Battle Dress Uniform

This article is about the US Armed Forces uniform. For the similarly named British combat uniform worn from 1939 to 1961, see Battle Dress.

U.S. Army National Guard soldiers wear BDUs in woodland camouflage during a July 2000 field training exercise in Yavoriv, Ukraine.

The Battle Dress Uniform (BDU) are camouflaged fatigues that were used by the United States Armed Forces as their standard uniform for combat situations from the early 1980s to the mid-2000s. Since then, it has been replaced or supplanted in every branch of the U.S. Armed Forces, except for certain elements of the U.S. Coast Guard, which still use them as of 2013, and the US Air Force Auxiliary Civil Air Patrol.

The U.S. Navy currently authorizes wear of the BDU uniform at locations such as at the U.S. Special Operations Command and other ground-based naval units, such as Seabees. U.S. Coast Guard personnel overseas and working with other military services may wear Woodland BDUs, and the Desert Camouflage Uniform (a variation of the BDU) but known by another name. As late as 2014, BDUs were still worn by officers of the U.S. Public Health Service as the prescribed uniform for deployment, but have been replaced by a variant of the US Coast Guard ODU.

BDU-style uniforms and derivatives still see widespread use in other countries (some of them being former U.S. surplus stocks transferred under U.S. security assistance programs), while others are still worn by some U.S. federal, state and local law enforcement agencies or activities who may work in tactical situations, such as the DEA FAST and SWAT teams.

Description and adoption

These uniforms are called battle dress uniforms because they are intended for use during "battles", as opposed to "garrison" dress uniforms worn at parades and functions. The general design and configuration of the U.S. BDU uniform was similar to that of Vietnam-era jungle fatigues, which were in turn similar in configuration to specialty uniforms worn by U.S. paratroopers during World War II.

The Battle Dress Uniform (BDU) was first issued to the United States military in September 1981 in the woodland camouflage pattern, to begin replacing the Olive Drab Green (OD) or OG-107 colored fatigues, which had been standard wear since the early 1950s, as well as to better conceal soldiers effectively in woodland or tropical Areas of Operation with macro shaped patterns, as opposed to to OD, which had only a single shade of green. It was based primarily on the woodland colors specifically of northern Europe. It used shades of green, brown, tan, and black, initially printed onto cotton-nylon blend twill cloth, known as the "Temperate Weight" uniform. A newer lightweight "Tropical Weight" BDU uniform was introduced in 1987 with the pattern printed on 100% cotton rip-stop poplin cloth, to better prevent smaller rips from enlarging.

The tropical weight uniform was not as durable as the temperate weight uniform. The tropical uniform would only last for 4–6 months of use when rotating four uniforms for duty, while the temperate uniform would last over a year under the same conditions.

It was the first camouflaged uniform approved by the Army since the U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam, where the ERDL pattern was in limited use. The BDU soon replaced all earlier camouflage pattern uniforms for all wooded, jungle, and tropical environments, and, and by 1989, had completely replaced the standard olive drab uniforms that had been used since 1952.

Issuement

First issued in limited number to garrison leaders, officers and generals to all branches of the U.S. military in September 1981 for replacment of the long worn and aging Olive Drab colored uniforms or OG-107, the following month in October, the Battle Dress Uniform began field issuement military wide.^[1]

U.S. Army

All active Soldiers, reserve, infantry and airborne in the United States Army formally received their first batches of the BDU as its new field and garrison uniform in the temperate weight cut on October 1, 1981. In addition, Patrol caps, boonie hats and the M-65 jacket were issued in the new camouflage pattern in time, including a new light brown t-shirt and black webbed belt with brass buckle.

U.S. Marine Corps

The United States Marine Corps began issuing of the new woodland BDU in the temperate cut around exact time as the Army.

U.S. Air Force

Airmen and servicemen of the United States Air Force officially issued its woodland BDUs for garrison and field wear in mass on October 1, 1981, the same time as the Army and Marines.

U.S. Navy

Sailors and other service personnel of the United States Navy started issuing the BDU in the new woodland scheme and temperate cut the same time as the other branches.

U.S. Coast Guard

Sailors and other service personnel of the United States Coast Guard started issuing the new woodland BDU around the same time as the other service branches.

Modifications

Since 1981, changes included the addition and subsequent elimination of buttoned waist adjustment tabs, the size reduction of the collar, and refinements in stitching and fit.

