Tigerstripe
Encyclopedia
Tigerstripe is the name of a group of camouflage
patterns developed for close-range use in dense jungle during jungle warfare
by the South Vietnamese Armed Forces
/US Forces. It derives its name from its resemblance to a tiger
's stripes. It features narrow stripes that look like brush-strokes of green
and brown
, and broader brush-strokes of black
printed over a lighter shade of olive or khaki. The brush-strokes interlock rather than overlap, as in French Lizard pattern
(TAP47) from which it apparently derives. There are many variations: R.D. Johnson counted at least 19 different versions in early drafts of Tiger Patterns, his definitive work on the subject, although it is unclear if these are all different print patterns, or if they include color variations of a few different print patterns.
used a similar pattern in their war in Vietnam
http://www.kamouflage.net/camouflage/00104.php, while simultaneously, the British
used a similar pattern in Burma http://www.kamouflage.net/camouflage/00285.php(Possibly the-then SAS
Smock/Denison Smock
). After the French
left Vietnam
, the Republic of Vietnam Marine Corps
continued using the pattern, a variant of which was later adopted by Vietnamese Rangers (Biệt Động Quân) and Special Forces (Lực Lượng Đặc Biệt). When the United States
began sending advisors
to South Vietnam
, USMAAG advisors attached to the ARVN were authorized to wear their Vietnamese unit's combat uniform with US insignia. Soon, many American special operations forces in the Vietnamese theater of operations wore the pattern, despite not always being attached to ARVN units: it became the visible trademark of Green Berets, LRRPs, SEAL
s and other elite forces.
Tigerstripe was never an official US-issue item. Personnel permitted to wear it at first had their camo fatigues custom-made by local tailors, ARVN uniforms being too small for most Americans; for this reason there were many variations of the basic tigerstripe pattern. From 1969 5th Special Forces Group contracted with Vietnamese producers to make fatigues and other items such as boonie hats using ARVN fabric. During the latter stages of the war, tigerstripe was gradually replaced by the-then-new ERDLhttp://www.kamouflage.net/camouflage/00053.php pattern, a predecessor of the woodland BDU
pattern.
Besides American and ARVN forces, Australia
n and New Zealand
military forces also used tigerstripe camouflage combat uniforms while on advisory duty in Vietnam, with Australian and New Zealand advisors to the ARVN, and Australian and New Zealand Special Air Service soldiers being the principal wearers of tigerstripe uniforms, while regular Australian and New Zealand ground forces continued wearing the standard-issue olive drab green combat uniforms.
- Afghan National Army, Afghan National Police. - Special Operations Group
(Reddish Sparse pattern) - Australian Special Air Service - Dominican Air Force Guards, Police Special Service Unit. - Use a 'Flames' pattern. - French foreign legion
in French Guiana
- New Zealand Special Air Service - National Guard (Nicaragua)
EEBI 'commando' troops in 1968-1979. - - - OMON
, Spetsnaz
, VDV use Tigerstripe. - Desert Tigerstripe pattern - ARVN Rangers and Marines - Border war with China in 1979 - Republic of China Marine Corps
- - Special Air Service
- United States Air Force
The Tamil Tigers used a tiger stripe camouflage pattern in their uniforms, but it is graphically very different from the family of patterns famous as Tigerstripes from the Vietnam War
. The Tamil Tigers' pattern lacks black, and is small and overwhelmingly horizontal.
Tiger Stripe Products, a professional camouflage designer, licenses variations to manufacturers for military use and for the civilian market. With input from Tiger Stripe Products, the United States Air Force
developed a digital tigerstripe like pattern using various greens, greys, and blues for use with its new Airman Battle Uniform
.
Digital MARPAT
pattern used by U.S. Marine Corps was also influenced by tigerstripe. Of the two patterns shown here both are from the Vietnam era, the first one being a Tiger Stripe Products version of an early to mid Vietnam War pattern referred to as "John Wayne Dense" from its appearance in The Green Berets
. The other version pictured is a product from the latter part of the war which is darker than most other patterns of Vietnamese War tigerstripe.
US Special Operations Forces such as the US Navy SEALs and the Green Berets are still using tigerstripe camouflage in operations in Afghanistan, and it has proved itself to be very effective for this type of environment.
Special fabric rather than pattern artwork design determines NIR detection. Near Infrared (NIR) Signature Management Technology is used by the U.S. Department of Defense to 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. NIR technology also make uniforms less visible in low-light environments by reducing the reflection of light.
Camouflage
Camouflage is a method of concealment that allows an otherwise visible animal, military vehicle, or other object to remain unnoticed, by blending with its environment. Examples include a leopard's spotted coat, the battledress of a modern soldier and a leaf-mimic butterfly...
patterns developed for close-range use in dense jungle during jungle warfare
Jungle warfare
Jungle warfare is a term used to cover the special techniques needed for military units to survive and fight in jungle terrain.It has been the topic of extensive study by military strategists, and was an important part of the planning for both sides in many conflicts, including World War II and the...
by the South Vietnamese Armed Forces
Army of the Republic of Vietnam
The Army of the Republic of Viet Nam , sometimes parsimoniously referred to as the South Vietnamese Army , was the land-based military forces of the Republic of Vietnam , which existed from October 26, 1955 until the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975...
