CADPAT: Canadian Disruptive Pattern

The new Canadian patterns; CADPAT™ (Canadian Disruptive Pattern)

Temperate Woodland (TW) and Arid Regions (AR). CADPAT TW has been rated
best tropical and Temperate Camouflage by NATO soldiers in a recent scientific
study. The Canadian studies show there is a 40 percent less chance of being
detected from 200 meters away with CADPAT Versus Olive Drab.

CADPAT was officially adopted as the standard Canadian Army pattern in

1997. The pattern had to be reproduced on fabric with exacting accuracy to
ensure integrity of the “pixellation”. This pixellation is a key element of CADPAT’s
overall effectiveness.

The initial 6-month trial was conducted in 1998, using 660 CADPAT uniforms. 2
uniforms per man were issued to the members of 3 x 110-man Light Infantry
Companies based in Eastern, Central and Western Canada.

A final field trial (with the previous tailoring details addressed, but with “covered”
(as opposed to “exposed”) buttons was conducted in 2001.

The first general-issue CADPAT item to be issued to the Canadian Army was the
cover for the new Kevlar helmet. This item was received by the field force in
1998. Conversion to the CADPAT uniform itself commenced in late 2001.

Confirmation through the CADPAT Project Manager; MARPAT is indeed a direct

derivative of CADPAT. The USMC apparently expressed considerable interest
throughout the latter stages of CADPAT development. This interest peaked when
scientific findings regarding the pattern’s efficacy indicated its superiority over
every other temperate pattern currently fielded. The USMC was looking for a
“distinctive” Corps uniform, and the CADPAT fit the bill perfectly. At the USMC’s
request, the Canadian government “shared” CADPAT with the Corps under a
bilateral military “Exchange Agreement”. This was done with full Canadian
concurrence.

Universal Camouflage
Universal Camouflage
Pattern
Pattern
(Negative Image and
CADPAT TW Designed in (U.S. Army)
darkened),
1996 3 color version of
Note the pattern is identical
MARPAT
to CADPAT other than color
developed after 2000.
placement
CADPAT was officially copyright registered in 2001, however, the
first published date is 1996. Initial attempts to reproduce the
square pixels on fabric could not be reproduced in Canada with the
technology available to the Canadian textile industry.

This early Canadian made prototype

(left) shows the quality problems the
industry encountered with the ink
seeping past the color boundaries,
lacking the professional look of current
CADPAT cloth.

Early CADPAT cloth sample, Canada was forced to import technology

prior to technology upgrades from a European textile manufacturer
early in the process to reproduce the high quality cloth until
Canada's textile technology was upgraded.

An early Canadian Trial CADPAT Desert Jacket, is shown on the

left below is almost identical in pattern to the U.S. Marines Desert
MARPAT (Middle below). The Canadians changed their desert
pattern from the trial version to the current CADPAT AR (Arid
Region) shown Right below. which has a larger blotch size and
only three colors versus the four in the trial version.
Second Digital Design:

Unaware of CADPAT or the use of digital pixels in camouflage

research, I (Guy Cramer) began to design digital pixel
camouflage as a way of dithering the colors so there were no solid
lines between the colors. My first attempt in July 1998 is pictured
below (unaltered from 1998), to reduce confusion lets call my
sample below "PIXELPAT", while the initial sample here is crude
by my standards, however, it proved the feasibility of the
pixel/dither between colors:

I enlarged a portion of this sample for this page (right) so you can
see the square pixellation I used for the dither effect:
The above sample was placed on a three of my web sites from July
1998-September 1998 and viewed by approximately 30,000 different
visitors. I removed the sample from the sites in September 1998

Source: http://www.hyperstealth.com/CADPAT-MARPAT.htm Jan 18, 2010