Confused with the Scorpion W2 pattern and the Crye Precision Multicam Pattern? We cannot blame as they are really indistinguishable from each other and share the same history. The original pattern called the “Scorpion” pattern was developed by Natick Labs and Crye Precision in 2002. But due to dispute in “printing fees”, it never got to be used by the U.S. Army and Crye Precision went on to further develop it as the famous guccicam, the Multicam Pattern.

Meanwhile the Natick Labs modified the original Scorpion Pattern in 2009,  leading the Scorpion W2 Pattern. This pattern was adopted by the U.S. Army and announced in 2014 that it will be used in the field as the Operational Camouflage Pattern (OCP) and the OCP ACU was made available in 2015 for soldiers to procure. The U.S. Air Force also announced that it will be adopting the OCP uniform and that all Airmen should be owning the uniform by the 1st of April 2021.

You may wondering why you cannot find the OCP uniform available at gear retailers as the U.S. Army has the option to restrict the pattern to service men and women only as it owns the rights to the pattern. So since its adoption in 2014, it is only soldiers and airmen who can wear the OCP ACU.

The U.S. Army has finally licensed the printing and sale of the Scorpion W2 OCP for commercial purpose in August 2018 as the demand for the OCP ACU has increased during the transition periods. The Army’s mandatory possession date for the OCP is approaching on October 1, 2019, adding to the need for new manufacturers of the pattern.

TacticalGear.com sent us the information and that they will be the first to retail the OCP ACU and they are now taking pre-orders with expected availability by the end of next month. 

“We have inquiries for OCP from soldiers and airmen daily,” says Andrew Hoefener, CEO of TacticalGear.com. “Having uniforms and essential equipment in the approved pattern available for sale is crucial to serving our military customers.”

The company says that this has been anticipated since the first announcement of the transition in 2014, especially now with the high demand for uniforms. The commercial release was delayed due to the possibility of Crye Precision taking legal action due to the similarities between the two patterns.

TacticalGear.com has comprehensive information on the OCP ACU uniforms such as the features of the uniforms for Army and Air Force us. The OCP ACU that will be available soon such as the Uniform Coat and the Uniform Pants are made by Tru-Spec.

Top photo: U.S. Army Paratroopers with 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade training in Germany (U.S. Army photo by Gertrud Zach)