Designed in the mid-1980s by the U.S. Army's
Natick Laboratories, the DCU was first issued to Air Force security personnel. The DCU and its camouflage pattern, officially known as the three-color desert camouflage pattern and known colloquially as "coffee stain camouflage" and "tri-color desert", were developed to replace the six-color desert camouflage "chocolate-chip camouflage" uniform, which was deemed not as effective as DCU for desert combat. As opposed to the original six-color desert Natick had originally designed it in the American-Mexico desert area which was rockier and elevated which was often not encountered, the DCU was created primarily for a lower, more open, and less rocky desert battlefield space which became a common sight throughout the
Persian Gulf War. As a replacement pattern, this meant a new arid region had to be utilized to test the effectiveness of the DCU. Desert soil samples from parts of the Middle East, namely Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait, were compared to similar terrain in the United States for evaluation. Initially, color palettes were reused from 6-color desert. Immediately afterward,
military specifications were updated to incorporate the tricolor pattern into the 'Desert Battle Dress Uniform' (
temperate weight), the 'Hot Weather Battle Dress Uniform', and the
M65 field coat. and
25th Infantry Division, respectively, when they were deployed to Iraq in fall 2003 and winter 2004. In January 2003, development of the ACU began with input from certain members of the 3rd SBCT, 2nd Infantry Division. In June 2004, the Army unveiled a new pixel-style camouflage pattern called UCP (
Universal Camouflage Pattern), to be used on the DCU's successor uniform, the
Army Combat Uniform (ACU). In mid-2005, the DCU and the BDU began slowly being discontinued within the
U.S. Army. By 2007, most U.S. soldiers were wearing the ACU with both the DCU and BDU being fully replaced by early 2008.
U.S. Air Force Along with the Army, the Air Force began issuing the DCU to security personnel in the Middle East in late 1989 then adopting it in 1990 where it remained as the primary desert camouflage pattern until The
U.S. Air Force officially replaced the BDU and DCU on 1 November 2011, with the
Airman Battle Uniform (ABU), though most airmen had been using the ABU for a couple years before that date.
U.S. Navy The United States Navy issued the DCU from 1992 until 2010 when it was replaced by the arid variant of the
Navy Working Uniform (NWU), known as the NWU Type II. The DCU was retired by the navy in late 2012.
U.S. Coast Guard The DCU was introduced to the Coast Guard sometime after 1992 until the DCU and BDU were formally retired by the USCG in 2012. ==Users==