Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal: New camouflage to better fight the enemy within?

November 20, 2009

Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal: New camouflage to better fight the enemy within?

Public Works and Government Services Canada has awarded a $25,000 contract to a BC firm in return for a controversial service -- the design of urban camouflage specifically suited to Toronto, Montréal and Vancouver.

The contract requirements are as follows:

The Department of National Defence, Defence Research and
Development Canada - Suffield, (DRDC-S), AB, has a requirement to develop a Canadian Urban Environment Pattern (CUEPAT) based on the unique requirements of Canada's three major metropolitan areas, Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal. The current CBR individual protective equipment (IPE) used by the Canadian military is provided in a woodland or desert camouflage. A camouflage suited to the Canadian urban environment is required when the milatary (sic) operates in urban terrain.

Hyperstealth Biotechnology Corp, pride of Maple Ridge, BC, was the only firm invited to bid on the contract. The company has designed camouflage patterns for countries including Israel, Iraq and Malaysia.

According to the David Pugliese of the Ottawa Citizen the US has desinged an urban camouflage, which has been used by US tactical police forces. (The US Army is not supposed to operate inside the States, according to the Posse Comitatus Act.)

This contract and its implications need to be closely examined.

Nov. 20 update: Some more insight into this contract from the folks at Soldier Systems:

So essentially, Canada’s equivalent of DTRA is seeking a camo pattern based on domestic urban environments. What’s even more curious is that the pattern is specifically for chem-bio gear. One would think that for domestic CBR defense, one would want to blend in with the local population as much as possible, perhaps as first responders or in items that more closely resemble civilian clothing.

...

So the way this is written, it looks like the Canadian government is paying HyperStealth almost 25 large to do work they have already accomplished and they are giving them six months to do it. In the end, the Canadian government will have an urban camo pattern fine tuned for use in their own major cities and applied only to chemical and biological warfare clothing. Like I said; interesting.

Image: Hyperstealth's Spec4ce Urban Camouflage.