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Urban Camouflage

Dana Charkasi

Seit letztem Jahr beschäftigt sich Hannah Stippl mit dem für Europäer erst wieder seit dem Jugoslawienkrieg häufiger reflektiertem Muster der militärischen Camouflage, das über die Kriegsberichterstattung in den unterschiedlichen Medien in unsere Wohnzimmer Einzug gehalten hat. Für die ornamentalen und floralen Walzenmuster verwendete sie nun die typischen Camouflagefarben grün, grau und braun, was in totalem Gegensatz zur eigentlichen Funktion der Wandmuster, nämlich Heimeligkeit und Geborgenheit zu vermitteln, steht.

Zusätzlich zu diesen neuen Farbkombinationen begann Hannah Stippl zum ersten Mal Textausschnitte in ihre Arbeiten zu integrieren. Es galt dem Betrachter wenig bekannte Inhalte und deren Auswirkungen vor Augen zu führen. Mit diesen Textpassagen bereichert Hannah Stippl ihre Arbeiten um eine zusätzliche Bedeutungsebene: Text wird zum künstlerischen Medium, das innerhalb der malerischen Arbeit zum Assoziationsauslöser für das von der Künstlerin angedachte Gedankenkonvolut wird, beziehungsweise dieses durch das Stilmittel der Ironie verstärkt.

In ‚urban camouflage_04’ sind die Texte markante Passagen aus einem US-Militärbericht, nachdem sich bis 2005 rund 75 Prozent aller Kriegshandlungen in städtischem Gebiet abspielen werden. Eine neue Erfindung des Militärs hat schon auf diese Vorhersage reagiert: Ein Computerprogramm ermöglicht es in kürzester Zeit die jeweiligen geographischen Spezifika wie Fassadengestaltung und Farben einer bestimmten Stadt zu sammeln, auszuwerten und daraus das perfekte Tarnmuster für diese spezielle Gegend zu errechnen. Wendig wie das Militär sein muss, kann dieses errechnete Muster auch in Windeseile auf Stoff für Tarnanzüge gedruckt werden.

Urban Camouflage

Hannah Stippl

Die Serie "urban camouflage_04" entstand im Winter 2003/2004. Der vorliegende Text, ein Konstrukt aus Zitaten, Prognosen, Plänen und Willenserklärungen, unternimmt den Versuch, mehr als ein Jahr nach der Fertigstellung der Bilder das Umfeld der Arbeiten offen zu legen und die damaligen Recherchen wieder aufzunehmen und weiterzuführen. 

Paul Kern oder ein General muss ein erfolgreicher Unternehmer sein, um ein erfolgreicher General zu sein

If we are really good. Für Paul Kern, Commanding General des Army Materiel Command (AMC), ist das Auftrag und Programm, - and we are. William Perry sagt über ihn: "Paul is what I mean when I talk about a warrior-technologist." Keiner kennt den Markt so gut wie er. Noch einmal William Perry: "The technologies he will test promise to revolutionize how we fight on the ground and ensure that we remain the world's dominant land force well into the next century." Paul Kern hat Erfahrung: Einsätze in Vietnam, Haiti, Ruanda, Zaire, dem Balkan und Irak. "Ein General muss ein erfolgreicher Unternehmer sein, um ein erfolgreicher General zu sein." Paul Kern ist erfolgreich. In seiner Zuständigkeit für Ausrüstung, Versorgung und Nachschub der Truppen ebenso wie in seiner Zuständigkeit für die Forschungs- und Entwicklungstätigkeit der US Army. Er hatte maßgeblichen Einfluss auf die Rüstungsbeschaffung und die Entwicklung des Future Combat Systems (FCS): "To support the Army’s goal to field an affordable system capable of overwhelming lethality, strategic deployability, self-sustainment, and high survivability.", jenem Programm, das unter anderem die Priorität der militärischen Operationen im urbanen Gebiet festschreibt. 

