A small update on the Army camo program from a tapped in source...
As we stated in the previous post, since the release of the RFP slipped a bit, so too has the down select to the civilian and government families of patterns. According to our source, the selection will happen in September. That's about two months later than was planned back during the industry day.
Testing tests of the patterns are ongoing and should wrap up this month, our source said.
But our source also said something pretty significant. As briefed at the Industry Day, the plan was for the Army to pick three pattern families from civilian companies and two from government labs. Our source tells us there's a good chance that could be scrapped in favor of four civilian families, one government.
That means there's a greater chance that a company who submitted patterns for the program would be selected. It's seriously the way the program seems to be leaning.
But in a final note, like some in the industry, our source is worried that after a well-run search and evaluation selects a pattern family, there may not be the money to actually buy the uniforms for the Army. I'm veering the other way on this. Even with budget cuts looming, something like a new camo pattern for the Army is potentially too small to kill. It's an easy log to roll in a budget conference committee deliberation and the case for it is way more obvious than a new M4, for example.
