Multi-Terrain Pattern

Following an Urgent Operational Requirement for a camouflage uniform for the Afghan theatre of operations, and the success of a commercially available pattern (Crye's MultiCam) when tested in trials, a decision was made to use MultiCam as the basis of a new Multi-Terrain Pattern for British armed forces, replacing the previous temperate DPM uniforms.

[citation needed] The United Kingdom's Ministry of Defence announced that HM Forces would be issued with the new British Army uniform for operations in Afghanistan with personnel serving under the 4th Mechanised Brigade;[2] initially issued to personnel deployed on Operation Herrick from March 2010, then issued more widely to HM Forces from 2011 onward replacing all DPM including Woodland and Desert variants of the Combat Soldier 95 uniform by 2013 along with the introduction of the new Personal Clothing System.

[3] The MTP camouflage design was intended to perform consistently across a wide range of environments encountered, particularly for operations that the military had been deployed in during 2009.

The development team at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory tested various camouflage variations against the standard army disruptive pattern material and the desert DPM to determine the best balance of colours.

The trials included visual comparisons, objective assessments of the time to detect the different camouflage patterns against different backgrounds, and subjective user opinions on the efficacy of the performance.

MTP in the Afghanistan environment