Im November 2004, ein halbes Jahr nach der Fertigstellung der Serie "urban camouflage_04", beendete General Paul Kern seine mehr als 40-jährige Karriere in der US Army, nicht um sich zur Ruhe zu setzen, sondern um die Seiten zu wechseln. Mittlerweile ist er gern gesehen und viel beschäftigt in den Vorstandsetagen von Rüstungs- und Lobbyingfirmen: 

Im Jänner 2005 wurde er in den Vorstand der EDO Corporation gewählt. (6)

"EDO Corporation provides military products and professional services to the United States and allied governments, and their prime defense contractors. EDO focuses on systems and subsystems that are integral to the success of long-term military platforms, such as the B-1B bomber, the F/A-22, the Joint Strike Fighter, and the Los Angeles and Virginia-class submarines."

Im Februar 2005 teilte Anteon International Corporation die Wahl Paul Kerns in den Vorstand mit.

"From secure access control solutions for government facilities and computer networks, to "smart" counterfeit-resistant ID cards, to the latest in border control and transportation security, Anteon authentication systems protect our nation’s most valuable assets. When the government needs to know who’s a threat to national security, they turn to Anteon." 

Im April 2005 wurde Paul Kern Vizepräsident und Berater für Homeland Security und Nationale Verteidigung bei Battelle Science and Technology International.

"Battelle is the most trusted name in chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) defense—from responsibility for protecting the Pentagon and other vital facilities in the nation’s capital to supporting military joint programs and National Guard Civil Support Teams training in weapons of mass destruction (WMD) defense."

Ebenfalls im April 2005 übernahm er die Aufgabe eines Senior Counselor der Cohen Group, einer Firma, die 2001 von William Cohen, dem Verteidigungsminister der Regierung Clinton, gegründet wurde. 

"The Cohen Group is currently comprised of 35 professionals who have many decades of combined experience working in top-level positions in Congress, the White House, the State Department, the Defense Department, the Department of Homeland Security, the Intelligence Community, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, other Federal agencies, the World Bank and in European and Asian governments. The Cohen Group provides its clients the insights and intelligence needed to better understand and shape the business, political, legal, regulatory, and media environments in which they operate. This includes both developing strategic business plans to help clients achieve their objectives and actively participating with clients in the execution of those plans. The Cohen Group practice groups include Aerospace & Defense; Homeland Security; China; Information Technology; Telecommunications; Bio-technology; Strategic Communications; Transportation & Logistics; Financial Services & Investment; Real Estate; and Agriculture, serving clients in North America, East Asia, South Asia, Europe, Russia, Australia, Africa and Latin America."

Paul Kern ist keine Ausnahme. Der Wechsel aus staatlichen oder militärischen Spitzenpositionen in die Führungsebenen der Privatwirtschaft ist längst Alltag und zahlt sich für beide Seiten aus. Das Geschäft der Lobbyisten hat sich in den letzten Jahren vervielfacht, ebenso wie die möglichen Gewinne der Auftrag gebenden Firmen. "We’ve got a revolving door going on," so beschreibt John Edwards den Mechanismus "You know these people work for you, they work for the government, and then they leave the government and join a lobbying firm and start lobbying the same people that they just worked with." Gesetzliche Beschränkungen wie der 1978 Ethics in Government Act, der Lobbyingaktivitäten im früheren Arbeitsbereich für ein Jahr untersagt, werden dabei meist umgangen, indem in der Zwischenzeit an anderen Stellen gearbeitet wird. Der Schluss für Paul Kern ist einfach: Ein Unternehmer muss ein erfolgreicher General sein, um ein erfolgreicher Unternehmer zu sein.

Military Operations in Urban Terrain (MOUT) oder der Häuserkampf in Städten als dominante Kernfähigkeit der Zukunft

Das US-Militär agiert zunehmend im innerstädtischen Straßenkampf, ohne wirklich darauf vorbereitet zu sein. "Seit langem ist bekannt, dass Städte als Konfliktraum immer bedeutsamer werden. ... In den von den US-Streitkräften während der letzten 20 Jahre ausgetragenen Konflikten wurde bereits in 80% der Fälle auch in städtischen Umgebungen gekämpft. Fast 40% der Konflikte fanden ausschließlich dort statt." 

"Human population continues to grow rapidly troughout the world and in undeveloped countries the growth is exponential. According to some estimates, 75% of the world will live in urban areas by the year 2005."

