… /s

“Essentially, the Army designed a universal uniform that universally failed in every environment,” said an Army specialist who served two tours in Iraq, wearing UCP in Baghdad and the deserts outside Basra.  “The only time I have ever seen it work well was in a gravel pit.”

It was the camouflage pattern PEO selected after the crayon eaters flexed their (good if specialized) MARPAT and Big Army was rightly embarrassed by having to field troops in DCU/choc-chip with M81 woodland field gear

The brigadier general ultimately responsible for the decision, James Moran, who retired from the Army after leaving Program Executive Office Soldier, has not responded to messages seeking comment.

Given they’ll spend their whole careers watching screen readouts sat in comfy chairs, there’s only one logical choice - hear me me out now

6. Patent pool

The AR market is not just entertainment, Microsoft has been failing to build a viable AR helmet for soldiers for years now, after the latest-and-greatest fight jets got them.

Professional use too - think of how much simpler and safer ‘realistic’ training could be for deep sea commercial divers or oil rig workers. Live schematic overlays for aircraft technicians at work/in training.

Those are a few of the applications where an absurdly high unit cost/license fee would be gladly swallowed instead by governments or business.