/US Forces. It derives its name from its resemblance to a tiger
Tiger
The tiger is the largest cat species, reaching a total body length of up to and weighing up to . Their most recognizable feature is a pattern of dark vertical stripes on reddish-orange fur with lighter underparts...
's stripes. It features narrow stripes that look like brush-strokes of green
Green
Green is a color, the perception of which is evoked by light having a spectrum dominated by energy with a wavelength of roughly 520–570 nanometres. In the subtractive color system, it is not a primary color, but is created out of a mixture of yellow and blue, or yellow and cyan; it is considered...
and brown
Brown
Brown is a color term, denoting a range of composite colors produced by a mixture of orange, red, rose, or yellow with black or gray. The term is from Old English brún, in origin for any dusky or dark shade of color....
, and broader brush-strokes of black
Black
Black is the color of objects that do not emit or reflect light in any part of the visible spectrum; they absorb all such frequencies of light...
printed over a lighter shade of olive or khaki. The brush-strokes interlock rather than overlap, as in French Lizard pattern
Lizard (camouflage)
The Lizard pattern is a kind of military camouflage pattern used by the French Army on uniforms beginning in the 1950s up to the late 1980s.-The Lizard pattern and its descendants:...
(TAP47) from which it apparently derives. There are many variations: R.D. Johnson counted at least 19 different versions in early drafts of Tiger Patterns, his definitive work on the subject, although it is unclear if these are all different print patterns, or if they include color variations of a few different print patterns.
History
It is unclear who developed the first tigerstripe pattern, consisting of sixty-four (64) stripes. The FrenchFrance
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
used a similar pattern in their war in Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
http://www.kamouflage.net/camouflage/00104.php, while simultaneously, the British
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....
used a similar pattern in Burma http://www.kamouflage.net/camouflage/00285.php(Possibly the-then SAS
Special Air Service
Special Air Service or SAS is a corps of the British Army constituted on 31 May 1950. They are part of the United Kingdom Special Forces and have served as a model for the special forces of many other countries all over the world...
Smock/Denison Smock
Denison smock
The Denison smock was a coverall jacket issued to Special Operations Executive agents, the Parachute Regiment, the Glider Pilot Regiment, Air Landing Regiments, and other Commonwealth airborne units, to wear over their Battle Dress uniform during the Second World War.The smock was initially worn...
). After the French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
left Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
, the Republic of Vietnam Marine Corps
Republic of Vietnam Marine Corps
The Republic of Vietnam Marine Corps ) was part of the armed forces of the Republic of Vietnam . It was established by Ngo Dinh Diem in 1954 when he was Prime Minister of the State of Vietnam, which became the Republic of Vietnam in 1955. The longest-serving commander was Lieutenant General Le...
continued using the pattern, a variant of which was later adopted by Vietnamese Rangers (Biệt Động Quân) and Special Forces (Lực Lượng Đặc Biệt). When the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
began sending advisors
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
to South Vietnam
South Vietnam
South Vietnam was a state which governed southern Vietnam until 1975. It received international recognition in 1950 as the "State of Vietnam" and later as the "Republic of Vietnam" . Its capital was Saigon...
, USMAAG advisors attached to the ARVN were authorized to wear their Vietnamese unit's combat uniform with US insignia. Soon, many American special operations forces in the Vietnamese theater of operations wore the pattern, despite not always being attached to ARVN units: it became the visible trademark of Green Berets, LRRPs, SEAL
Seal
Seal commonly refers to:* Pinniped, a diverse group of semi-aquatic marine mammals many of which are commonly called seals* Seal , a device which helps prevent leakage, contain pressure, or exclude contamination where two systems join...
s and other elite forces.
Tigerstripe was never an official US-issue item. Personnel permitted to wear it at first had their camo fatigues custom-made by local tailors, ARVN uniforms being too small for most Americans; for this reason there were many variations of the basic tigerstripe pattern. From 1969 5th Special Forces Group contracted with Vietnamese producers to make fatigues and other items such as boonie hats using ARVN fabric. During the latter stages of the war, tigerstripe was gradually replaced by the-then-new ERDLhttp://www.kamouflage.net/camouflage/00053.php pattern, a predecessor of the woodland BDU
Battle Dress Uniform
The Battle Dress Uniform were the fatigues that the armed forces of the United States used as their standard uniform for combat situations from September 1981 to April 2005. Since then, it has been replaced in every branch of the U.S. military. Only the U.S. Navy currently authorizes wear of the...
pattern.
Besides American and ARVN forces, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n and New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
military forces also used tigerstripe camouflage combat uniforms while on advisory duty in Vietnam, with Australian and New Zealand advisors to the ARVN, and Australian and New Zealand Special Air Service soldiers being the principal wearers of tigerstripe uniforms, while regular Australian and New Zealand ground forces continued wearing the standard-issue olive drab green combat uniforms.