BDUs were initially only issued in a 50/50 nylon and cotton twill blend (the Temperate Weather BDU (TWBDU)). Complaints regarding the heat retention of these uniforms, especially following the invasion of Grenada in 1983, led to the introduction of the Hot Weather BDU (HWBDU). The Hot Weather BDU coat and trousers were constructed of 100 percent ripstop cotton, in a four-color woodland camouflage pattern. However, after complaints of shorter wear and frayed cuffs, along with requirements imposed by unit commanders to starch the all-cotton uniform for parade, the Enhanced Hot Weather BDU (EHWBDU) replaced the HWBDU commencing in 1996. The EHWBDU are made with 50/50 ripstop nylon and cotton poplin blend.

Woodland camo IR.

Woodland camouflage. (in near infrared).

BDU's are printed with infrared-brightened dyes. Near infrared (NIR) Signature Management Technology is used in the uniforms to help prevent detection by NIR Image Converters. These photocathode devices do not detect temperatures, but rather infrared radiation variances. NIR-compliant uniforms use a special fabric that allows soldiers to appear at the same radiation level as the surrounding terrain, thus making them more difficult to detect. It is advised not to use starch when cleaning or ironing BDU's, since starch weakens the fabric and ruins the infrared protective coating. A pair of BDU's that has been starched even once should not be worn in combat.

History of camouflaged battle uniforms

While the Italian Army was the first military organization to issue camouflaged clothing, albeit in limited numbers, the Germans were noted for their efforts in this field before the Second World War. After much trial, the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (abbrev. OKW) authorized Heeres-Splittermuster 31, more commonly known as "splinter pattern", for use in shelter-quarters (Zeltbahnen) in the 1930s. In 1940, SS-Verfügungstruppe (abbrev. SS-VT; renamed Waffen-SS) designed, tested and issued its own distinctive patterns and layout not long after.

The United States Marine Corps received its first military camouflage pattern in 1942, when the reversible, beach-jungle, three- and five-color frog-skin pattern uniform was issued, based on a 1940 trial design. The pattern was mostly employed in the Pacific Theatre, but was not found to be particularly effective and in the European Theatre the pattern was withdrawn altogether in 1944—in part because of anticipated friendly fire incidents after D-Day, due to its similarity to the Waffen SS's pattern (Not to be confused with Flecktarn, a modern design.) Camouflaged helmet covers and shelters were issued in the 1950s in "wine leaf" and "brown cloud" patterns. The U.S. Army also tried a lesser-known camouflage uniform on D-Day and throughout the Normandy operations, like the Marine Corps' uniforms, but it was replaced by the M43 uniform before being used much.

During the Vietnam War, the United States military's four-color ERDL pattern saw limited use amongst specialist units in the U.S. Army, though most were issued the solid olive green OG107 sateens or jungle fatigues, while the Marines adopted the pattern service-wide after 1968.

The ERDL pattern fatigues were identical in cut to the third-pattern OD jungle fatigues, and were available in both a highland pattern (more brown), and a lowland pattern (more green), though the lowland pattern was eventually phased out. Other, unofficial, patterns utilized in Vietnam included black-dyed or spray painted jungle fatigues, often used by special purpose forces, and various Vietnamese Tigerstripe patterns (themselves being based on French Army airborne and Foreign Legion patterns and a British design utilized in Malaysia), or commercial "duck hunter" patterns.

Derivatives

The U.S. military has run trials of many camouflage patterns (some being used by foreign militaries), and issued environment-specific uniforms, notably the six-color Desert Battle Dress Uniform (DBDU), nicknamed the "chocolate chip camouflage", designed in 1962, and the "nighttime desert grid" (NCDBDU). Both uniforms were used in 1991, during the Persian Gulf War. These Desert BDUs were discontinued after the war.

The Desert Camouflage Uniform (DCU) in three-color desert camouflage were introduced in 1992, and was utilized in operations in Somalia (1993); it was in service in Afghanistan and Iraq from the start of hostilities, but the U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps have both replaced the DCU with newer uniforms (ACU and MCCUU, respectively). The DCU is colloquially called "coffee stains" by the soldiers wearing it. In testing, U.S. Army researchers found that, as in other environments, the color of desert terrain varies, and can range from pink to blue, depending on the minerals in the soil and the time of the day. Since patches of uniform color in the desert are usually 10 times larger than those in wooded areas, it was decided to alter the existing six-color DBDU pattern. This led to the development of a three-color pattern DCU, which was adopted.

U.S. Marine Corps

With the development of modern camouflage patterns and the rising desire of the various U.S. military branches to differentiate themselves from each other has resulted in new patterns for uniforms. The U.S. Marine Corps was the first branch to replace their BDUs. The Marine Corps Combat Utility Uniform uses the computer-generated MARPAT pattern and several other enhancements. It was approved for wear in June 2001,^{[citation needed]} and the changeover was completed by October 1, 2004. USMC Special Operations units (MARSOC) have recently issued M-81 woodland pattern uniforms to supplement MARPAT uniforms for special missions.