With 10 patterns, U.S. military branches out on camouflage front
By ,
Washington Post,
Today, there is one camouflage pattern just for Marines in the desert. There is another just for Navy personnel in the desert. The Army has its own “universal” camouflage pattern, which is designed to work anywhere. It also has another one just for Afghanistan, where the first one doesn’t work.
Even the Air Force has its own unique camouflage, used in a new Airman Battle Uniform. But it has flaws. So in Afghanistan, airmen are told not to wear it in battle.
In just 11 years, two kinds of camouflage have turned into 10. And a simple aspect of the U.S. government has emerged as a complicated and expensive case study in federal duplication.
Duplication is one of Washington’s most expensive traditions: Multiple agencies do the same job at the same time, and taxpayers pay billions for the government to repeat itself.
The habit remains stubbornly hard to break, even in an era of austerity. There are, for instance, at least 209 federal programs to improve science and math skills. There are 16 programs that teach personal finance.
Phi Beta Iota: The above do not include the range of uniforms in black, brown, green, blue, and white. There is absolutely no truth to allegation that the USAF has spent $500M on an invisibility cloak for airmen. That is a DARPA project, ranked slightly higher in priority than the automated dog. Meanwhile, OmB (the Management is silent) continues to punch numbers without actually thinking about substance.
