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How is camouflage used in the military?
Home » Hunting » Camouflage » How is camouflage used in the military?While camouflage and the military now go hand and hand, camo wasn’t used in early warfare. In fact, 19th century armies used bright colors and bold designs. They were intended to daunt the enemy, bring in new recruits, foster unit cohesion and help troops identify their own men.
While, the first troops to use shades of brown and green were small units in the 18th century, no major army used anything like this until 1857. Due to the number of casualties they were facing, the British forces were forced to dye their traditional red uniforms natural tones. The first color they used was a muddy tan they called khaki (derived from the Urdu word for ‘dusty’). This was only used as a temporary measure. They didn’t make it a uniform standard until 1902 during the Second Boer War.
The United States quickly copied this new uniform idea, donning khaki uniforms later that year. Soon Russia, Italy and Germany adopted new, more natural tones.
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