Disruptive Pattern Combat Uniform

Disruptive Pattern Camouflage Uniform (DPCU), also nicknamed Auscam or jelly bean camo is a five-colour military camouflage pattern used by the Australian Defence Force. It was developed and tested during the late 1970s and early 1980s.

The DPCU will be replaced by the Australian MultiCam Camouflage Uniform (AMCU), which uses an Australian Multi-Camouflage Pattern based on MultiCam.

The first uniforms using the disruptive pattern camouflage (called Disruptive Pattern Camouflage Uniform – DPCU) were issued in 1983 for test purposes. In 1986 the final production version was introduced with a number of changes. It is influenced partly by early US Jungle Camouflage patterns, such as "Duck Hunter"/"Frog-Skin". DPCU was developed following aerial photographs of the Australian terrain to determine which colours and patterns would be most suitable for camouflage uniforms.

The selected five colour pattern consists of a greenish sand coloured background with randomly arranged spots of orange-brown, mid-brown, leaf-green and very dark green overlaid. While a mid-grey tone was included in early test uniforms, this was omitted in later unifoms in favour of a second brown tone.

The standard DPCU works in areas from arid bushland through to tropical jungle all over Australia.

Since the finalisation of the colour scheme, the Army uniform was modified to the standard NATO format, with a single rank slide in the centre of the shirt, zip pockets on the shirt and pants instead of the button-flap original, and larger sleeve pockets to fit unit patches on.

Officially named DPDU (Disruptive Pattern Desert Uniform), a DPCU variant designed for desert conditions using different colours, was first tested in 1998 at the Woomera Missile Test Site in South Australia.

The first version, from 2001, was printed in 3 colours (brown and grey on a tan background) with 1/3 of the normal pattern missing and rushed into issue for the Australian Special Air Service Regiment deployed to Afghanistan as part of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). A second version from a year later used 5 colours: brown, lime green, grey, and a very light light blue on a tan background. This was again issued to SASR in Afghanistan after the first version was found to be too light in colour for the terrain. This was followed by a third issue in: brown, grey, very light blue and purple on a yellow background. The cut was changed in the shirt with the bottom pockets being omitted and placed on the sleeves.

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