Chocolate-chip camouflage
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Image:Chocolate chip bdu pants.jpg Chocolate-chip camouflage (sometimes called cookie dough camouflage) was the camouflage used by the United States Army during the Gulf War in the early 1990s. It is also known as Six-Color Desert Camouflage. The camouflage is so named because it resembles chocolate-chip cookie dough: in an attempt to better the camouflage, small designs resembling rocks were added to it.
Although the chocolate chip camouflage became well-known during the Gulf War, it was developed in the 1960s. The Army, believing that it might become necessary to intervene into the Arab-Israeli conflicts, developed a test pattern using the deserts of southwestern United States as a model. When the hostilities in the Middle East wound down, the test pattern was mothballed. The six-color desert pattern would be used in limited numbers in the U.S.-Egyptian military exercise, Bright Star 82, but did not achieve full mass-production and popularity until the Gulf War. Following the Gulf War, the Army found that the addition of the black and white rock patterns also increased the amount of contrast, preventing the camouflage from blending in effectively. This, in addition to the printing cost of pattern and the need for a camouflage that would be suitable for use in any desert, the six-color desert pattern was pulled and a newer three-color desert pattern developed.
In the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the US Military used two different camouflage designs, neither of which are chocolate-chip. The 3-Color Desert Camouflage has been in use by the US Army since the end of the first Gulf War conflict, while the Desert MARPAT camouflage is a more recent design worn by US Marines in the second Gulf War. However, surplus uniforms of the six-color camouflage pattern have been issued to the Iraqi National Guard and other Iraqi security forces.