Hoher urbaner Bevölkerungszuwachs und wuchernde Ballungsräume mit Industrie und Medienzentren, vor allem in unentwickelten Ländern, bewirken den Analysen des Militärs zufolge das Zunehmen der Kampfhandlungen im innerstädtischen Bereich. Fast schicksalhaft scheinen sich Konflikte zu verlagern. Argumentativ ausgespart bleibt die zunehmende Asymmetrie der Konflikte. Die vorherrschende Vorstellung vom Krieg ist, zumindest in Europa, durch symmetrische Kriege geprägt. Sie sind, laut Münkler, durch die Gleichartigkeit der Konfliktparteien gekennzeichnet, insbesondere in Bezug auf die Bewaffnung und Ausrüstung der Streitkräfte, die Rekrutierung und Ausbildung der Soldaten, die militärische Logistik und schließlich die politische Logik des Gebrauchs der Gewalt. Die wechselseitige Wahrnehmung dieser Gleichartigkeit ist zugleich die Voraussetzung für die strikte Separierung von Kombattanten und Non-Kombattanten – die wohl wichtigste zivilisierende Errungenschaft des Kriegsvölkerrechts. 

"The urban battlefield is like no other because of its crowdedness, large variety of challenging features, and wide variability from location-to-location throughout the world."

Charakteristisch für die neuen Kriege ist die Erosion der Unterscheidung zwischen Kombattanten und Non-Kombattanten, ebenso wie die Erosion der Unterscheidung zwischen Krieg und Frieden oder zwischen Kriegsgebiet und vom Krieg nicht betroffenen Gebieten. Die Auflösung der territorialen Zuordenbarkeit bedingt eine Verlagerung von Konflikten in urbane Zusammenhänge, sei es in Form terroristischer Attacken oder den Angriffen der USA im Irak, auf Städte wie Nadschaf oder Falludscha. "Während die ländlichen Räume in Irak militärisch gesehen weitgehend problemlos und schnell erobert wurden, stockten die Dominanzbestrebungen der Truppen in den Städten, in denen Widerstand geleistet wurde, erheblich." Überlegenheit ist notwendig für postheroische Gesellschaften wie den USA, in denen Kriege wie erfolgreiche Investitionen beurteilt werden, die möglichst kurzfristig mit wenig Risiko hohen Ertrag einfahren müssen. "Now that we have experienced dominance we like it. And we plan to keep it."

"Die hoch entwickelten und reichen Länder, insbesondere die USA, treiben den Prozess der Modernisierung ihrer Streitkräfte nicht darum voran, weil sie durch symmetrische Konkurrenten dazu gezwungen würden, sondern weil die eigene Gesellschaft die Anforderungen an Kriegsführungsfähigkeit so sehr angehoben hat, dass das Militär nur bei asymmetrischer überlegenheit ein Instrument der Politik bleibt. Dementsprechend muss permanent in eigene Rüstungssysteme investiert werden, um bei minimalen eigenen Verlusten interventionsfähig zu bleiben." 

Der Häuserkampf im urbanen Gebiet ist so gesehen ein Rückschlag für eine Doktrin, die auf überlegenheit durch Distanzwaffen zählt, um für den Gegner möglichst unsichtbar und unangreifbar, weil außer Reichweite, und damit unverwundbar zu sein. Das Konzept der Unsichtbarkeit können im urbanen Umfeld die eigentlich asymmetrisch schwächeren, aber ortskundigen und in der zivilen Bevölkerung aufgehenden Gegner für sich in Anspruch nehmen. Daraus resultiert die hohe Priorität der Anstrengungen der US Armee, in Ausrüstung und Ausbildung auf Military Operations in Urban Terrain (MOUT) vorbereitet zu sein. Die Vision für die Zukunft ist klar: Krieger so unzerstörbar wie Superman und so unsichtbar wie Predator.

"Urban backgrounds generally require more straight edge camouflage, vertical and horizontal designs to blend with home, buildings and other urban structures."

