One of my new favorite YouTube channels is Baltic Defence Review. The Baltic region has long been an area of interest for me (I even wrote my International Affairs degree thesis on Swedish Defence Doctrine back in 1992), and with Sweden and Finland joining NATO a couple of years ago there have been a series of interesting developments since.

We’ve looked at the new common infantry rifle platform for Sweden and Finland, but another area of cross-country cooperation has been the ongoing Nordic Combat Uniform project. This is a joint project between Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark to create a common, multi-layer, modern combat uniform system for multiple environments and weather conditions that leverages the economies of scale and supplier security.

The uniform system utilizes the same items in the same cuts and fabrics, but each nation is using its own national camouflage pattern. Norway and Sweden took the opportunity to update their patterns, while Finland and Denmark stayed with the modern patterns they had already adopted in recent years. It’s kind of a shame that Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia didn’t get on board with the NCU program, but who knows, maybe they will eventually.

Anyway, BDR dropped a great video this week that gives an in-depth overview of the different camouflage patterns used on the combat uniforms of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark – we even get a shout out in the video, so check it out!