Users
Grupo Especial de Operaciones Federales (Argentina)
The Grupo Especial de Operaciones Federales is a special operations division of the Policía Federal Argentina trained to strategically perform counterterrorist and counternarcotics missions...
(Reddish Sparse pattern) - Australian Special Air Service - Dominican Air Force Guards, Police Special Service Unit. - Use a 'Flames' pattern. - French foreign legion
French Foreign Legion
The French Foreign Legion is a unique military service wing of the French Army established in 1831. The foreign legion was exclusively created for foreign nationals willing to serve in the French Armed Forces...
in French Guiana
French Guiana
French Guiana is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department located on the northern Atlantic coast of South America. It has borders with two nations, Brazil to the east and south, and Suriname to the west...
- New Zealand Special Air Service - National Guard (Nicaragua)
National Guard (Nicaragua)
In Nicaragua, the National Guard was a militia and a gendarmerie created during the occupation of that country by the United States from 1909 to 1933. It became notorious for human rights abuses and corruption under the regime of the Somoza family.-Creation:...
EEBI 'commando' troops in 1968-1979. - - - OMON
OMON
OMOH is a generic name for the system of special units of militsiya within the Russian and earlier the Soviet MVD...
, Spetsnaz
Spetsnaz
Spetsnaz, Specnaz tr: Voyska specialnogo naznacheniya; ) is an umbrella term for any special forces in Russian, literally "force of special purpose"...
, VDV use Tigerstripe. - Desert Tigerstripe pattern - ARVN Rangers and Marines - Border war with China in 1979 - Republic of China Marine Corps
Republic of China Marine Corps
Republic of China Marine CorpsPersonnel15,000 The Republic of China Marine Corps is the amphibious arm of the Republic of China Navy responsible for amphibious combat, counter-landing and reinforcement of the main island of Taiwan, remote islands, defense of ROCN facilities, and also functions as...
- - Special Air Service
Special Air Service
Special Air Service or SAS is a corps of the British Army constituted on 31 May 1950. They are part of the United Kingdom Special Forces and have served as a model for the special forces of many other countries all over the world...
- United States Air Force
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...
Current use
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
. The Tamil Tigers' pattern lacks black, and is small and overwhelmingly horizontal.
Tiger Stripe Products, a professional camouflage designer, licenses variations to manufacturers for military use and for the civilian market. With input from Tiger Stripe Products, the United States Air Force
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...
developed a digital tigerstripe like pattern using various greens, greys, and blues for use with its new Airman Battle Uniform
Airman Battle Uniform
The Airman Battle Uniform is a service-distinctive camouflage battledress uniform for the United States Air Force. It is currently in full production and replaced the Battle Dress Uniform November 1st, 2011 after a four year phase-in period...
.
Digital MARPAT
MARPAT
MARPAT is a digital camouflage pattern in use with the United States Marine Corps, introduced with the Marine Corps Combat Utility Uniform , which replaced the Camouflage Utility Uniform. The pattern is formed by a number of small rectangular pixels of color...
pattern used by U.S. Marine Corps was also influenced by tigerstripe. Of the two patterns shown here both are from the Vietnam era, the first one being a Tiger Stripe Products version of an early to mid Vietnam War pattern referred to as "John Wayne Dense" from its appearance in The Green Berets
The Green Berets (film)
The Green Berets is a 1968 war film featuring John Wayne, George Takei, David Janssen, Jim Hutton and Aldo Ray, nominally based on the eponymous 1965 book by Robin Moore, though the screenplay has little relation to the book....
. The other version pictured is a product from the latter part of the war which is darker than most other patterns of Vietnamese War tigerstripe.
US Special Operations Forces such as the US Navy SEALs and the Green Berets are still using tigerstripe camouflage in operations in Afghanistan, and it has proved itself to be very effective for this type of environment.
Special fabric rather than pattern artwork design determines NIR detection. Near Infrared (NIR) Signature Management Technology is used by the U.S. Department of Defense to 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. NIR technology also make uniforms less visible in low-light environments by reducing the reflection of light.
See also
- CamouflageCamouflageCamouflage is a method of concealment that allows an otherwise visible animal, military vehicle, or other object to remain unnoticed, by blending with its environment. Examples include a leopard's spotted coat, the battledress of a modern soldier and a leaf-mimic butterfly...
- Military CamouflageMilitary camouflageMilitary camouflage is one of many means of deceiving an enemy. In practice, it is the application of colour and materials to battledress and military equipment to conceal them from visual observation. The French slang word camouflage came into common English usage during World War I when the...
- List of camouflage patterns
- Airman Battle UniformAirman Battle UniformThe Airman Battle Uniform is a service-distinctive camouflage battledress uniform for the United States Air Force. It is currently in full production and replaced the Battle Dress Uniform November 1st, 2011 after a four year phase-in period...
External links
- Tiger Stripe Boonie Article RallyPointMiliaria.com 2009
- Influence of tigerstripe on U.S. Marines MARPAT uniform
- Airman Battle Uniform based on tigerstripe
- Development of modern tigerstripe by U.S. Air Force