Disruptive Pattern Camouflage 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.

Overview

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.