Quote:
Originally Posted by ToughOmbres
By the time of the Twilight War had the Flecktarn completely been fielded in the Bundeswehr? I always imagined the Territorial Heer having a mix of camo until supplies ran out and remaining troops using their old moleskin grey/gray uniforms that were so ubiquitous well into the late 1980's. What say the group?
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"Flecktarn B" the camouflage pattern actually ordered by the Bundeswehr was only introduced into active units by 1991. The Danis began using the same pattern, but less colors, from 1978 onwards, since all field tests as well as final choices had been made by 1976 by the Bundeswehr. However, the late 70s and early 80s were full of changes for the Bundeswehr and, while defense spending was enormous, money was still limited.
When the Cold War ended and Flecktarn was finally ordered, it was introduced (IIRC) brigade-wise. Thus, it took some time to roll out the big package of new uniforms to all members of the armed forces. Additionally, the 1990s Bundeswehr Heer (the land component) was a three tier force: First, there were the "Krisenreaktionskräfte" (KRK, crisis intervention forces), which had the best equipment and highest readiness. These forces went to the Balkans and thus got most of the screen time and pictures taken. Then there were the "Hauptverteidigungskräfte" (HVK; main defenseforces), which were active troops, but assigned the defense of Germany proper or NATO allies in a full scale war. These had lower readiness and generally older equipment or received upgrades later. My battalion in 2000 was HVK assigned and we still had G3 rifles well into 2001.
Finally, there was the Territorial Heer, which was much smaller after 1993 than during the Cold War, and only fielded light infantry forces: All heavy units - the tank battalions of the Heimatschutzbrigaden (home defense brigades) or even the tank destroyer platoons of the (dissolved) Heimatschutzregimenter (home defense regiments) had been dissolved already. Still, many new Heimatschutzbataillone (home defense batallions) existed and reservists assigned to them would have received the new uniforms at some point.
All in all, it was probably 1997 or 1998 until everyone got the new gear.