Aber dafür fehlt es an geeigneter Ausrüstung und vor allem Tarnung. Mit ihren Kampfanzügen ist die Armee wortwörtlich im Dschungel geblieben. Die Uniformen mit Fleckenmuster, egal in welcher Farbe, machen die Soldaten auf Straßen und in Hinterhöfen für den Feind leicht sichtbar. Abhilfe sollen neue Forschungsansätze aus Militär und Privatwirtschaft schaffen. Das Ziel ist ein Kampfanzug, der die Soldaten und ihre Ausrüstung nahezu unsichtbar macht und gleichzeitig resistent gegen ballistische oder chemische Waffen ebenso wie gegen Feuer ist.

Der Soldat im Wohnzimmer oder Urban Camouflage, ein (Forschungs-)Auftrag

"Camouflage colors and patterns in a combat uniform fabric must provide the least amount of contrast between the soldier and his background."

"Part of providing low contrast to the background is the ability to break up or distort those recognizable features of the soldier, his silhoutte and his outline." 

"Urban camouflage combat uniforms must be effective across the widest variety of urban environments."

Es ist schwer zu sagen, wie viel die US-Regierung derzeit in die Tarn-Technik investiert - entsprechende Ausgaben fallen in den so genannten "schwarze Etat" in Höhe von derzeit insgesamt rund 26,1 Milliarden Dollar (18 Prozent) des Verteidigungsetats 2005. Insgesamt wurde der Geheimetat für dieses Jahr um sechs Milliarden Dollar aufgestockt, sagt ein Militär.

"Study results suggest that a reversible uniform would offer maximum concealment to the soldier fighting in an urban environment. Such a uniform might have a 2-color developmental pattern printed on one side for daylight operations, while the other side would be printed black for night or inside maneuvers."

Geforscht wird vor allem im U.S. Army Soldier Systems Center, in Natick, Massachusetts, die Ausrüstungsorganisation der Army, wo neue Entwicklungen unter standardisierten Bedingungen getestet werden können. "Natick’s goal is simple: Provide America’s soldiers with the best equipment in the world. To achieve this goal, the Natick team has consolidated full life-cycle management of soldier items into a one-stop, soldier support organization."

Wirksame Camouflage für den Kampfeinsatz ist überlebenswichtig. In aufwendigen und gut finanzierten Forschungsprogrammen wird in Natick an der Camouflage der Zukunft, das heißt an der urban oder multi-environment camouflage geforscht. "After all, you can't hit what you can't see. Better not to get shot or even shot at, at all, than to have to rely on your body armor, no matter how advanced that body armor might be."

"In addition to reversible urban camouflage, the future soldier may have available site-specific, rapidly deployable urban camouflage. Using special alogarithms, an ink jet system will rapidly and accurately design the appropriate disruptive pattern, select the optimum color combination and print the fabric for the specified urban terrain."

Die Forschungsergebnisse variieren dabei innerhalb eines weiten Spektrums. Von doppelseitigen Kampfanzügen über Entwicklungen wie Multicam, eines Musters, das in unterschiedlichen Situationen durch möglichst weit gehende Reflexion der Umgebungsfarben funktioniert, bis hin zu Stoffen, die sich mit Hilfe der Nanotechnologie chamäleonartig der Umgebung anpassen. Aufträge an die beteiligten Firmen sind schon vergeben. Nicht nur von Seiten der US Army, sondern auch von Private Military Companies wie Blackwater, die ihre eigene Uniform, "blackwater gear", entwerfen ließen. 

"The 21st Century soldier will face battlefield challenges that are more complex and greater in number than ever before." 

Thomas Friedman schrieb in der New York Times 1999 mit seltener Offenheit und offenbar ohne negative Vorbehalte: "Damit die Globalisierung funktioniert, muss sich Amerika nicht fürchten, als die allmächtige Supermacht aufzutreten, die sie ist. Die unsichtbare Hand des Marktes funktioniert nicht ohne die unsichtbare Faust. McDonald’s kann nicht blühen ohne McDonnell-Douglas, den Designer der F-15, und die versteckte Faust, die die Welt für die Technologie aus Silicon Valley sicher macht, heißt Armee der Vereinigten Staaten, Luftwaffe, Marine und Marines." Oder, um mit Boeing zu sprechen: "Future Combat Systems. One Team – the Army/Defense/Industry". 

