil down to some bureaucrats fashion statement or pet project. The essence of form over function, lol
The other day I read an opinion piece, OK I lightly skimmed an opinion piece, saying EVERY military person should have a duty uniform separate from battle uniforms, because of how Trump is using HHS people as Stazi in Portland. The best thing to come out of the 2000's uniform mess was everyone stopped requiring your combat uniform to look "good" and "neat" in garrison. You want your solidiers to look neat? There's Class Bs. "But you can't work in class Bs!" yeah you want your soldiers to WORK? Let them fucking look like they work! Starched ODs would be that discrete duty uniform. They would fucking suck.
I've been thinking about this comment... it probably will probably eventually transition to tan/khaki. Camouflage has turned more into a fashion statement than of functional use. Just look at the NWU and ABU. Stupidity.
Eric Hansen I never understood that, starching your BDUs is the stupids fucking thing I’ve ever heard of it’s just wasting time bringing 2 uniforms with you to work everyday
@@mixmaster2909 Perhaps we can parallel military uniform trends to civilian clothing at each timeframe. In the 50's, if you were a professional, you showed up to work in a black suit, white shirt, skinny black tie, and a hat. The hat disappeared after the 60's, but the suits stayed the same. At the time, the military wore ironed and starched OD fatigues, and a shitty ball cap. The 70's, professionals still wore suits and ties, and it was common for people to iron their denim and button up shirts with obnoxiously large collars. Into the 80's, the military releases a BDU with an... obnoxiously large collar. Ironing isn't supposed to be necessary, but everyone is doing it to their civilian clothing, so it makes its way to military practice. By the 2000s, we're in to hoodies and jeans in professional settings. It shouldn't be surprising that level of comfort should be reflected in military uniforms. Just a quick thought.
I was in service, following that closely at the time. USAF had little choice. When the Army got rid of BDU Woodland, it was either wear UCP like the Army, or come up with something else. But we mocked the shit out of the Smurfy blue Power Ranger drag. We were literally putting those jokes and images up on the unit notice boards--white for cooks, pink for medics, GI Joe comparisons, everything. And refused to adopt it. They kept pushing back the adoption date, telling us it was "Available for viewing" in the clothing sales shop, and then "Available for purchase" if we wanted to be early. No one did. Literally no one. You reference it being sent out for field tests, and the photo of the female SP was in one of the articles. It may have been Air Force Times. It was also on one of the websites. They said, "We want your feedback." Within 24 hours, the site changed to, "And not your immediate feedback, but after you've considered how it will work in your duty section." Well, I was an engineer, crawling around in mud and on flight lines. It wasn't going to work in my duty section, EVER. And we kept refusing to wear it. The adoption date was pushed back, then back again, and still another year, and compliance was zero. Eventually the Navy came along with blue camo, and it was gone the next week. Other issues: The blue proposal required tucking in shirts, which isn't comfortable, doesn't look "more professional," and lost two pockets that were useful for stuff. Of course, the Army did that too, for some stupid reason. As for the adopted ABU: Yes, we cut the map pockets out. They were pointless and impossible to access. Most Airmen fielding with Army units just wore ACUs, whether authorized by reg or not. Also, all our unit patches went away, destroying much of our unit pride--AF unit logos are worthy of a video themselves. One of the games was to get suggestive imagery past the Office of Heraldry by describing it as something other than what it was. Even worse: the permanent press material contained polyester. DoD regs prohibit uniforms made of melting material if you work around caustics, flammables, or electrical, which is about a third of the USAF. My engineer unit was still in DCUs while deployed in 2008, against the brass objections, waiting for them to develop an appropriate material for the ABUs. It was a complete lack of thought and research, in the quest to be "Distinctive," which word should never be used in the same sentence.
I've been in 20 years now and I hated it when they took away our ability to wear squadron patches, majcom etc. Then we go to OCPs and back to patches. It just doesn't make sense.
Looking into all these modern uniform and “camouflage” patterns is a good spotlight on the incompetence and corruption that’s running rampant in our systems today. When I was a brand new private they could’ve given me and my buddy’s 2 hours, some paper, pens, and some color swatches from Home Depot and we could’ve come up with better stuff than this. Total cost, maybe 50 bucks.
The USAF always seemed to love the sage color of sorts . There is no one pattern fits all terrain . I served in the AF wearing ODG and then woodland bdu . What I have noticed over a lifetime is texture is just as important as color and pattern. Many fabrics will reflect light at extreme angles. Nature still has the best camo patterns.
“Airmen, we have heard your complaints about uniforms that don’t blend in with anything. So we have instead issued you uniforms that don’t blend in with anything, except maybe the Army uniforms, even though these uniforms are supposed to be distinct. Aim high!”
