Camouflage: Landcamo ABD Mammut

Introduction

Landcamo ABD Mammut is one of those hard to get camouflage patterns that was widely discussed several years back during the “camouflage wars”, sparked by the US Army Camouflage Improvement Effort. A while back Pitchfork Systems bought the remaining stock of ABD Mammut fabric and had several uniforms made.

This year I got one of the Boonies and while it is not enough for a decent camouflage test, I figured it is, however, just enough to provide some impressions.

Landcamo ABD Camouflage 

Landcamo ABD was designed by Slovenian Brane T. Cervek. He not only founded the company Landcamo, but also teaches Survival through his School of Survival from Nature (SSFN). The pattern family you will see here in this article is the ABD pattern – short for American Battle Disruption. Brane T. Cervek traveled a lot and had just as much interaction with a variety of military units, so one can expect a certain amount of real life experience.

The ABD family consists of 5 patterns that are made of very organic and natural looking elements. The overall look is pixelated, however the edges are often rounded or “soft” and often feature borders in a different color, thus providing a considerable amount of depth through shading.

• ABD Mammut for woodland environments with gray elements (tree line, mountains)
• ABD Jäger for woodland environments
• ABD SERE for arid and transitional environments
• ABD GORA for mountainous regions
• ABD ALPINE for snow covered environments

As we are looking at ABD Mammut in particular, let’s get into more detail here. The pattern consists of macro, midi and micro elements, featuring several colors with no dominant base color. One will find dark brown, clay brown, a blue gray, frog green, and tan/ivory. The overall appearance is green with a blue tint.

Impressions of Landcamo ABD Mammut

Before starting with the initial impressions, I want to point out that I only had the Boonie at hand, so these pictures can only give a rough idea, and at times maybe even a wrong picture. With that being said, no color correction and a proper white balance are included, to give exact colors.

The pictures were taken in May, so nature is lush green and vibrant in colors. At first I placed the Boonie on several tree trunks, as these were a bit elevated and at the same time close to the ground. Landcamo ABD Mammut matched the surroundings rather well, making use of its organic pattern. The colors did blend well, while at the same time the fabric suffered a bit of fabric shine.

In the next step, I layed the Boonie directly on the ground, trying out different soils and locations. While it did stand out against dead branches (it seems that the dark brown fractals were less effective here and the round shape of the boonie played its part), it did work well in other situations. Moss and dark earth were either too dark or resembled different greens, but as soon as some rocks came into play, the actual intended environment came to light.

Having in mind the bluish gray and tan/ivory colors, ABD Mammut worked extremely well in rocky woods and environments. The micro and midi elements mimic the complex structures of gravel, stones and the plants that grow in between them. As far as I am informed, the pattern was initially created for the forest of the Karst region and/or the environments around the tree line in the mountains.

In a last tryout, I put the Boonie in a more elevated position above the ground in a deciduous forest. Especially with the leaves on the ground floor and the various shrubs that grow there, the pattern visibly disappeared into the surroundings. Having in mind the initial performance, this was a pleasant surprise, showing once more that there are only a few camouflage patterns that really work well in a lush green dominant environment.

Conclusion

Landcamo ABD Mammut is one of those patterns which did not get the attention they deserve. Especially in wooded environments with rock formations as well as deciduous forests, this pattern is very impressive to say the least. Additionally it is one of a few camouflage patterns that offers macro, midi and micro elements, as most designs only provide two of the three. This, in combination with the smart shading of the fractals, results in an effective pattern with a lot of depth.

Unfortunately it is quite hard to come by the various Landcamo patterns these days. As far as I am informed, Pitchfork Systems used one of the last batches of fabric for their uniforms. That being said, Brane T. Cervek informed me that the Landcamo patterns are still available for licensing, so it only takes the decision of any company to bring back Landcamo.

With that being said, thanks to Tacstore for making this review possible!

Many thanks for reading!

Take care!