It seems that Multicam's fortunes are turning even better each day as more and more military units are adopting the pattern all over the world. In Military.com's report, it is said that the U.S. Army are going to recommend the pattern for use for the entire U.S. Army and replacing the pixelated UCP (Universal Camouflage Pattern) which soldiers are said to be complaining that is ineffective in the environments they're operating in. For the meantime, Multicam is being issued to U.S. soldiers operating in Afghanistan where it is deemed to be very effective. Even the U.S. Air Force have been ahead of the Army, as they have adopted the pattern for use.

The U.S. Army have been recently under fire from major media outlets as brought about by The Daily story "$5B CAMO SNAFU" which is tantamount to accusing the organisation for wasting money and putting the lives of soldiers at risk for 8 years. Defense industry news and information websites, such as Military Times, Soldier Systems, and Strike Hold! have been clarifying that the UCP will not be ditched immediately in favour of a new pattern as there will be a transition to another camouflage pattern as it's not easy to just put out new uniforms and gear. And compared to other Pentagon projects such as the F-35 fifth generation multi-role fighter which is now estimated at US$1 trillion to develop and deploy, the 5 billion figure is a small drop in the bucket and existing UCP gear developed will still have some useful purposes.

Predator Intelligence Blog has written about the "Top Ten Inaccuracies in UCP Camouflage Reporting" which would be good reading for those who have been following the UCP controversy.

Back to the Military.com report, it seems that are options being considered in adopting the Multicam pattern:

Officials running the camouflage effort are now looking at two options to recommend to the service’s senior leadership this fall.

One option would be to make Multicam the Army’s official camouflage pattern, sources tell Military.com. The second option would be to make Multicam the service’s pattern for garrison and general deployment use, but also to have a family of approved camouflage patterns that could be issued for specific areas of the world.

It is still confusing for me as to why Multicam would be recommended for full Army Use when there is an existing evaluation of 4 vendors who have been selected this year for the Phase IV Camouflage Project to have a family of patterns for different environments according to Soldier Systems. If Multicam pattern is to be recommended, then why continue with the evaluation program in Phase IV rather than start preparing for the development of new uniforms and gear with this pattern? This way, it will be faster to bring the whole Army to the new pattern, rather than still continue with Phase IV which sees production of the adopted family of patterns in late 2013.

Indeed, the Multicam's path to success was tortuous. For a pattern that was developed by an art major rather than someone who has an extensive experience in military technology, it is getting to mass adoption whereas before it was such a niche pattern that special operations forces and airsoft players are seen using it.