Beginning July 1, the Army’s new Operational Camouflage Patterned uniforms will go on sale at Military Clothing Sales Stores, marking a new chapter in the service’s camouflage saga.
Soldiers can wear the new OCP patterned Army Combat Uniform – top, pants, belt, patrol cap, brown T-shirt and coyote brown boots – as the authorized garrison uniform alongside ACUs in the outgoing universal Camouflage Pattern, according to Army officials.
Coyote brown boots are slated to be available in stores in August, Army officials say.
Soldiers may also wear uniforms and field equipment patterned in the Operation Enduring Freedom Camouflage Pattern (MultiCam) in lieu of OCP, Army officials said.
This can continue until Oct. 1, 2018, the wear-out date for both OEF-CP and UCP uniforms, tan T-shirts and tan boots.
The service adopted OCP after an exhaustive, four-year camouflage-improvement effort. OCP is also known as Scorpion W2, a revised version of the original Scorpion pattern that Crye Precision LLC developed for the Army’s Future Force Warrior in 2002.
OCP looks very similar to MultiCam, the pattern the Army adopted in 2010 for soldiers to wear in Afghanistan.
The Army will begin issuing the new OCP patterned ACUs to new soldiers in initial entry training in January 2016, Army officials maintain.
All soldiers who entered the Army before Jan. 1 will have to buy four sets of OCP uniforms, brown T-shirts and two pairs of brown boots by Oct. 1, 2018. Enlisted soldiers receive an annual clothing allowance for new uniform purchases.