Das Geschäft geht weit über Rüstung, Ausrüstung und Versorgung hinaus. Nicht umsonst definiert sich die Cohen Group als Spezialist für den Aufbau im Irak. Zu ihren ersten Erfolgen zählt der Abschluss eines Vertrages über $ 80 Millionen zur Sicherung der irakischen Ölfelder für Nour USA. So gesehen sind die Erfolge der US Army leicht zu erkennen: Ein Krieg muss ein erfolgreiches Geschft sein, um ein erfolgreicher Krieg zu sein. 

Urban Camouflage

Dana Charkasi

Since last year Hannah Stippl has been working with the pattern of military camouflage, which for Europeans has only been reflected more frequently since the war in Yugoslavia, and which has found its way into our living rooms through war reporting in the various media. For the ornamental and floral roller patterns, she now used the typical camouflage colors of green, gray and brown, which is in total contrast to the actual function of the wall patterns, namely to convey homeliness and security.

In addition to these new color combinations, Hannah Stippl began to integrate text excerpts into her works for the first time. The aim was to make the viewer aware of little-known content and its implications. With these text passages, Hannah Stippl enriches her works with an additional level of meaning: text becomes an artistic medium, which within the painterly work becomes an association trigger for the conglomeration of thoughts the artist has in mind, or rather reinforces it through the stylistic device of irony.In 'urban camouflage_04' the texts are striking passages from a U.S. military report, according to which by 2005 about 75 percent of all acts of war will take place in urban areas. A new military invention has already responded to this prediction: A computer program makes it possible to quickly collect and evaluate the particular geographic specifics, such as facade design and colors, of a given city and use them to calculate the perfect camouflage pattern for that specific area. Nimble as the military must be, this calculated pattern can also be printed on fabric for camouflage suits in no time at all.

Urban Camouflage

Hannah Stippl

The series "urban camouflage_04" was created in the winter of 2003/2004. This text, a construct of quotations, forecasts, plans and declarations of intent, attempts to reveal the environment of the work more than a year after the completion of the pictures and to resume and continue the research of that time.

Paul Kern or a general must be a successful entrepreneur to be a successful general

If we are really good. For Paul Kern, Commanding General of Army Materiel Command (AMC), that is the mission and the program, - and we are. William Perry says of him, "Paul is what I mean when I talk about a warrior-technologist." No one knows the market like he does. Again William Perry: "The technologies he will test promise to revolutionize how we fight on the ground and ensure that we remain the world's dominant land force well into the next century." Paul Kern has experience: deployments to Vietnam, Haiti, Rwanda, Zaire, the Balkans and Iraq. "A general has to be a successful entrepreneur to be a successful general." Paul Kern is successful. In his responsibility for equipment, supply and resupply of troops as well as in his responsibility for the research and development activities of the U.S. Army. He has had a major influence on arms procurement and the development of the Future Combat System (FCS), "To support the Army's goal to field an affordable system capable of overwhelming lethality, strategic deployability, self-sustainability, and high survivability," the program that, among other things, prioritizes military operations in urban areas.

In November 2004, six months after the completion of the "urban camouflage_04" series, General Paul Kern ended his more than 40-year career in the U.S. Army, not to retire, but to switch sides. In the meantime, he has become a welcome and busy presence in the boardrooms of defense and lobbying firms:
In January 2005, he was elected to the board of EDO Corporation. (6)
"EDO Corporation provides military products and professional services to the United States and allied governments, and their prime defense contractors. EDO focuses on systems and subsystems that are integral to the success of long-term military platforms, such as the B-1B bomber, the F/A-22, the Joint Strike Fighter, and the Los Angeles and Virginia-class submarines."
In February 2005, Anteon International Corporation announced the election of Paul Kern to its board of directors.
"From secure access control solutions for government facilities and computer networks, to "smart" counterfeit-resistant ID cards, to the latest in border control and transportation security, Anteon authentication systems protect our nation's most valuable assets. When the government needs to know who's a threat to national security, they turn to Anteon."
In April 2005, Paul Kern became vice president and advisor for Homeland Security and National Defense at Battelle Science and Technology International.
"Battelle is the most trusted name in chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) defense-from responsibility for protecting the Pentagon and other vital facilities in the nation's capital to supporting military joint programs and National Guard Civil Support Teams training in weapons of mass destruction (WMD) defense."
Also in April 2005, he assumed the role of senior counselor for the Cohen Group, a firm founded in 2001 by William Cohen, the Clinton administration's secretary of defense.
"The Cohen Group is currently comprised of 35 professionals who have many decades of combined experience working in top-level positions in Congress, the White House, the State Department, the Defense Department, the Department of Homeland Security, the Intelligence Community, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, other Federal agencies, the World Bank and in European and Asian governments. The Cohen Group provides its clients the insights and intelligence needed to better understand and shape the business, political, legal, regulatory, and media environments in which they operate. This includes both developing strategic business plans to help clients achieve their objectives and actively participating with clients in the execution of those plans. The Cohen Group practice groups include Aerospace & Defense; Homeland Security; China; Information Technology; Telecommunications; Bio-technology; Strategic Communications; Transportation & Logistics; Financial Services & Investment; Real Estate; and Agriculture, serving clients in North America, East Asia, South Asia, Europe, Russia, Australia, Africa and Latin America."

