Operational Camouflage Pattern

Operational Camouflage Pattern (OCP), originally codenamed Scorpion W2, is a military camouflage pattern adopted in the mid-2010s by the United States Army for use as the U.S. Army's main camouflage pattern on uniforms. This pattern replaced the Army's Universal Camouflage Pattern (UCP) as the official combat uniform pattern for most U.S. soldiers. The pattern also replaced the closely related MultiCam, a pattern previously used for troops deploying to Afghanistan.

The original "Scorpion" pattern was developed by a joint venture of the Army's Natick Labs and Crye Precision as part of the Objective Force Warrior program more than a decade prior. It was then modified into MultiCam by Crye for commercial sales. The OFP version was modified from the initial pattern by Natick Labs. In July 2014, the Army announced that OCP could be used in the field by the summer of 2015.

In early April 2015, Army Chief of Staff Ray Odierno revealed that OCP uniforms were beginning to be issued to deployed soldiers going to Afghanistan, Iraq, Europe, and the Horn of Africa. The OCP ACU became available for soldiers to purchase starting July 1, 2015.

In the early 2010s, the United States Army came to the conclusion that UCP did not adequately meet all of the concealment needs for Afghanistan’s multiple regions.

In 2010, the United States Army Camouflage Improvement Effort considered twenty-two entrants. The Army eliminated the patterns down to five finalists who exceeded the baseline patterns and Scorpion W2 was among them in the Army's in-house submission (The Army later withdrew their submission leaving the four commercial vendors). The finalists in the Army's Phase IV camouflage testing were: Crye Precision; ADS Inc. and Hyperstealth Inc.; Brookwood Companies Inc.; and Kryptek Inc.

The 2014 National Defense Authorization Act (NDA or NDAA), prevents any service from adopting a new camouflage pattern not already in inventory before the NDA, unless they get all other services to adopt the same pattern. As a result, the Army had to consider existing camouflage patterns within the United States Department of Defense.

Initially, the Army's first pattern choice was the MultiCam pattern developed by Crye Precision, but allegedly due to "printing fees", procurement discussions broke down. Crye Precision developed the original Scorpion pattern under a government contract in 2002; the pattern was modified by the United States Army Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center in 2009 and named the Scorpion W2 pattern. The Army owns the licensing rights for Scorpion W2, which lowers the overall cost, and allows the Army the option to restrict the pattern to service members only.

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