Soldier Systems Daily reported the news from Australia today that the Australian MultiCam Pattern has been officially unveiled, and that Diggers will soon be deploying to Afghanistan wearing new uniforms featuring the new pattern.

So, what is all the hub-bub about, and just what did Crye Precision get paid more than $2M Australian for?  This:

Yup, looks an awful lot like normal MultiCam doesn’t it – and the uniform (especially the trousers) looks an awful lot like the Crye G3 Field / Combat Uniform.  In fact, the uniform is a licensed version of the Crye set-up – and brought the total value of Crye’s contract with the Aussies to over $4M AUD.

Now, if you look very closely you can actually see that what makes this version of MultiCam “Australian” is the way that Crye have changed the chocolate-brown and pale-sand colored shapes to resemble the famous “jelly beans” and “bunny ears” shapes from the current Australian Disruptive Pattern Camouflage Uniform.

The photo below shows a comparison between the DPCU uniform and a standard Crye Precision G3 MultiCam uniform – compare the shapes highlighted above with those in the photo below.

So, given the rather subtle nature of the changes involved – even less apparent than for the British MTP camo pattern – one has to wonder whether the Australian taxpayer really got a good deal here.  One also has to wonder what the average Digger is going to think about this too – considering that they used to have one of the most distinctive camouflage patterns in use by a Western nation.

At any rate, Caleb Crye must be a pretty happy chap.