Paul Kern is no exception. The move from top government or military positions to the executive levels of the private sector has long been commonplace and pays off for both sides. The business of lobbyists has multiplied in recent years, as have the potential profits for the companies that commission them. "We've got a revolving door going on," is how John Edwards describes the mechanism "You know these people work for you, they work for the government, and then they leave the government and join a lobbying firm and start lobbying the same people that they just worked with." Legal restrictions such as the 1978 Ethics in Government Act, which prohibits lobbying activities in the former work area for one year, are usually circumvented by working elsewhere in the meantime. The conclusion for Paul Kern is simple: an entrepreneur must be a successful general to be a successful entrepreneur.

Military Operations in Urban Terrain (MOUT) or urban house-to-house combat as the dominant core capability of the future.

The U.S. military is increasingly operating in urban street combat without really being prepared for it. "It has long been known that cities are becoming increasingly significant as conflict spaces. ... In conflicts fought by U.S. forces over the past 20 years, 80% of the time fighting has also occurred in urban environments. Nearly 40% of the conflicts took place exclusively there."

"Human population continues to grow rapidly troughout the world and in undeveloped countries the growth is exponential. According to some estimates, 75% of the world will live in urban areas by the year 2005."

High urban population growth and sprawling metropolitan areas with industry and media centers, especially in undeveloped countries, are causing the increase in fighting in inner-city areas, according to military analyses. Almost fate-like, conflicts seem to be shifting. Left out of the argument is the increasing asymmetry of conflicts. The prevailing conception of war, at least in Europe, is characterized by symmetrical wars. According to Münkler, they are characterized by the sameness of the parties to the conflict, especially with regard to the arming and equipping of the armed forces, the recruitment and training of soldiers, military logistics and, finally, the political logic of the use of force. The mutual perception of this sameness is at the same time the prerequisite for the strict separation of combatants and non-combatants - arguably the most important civilizing achievement of the international law of war.

"The urban battlefield is like no other because of its crowdedness, large variety of challenging features, and wide variability from location-to-location throughout the world."

Characteristic of the new wars is the erosion of the distinction between combatants and non-combatants, as well as the erosion of the distinction between war and peace or between war zone and areas not affected by war. The dissolution of territorial assignability conditions a shift of conflict into urban contexts, whether in the form of terrorist attacks or the U.S. attacks in Iraq, on cities such as Najaf or Fallujah. "While rural areas in Iraq were largely conquered smoothly and quickly from a military standpoint, force dominance efforts faltered considerably in cities where resistance was mounted." Dominance is necessary for post-heroic societies like the U.S., where wars are judged like successful investments that must reap high short-term returns with little risk. "Now that we have experienced dominance we like it. And we plan to keep it."

"The highly developed and rich countries, especially the U.S., are driving the process of modernizing their armed forces not because they would be forced to do so by symmetrical competitors, but because their own societies have raised the requirements for war-fighting capability to such an extent that the military remains an instrument of policy only in the case of asymmetrical superiority. Accordingly, it must permanently invest in its own armament systems in order to remain capable of intervention with minimal losses of its own."

