Battle Dress Uniform

The Battle Dress Uniform (BDU) is a camouflaged combat uniform that was used by the United States Armed Forces as their standard combat uniform from the early 1980s to the mid-2000s. Since then, it has been replaced or supplanted in every branch of the U.S. Armed Forces.

BDU-style uniforms and derivatives still see widespread use in other countries (some of them being former U.S. surplus stocks transferred under U.S. security assistance programs), while others are still worn by some U.S. federal, state, and local law enforcement agents who may work in tactical situations, such as the DEA RRT and SWAT teams. The uniforms are also used by urban search and rescue groups such as FEMA USAR task force teams and firefighting agencies when conducting technical rescues or other special operations.

The Directorate of Combat Developments of the Infantry School – responsible for individual field equipment – and the Natick Research and Development Command – the materiel developers – worked together to present a requirement document for a camouflaged field uniform system to the Department of the Army. The uniform had a 50% cotton and 50% nylon twill material in a woodland-color camouflage pattern with reinforced knees, elbows, and seat. It was to be supplemented with additional standard items such as field jackets, over-trousers, ponchos, and parkas – printed over in the same camouflage pattern – to provide environmental protection in different climates. The BDU was issued with the then-newly-designed Personnel Armor System for Ground Troops (PASGT). The document was approved on 25 June 1979, and the Army subsequently approved the proposed field camouflage uniform for final development and field use – the latter of which was scheduled to begin in August 1981.

All United States Army soldiers formally received their first batches of the BDU as its new field and garrison uniform in the temperate weight cut on October 1, 1981. Sporadic reports of excessive shrinkage when laundering arose the following month, but it was deemed "manageable" because the uniform shrank by only 2 to 3 percent (one inch) during laundering, and that the rate of returns from excessive shrinkage were only 0.2 percent. A major factor was determined to be the temperatures used in laundering, which was fixed by issuing comprehensive care instructions to soldiers and government laundries.

During the 1983 invasion of Grenada, deployed troops said that the current BDUs were too heavy for tropical environments, and some troops were reported to have heat sickness due to the heavy uniforms. In response, several thousand sets of Vietnam-era field uniforms were rushed to Grenada. The Army began evaluating a tropical-weight variant of the BDU by March 1984, and a spokesperson said BDU variant would be ready for distribution in the next year if it passed testing. The Army also planned to eventually provide four sets of BDUs to all active and reserve soldiers.

Criticism from some United States Congress members and negative feedback from soldiers prompted the Army to evaluate at least nine modifications to the BDU, including those determining its fit, accessibility, and appearance, such as redesigned pockets and smaller collars.

Originally, no nametapes were worn with the USMC's BDUs, which was officially referred to by the USMC as a "camouflage utility uniform" (CCU) during its usage. However, in October 1991, the USMC began the wearing of nametapes on their BDUs (and DCUs and DBDUs) in order to comply with NATO Standardization Agreement (STANAG), becoming mandatory by 1 October 1992.

The U.S. military ran trials of many camouflage patterns (some being used by foreign militaries), and issued environment-specific uniforms, notably the six-color Desert Battle Dress Uniform (DBDU), nicknamed the "chocolate chip camouflage", designed in 1962, and the "nighttime desert grid" (NCDBDU). Both uniforms were used in 1991, during the Persian Gulf War. These Desert BDUs were discontinued after the war.