Having been in the Air Force since the days of BDUs, I've worn all of the last three uniform variants. I can fully agree that actual concealment isn't necessary for the vast majority of Air Force personnel, though in the modern era the same could be said of the other branches as well. I can also agree with the desire to honor the specific heritage of each branch. With those things in mind, and with the obvious benefit of saving millions of taxpayer dollars. I'm still convinced the right answer would have been a solid color uniform. Maybe sage green like flighsuits have been for ages. After all, aircrews downed behind enemy lines have a greater need for concealment than anyone else, but plain sage is good enough for them. Even using one of the base colors from the Army ACU which would have allowed for the use of gear in that pattern would have made sense. Instead they answered a series of questions nobody ever asked and spent millions upon millions of dollars at a time when maintenance crews couldn't find parts. If this had been the outcome or a corporate board's decisions, everyone involved would have been fired.
Please do a Australian DPCU, DPDU & DPNU and the evolution of the 2010’s into the current AMCU, GPU & MMPU? They’re very unique and often unknown camouflages. It would mean a lot, JxmmyJxmes
I got to Basic Training the Last week they were issuing ABU's, the Next week we were seeing Airmen in OCP's, around September 19'. I was salty having to buy new Uniforms SMH. Awesome videos man
Before deploying to Afghanistan I went out into the desert and burned my ABU's and peed on the ashes. All that remained were the buttons. I also learned why you shouldn't throw a cigarette lighter into a fire.
Fun fact. We call them the NWU Type 1 (arguably pointless blue), NWU Type 2 (tan), and NWU Type 3 (green). As for the Airforce's UCP stripes, I can confirm that it's basically the same. I bought a bunch of surplus gear for my own use since it was so cheap. I have almost everything in UCP, but I was able to find one or two things in that Airforce pattern only. It blends in just fine.
The Military should have taken the original BDU and modified it to meet the newest Army camouflage design. Then all you have to do is attach your branch of service tape above the left pocket. This would make it easier on the pocket for those individuals that do an intra service enlistment.
It's great when people tell me that you blend into the flightline tarmac when wearing this pattern, which makes no sense since you don't normally wear hats or tops depending on the weather.
I used to really like the Air Force's camo. I believe it's because it was obviously based off of the tiger stripe pattern with UCP colors. It was until I started playing Wildlands where I used the Air Force camo a lot and experimented with it that I noticed that it was in the gray camo section and how much it didn't blend into any of the environments well. I now have no love for the camo and am happy that it's finally going to get replaced in October!
Look up "desert tiger" and "all terrain tiger". They were designed by the company that was going to make the ABU, but refused to generate a pattern that wasn't effective.
People always wonder why the AF was so excited to get OCPs after the ABU. This video illustrates fairly well that the ABU was a product of detached armchair generals feebly attempting to leave their mark on the military. Not to mention that it was replacing a uniform that was well-liked (BDU). The ABU represented everything the Air Force hated about the military's bureaucracy and lack of receptiveness to feedback. The OCP is in and everyone is relieved.
They should have kept the digital tiger stripe and changed up the colors to actually be effective. Multicam is cool but I always liked the ABU's because of tiger stripe, even if the colors were as bad as UCP.
The only surroundings where the UCP colors blends into background (bare rock with maybe some sparse vegetation, like in Baltic Sea outer archipelago and northern Lapland), the ABU digital tigerstripe works better than UCP. I have a ruck (made by israeli company Source) in ABU that I use for hunting. Put a flap into it made of Cordura printed in FDF M05 camo; if I leave it among some moss covered boulders, I have a hard time finding it :D A friend of mine got fed up with city life and moved up north; when he goes hunting, he uses ABU or UCP pants, Brit DPM jacket to blend in. Too bad the ABU items are quite hard to find in surplus stores nowadays.
It looks like if the army jumps off a cliff, the air force will follow (no parachute attached) lol I remember in the 80´s when they used the M81 woodland pattern, but it featured blue instead of the black sploches!! Man oh man
As a USAF veteran all I can say is thank God this happened after my time. What a stupid waste of money. I loved the line fashion over function. Says it all right there.
I came to this video, because I noticed this pattern on a Surplus site, and thought, that looks a poor camouflage pattern, is it real! DPM still rocks in most of the UK, for stealth WIld Camping.
Yeah... Only second worst (blue tiger stripe)... I was one of the 3% who had to find another uniform.... Not that it was much better using Army UCP ACU... but hey, at least I blended with soldiers and wasn't as much a sniper target! At least hey eventually went with UCP colors for that 'blending' with other forces.
I separated from the Air Force in 2015 before the OCP's were around. The ABU's weren't that bad. The summer-weight ones made of nylon were perfectly fine. It's better than the high-maintenance BDU. The new OCP's are IMO probably the best looking uniform to date. The only thing that sucks about OCP's is that nearly all the branches wear them so you can't distinguish a soldier from an airman.
One pro tip for that is to look at the name tapes. Air force wears spice brown name tapes, army wears black, and space force wears blue. Along with this army wears Rank on their hats, air force doesn't.
At 0:52 General John Jumper? OMG, is this guy like McPeak 2.0? "Distinguish" the AF? Concealment not a concern? Good grief this guy was General McPeak reincarnated!