From this point of view, the urban warfare is a setback for a doctrine that counts on superiority through ranged weapons in order to be as invisible and unassailable as possible for the opponent, because out of reach, and thus invulnerable. In the urban environment, the concept of invisibility can be claimed by opponents who are actually asymmetrically weaker, but who know their way around and are absorbed by the civilian population. This results in the high priority of U.S. Army efforts to be prepared in equipment and training for Military Operations in Urban Terrain (MOUT). The vision for the future is clear: warriors as indestructible as Superman and as invisible as Predator.

"Urban backgrounds generally require more straight edge camouflage, vertical and horizontal designs to blend with home, buildings and other urban structures."

But for this, there is a lack of suitable equipment and, above all, camouflage. With its combat uniforms, the army has literally remained in the jungle. The spotted-pattern uniforms, regardless of color, make soldiers easily visible to the enemy on streets and in backyards. New research from the military and private sector aims to remedy the situation. The goal is a combat suit that makes soldiers and their equipment nearly invisible while being resistant to ballistic or chemical weapons as well as fire.

The soldier in the living room or urban camouflage, a (research) assignment

"Camouflage colors and patterns in a combat uniform fabric must provide the least amount of contrast between the soldier and his background."

"Part of providing low contrast to the background is the ability to break up or distort those recognizable features of the soldier, his silhoutte and his outline."

"Urban camouflage combat uniforms must be effective across the widest variety of urban environments."

It's hard to say how much the U.S. government is currently investing in camouflage technology - related spending falls under the so-called "black budget" currently totaling about $26.1 billion (18 percent) of the 2005 defense budget. Overall, the black budget has been increased by six billion dollars for this year, says one military official.

"Study results suggest that a reversible uniform would offer maximum concealment to the soldier fighting in an urban environment. Such a uniform might have a 2-color developmental pattern printed on one side for daylight operations, while the other side would be printed black for night or inside maneuvers."

Research is being conducted primarily at the U.S. Army Soldier Systems Center, in Natick, Massachusetts, the Army's equipment organization, where new developments can be tested under standardized conditions. "Natick's goal is simple: provide America's soldiers with the best equipment in the world. To achieve this goal, the Natick team has consolidated full life-cycle management of soldier items into a one-stop, soldier support organization."

Effective camouflage for combat operations is critical to survival. In elaborate and well-funded research programs, Natick is conducting research on the camouflage of the future, that is, urban or multi-environment camouflage. "After all, you can't hit what you can't see. Better not to get shot or even shot at, at all, than to have to rely on your body armor, no matter how advanced that body armor might be."

"In addition to reversible urban camouflage, the future soldier may have available site-specific, rapidly deployable urban camouflage. Using special alogarithms, an ink jet system will rapidly and accurately design the appropriate disruptive pattern, select the optimum color combination and print the fabric for the specified urban terrain."

The research results vary within a wide spectrum. From double-sided combat suits to developments such as Multicam, a pattern that works in different situations by reflecting the surrounding colors as far as possible, to fabrics that adapt to their surroundings like chameleons with the help of nanotechnology. Contracts have already been awarded to the companies involved. Not only from the U.S. Army, but also from private military companies such as Blackwater, which has had its own uniform, "blackwater gear," designed.

"The 21st Century soldier will face battlefield challenges that are more complex and greater in number than ever before."

Thomas Friedman wrote in the New York Times in 1999 with rare candor and apparently without negative reservations: "To make globalization work, America need not fear appearing as the all-powerful superpower that it is. The invisible hand of the market does not work without the invisible fist. McDonald's can't thrive without McDonnell-Douglas, the designer of the F-15, and the hidden fist that makes the world safe for Silicon Valley technology is called the United States Army, Air Force, Navy and Marines." Or, to paraphrase Boeing, "Future Combat Systems. One Team - the Army/Defense/Industry." The business goes far beyond armor, equipment and supplies. It is not for nothing that the Cohen Group defines itself as a specialist for reconstruction in Iraq. Among its early successes is the signing of an $80 million contract to secure Iraq's oil fields for Nour USA. Viewed in this light, the U.S. Army's successes are easy to see: A war must be a successful business to be a successful war.