As an aside, having served in the 90's in the McPeak era , boy could i tell a long story about uniform stupidity. At one point in time, during open ranks inspection, you could find no less then 3 different authorized "uniform" variations. And don't even get me started on that cheap suit they call a service uniform. McPeaks enduring legacy that should have also been rescended.
outside of special forces why do the navy and air force need multi-colored uniforms? why not just have a solid desert tan for in the desert(and or the appropriate color for the environment) and grey/charcoal grey for the navy it would be cheaper with less headache I think it would look better to
Murdock Hancock camouflage hides dirt and oil stains in working/utility uniforms, allowing Service Members to focus on their duty rather than constantly worrying about about every speck of dirt or dust.
@@DeltaHouseStudios No offense but that's the stupidest excuse I've heard. these are soldiers, men of war not drag queens and models. it's one thing to look good in a parade or march for the public, and generals but in the field such things are irrelevant sorry if that came off as overly hostile I did not mean to offend
Murdock Hancock well you can think what you want, but “looking good” or “looking sharp” is very important in the military. Having uniforms that don’t require constant maintenance is convenient and allows us to do our job. This is mostly in regards to garrison environment by the way. In field conditions, no one cares if your uniform is dirty. So in garrison, it’s nice having a uniform that can worn in the office, motor pool, or supply room and still stand up to inspection.
Because the Navy and USAF often deploy into field conditions to support/augment the Army and Marines. This is done on a rotational basis, so most personnel eventually perform this sort of duty. Even those who may never have to leave the perimeter of a base are easily identified by wearing a similar or identical uniform. Having the same uniforms simplifies the DoD supply chain and reduces manufacturing costs. It was the reason we originally adopted the DCUs and BDUs. The Marines were not happy with either uniform, but could not get the 800 pound gorilla (the Army) to develop a suitable replacement, so like the little red hen they are, they did it themselves. Once one service broke the compact, the others soon followed, creating the mess you see today. It would greatly simplify matters if a joint uniform board could agree once again on a standardized field uniform. This will happen only when the money tap is turned off by either Congress or the SECDEF.
ABUs aee also worn by cadet members of the Civil Air Patrol or CAP. BDUs are still in Regulation but are in the process of being fazed out. It truly is a shame that the US switched out of BDUs when they did though
I've been in 20 years and have had the BDUs, ABUs, and now the OCPs. The OCPs and BDUs were the best and never understood why we had to wear gray uniforms for nearly 10 years. It was a FWA against the taxpayers. It cost millions to switch from ABU to OCP for the enlisted corps. What a waste of money that could have been applied to actual weapon systems.
Personally, I think that the tax payers should make Gen Jumper (ret) pay for the HUGE waste of money that was the ABU..as well as his replacement Moseley.
One correction the thread for rank and name tapes is not gold, it is spice brown which honestly makes more sense than the black that the Army wears, put a nice black dot right on center mass for the enemy to aim at.
I remember seeing the blueberry tigerstripe in the Air Force Times and thought it was the stupidest thing I'd seen. By the time the ABU came out, I was just glad that I wouldn't have to wear a pattern that the higher-ups claimed was perfect for night time camouflage, and to just disregard any attention I'd draw at any other time.
Also, when I got home I went to see Iron Man in theaters. In the film, one of the Five Rings guys has an ABU pattern Gortex jacket, which made me laugh when I saw it. The reason being that nobody I knew had been issued a jacket in that pattern, and we'd just been given old DCU rain and cold gear. So the terrorists in the MCU were better equipped than we were in real life.
Whenever the US gets a new uniform, there are a bunch of thrid world countries who adopt it. After all, if thr US is using it, it must be good! For example in my country (uruguay), the army requested sample pieces in a bunch of patters, they picked a basically UCP pattern with little difference but a different cut (no velcro for unit patches and so on, only for rank, name, and branch). and they ordered a bunch HOWEVER, another company sued because the ACU style uniform's company had not met the requested specifications, and thus the army went for a navy AOR2 looking uniform in the same cut. But they had already ordered the UCP ones, so they instead gave it to the republican guard (kinda like our SWAT/anti riot unit) which is ok. ucp is decent looking for urban ops. And frankly, the AOR2 syle uniform is pretty good on our landscapes. The green is pretty vlose to our vegetation, the grey and black mimicks really well our vegetation's mostly grey and black barks and also our stones. Besides, my country is pretty neutral, so the only places they need to worry about is our own country, the congo and syria (UN peacekeeping deployments)
Lol they should know by now our stuff is almost always made by the lowest bidder. They should look at NATO countries that have a shred of common sense for what uniforms to adopt like Canada or the Czech Republic.
I love designing camouflage. I do it almost every day. Handmade patterns, digital, realtree style, love them all. It makes me sad that every uniform video seems to highlight how over budget and under thought out patterns are. Hit me up, Airforce. I’ll get you squared away for a fraction of the cost.
I am a CAP cadet and I have to wear the ABU and they get HOT, especially when we do volunteering at airshows. And some of us call it the concrete camo.
The only upside to those uniforms are the NFPA rating...the downfall of the NWU. So much wasted money. Also, I bought a pouch that I thought was ACU, but turned out to be ABU.
