M05

This article is about the military camouflage patterns. For the football club, see 1. FSV Mainz 05. For the group of drugs, see ATC code M05. For the highway, see M05 highway (Ukraine). For other uses, see M5.

The M05 family of military camouflage patterns are used by the Finnish Defence Forces on uniforms and other equipment. The pattern is licensed by the Finnish Defence Forces and it is not available to the public. The first M05 items were taken in use around 2007, and are slowly replacing the M91 pattern in service use.

Woodland pattern

M05 woodland pattern

Finnish soldiers wearing M05 with a CV90.

The basis of the planning of the new pattern are various photographs of Finnish forests taken by the Finnish Forest Research Institute. The photographs were then digitally edited by the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland's Information Technology Institute and concentrated into a 4-colour pattern representative of a Finnish forest. Dark charcoal grey, was added to the pattern in order to represent shadowed areas in a forest.

The pattern was field tested several times, leading to small changes. The new pattern was considered to be significantly better than the old M62 and M91 camouflage patterns.

The woodland pattern is used on at least the following FDF equipment:

• M05 Camouflage uniform
• M05 Ripstop cloth hot weather uniform for international forces
• M05 Military police coverall
• M05 Field cap
• M05 Boonie hat
• M05 Reversible helmet cover (Woodland and Snow patterns)
• M05 Flak jacket
• M05 Rain/NBC suit
• M05 Gore-Tex suit for special forces
• M05 Patrol overall for special forces
• Personal camouflage net

Snow pattern

M05 snow pattern

The snow pattern is a 2-colour version of the M05 woodland pattern. The pattern has been observed to disrupt a soldier's profile so that the new suit cannot be detected at a few dozens of meters' distance in dense snowfall.

The snow pattern is used on the following FDF equipment:

• M05 Snow suit
• M05 Snow overalls (worn over flak and/or assault vests)
• M05 Reversible helmet cover

Cold weather pattern

M05 cold weather pattern

On the cold weather suit (Pakkaspuku) the woodland pattern's light green colour has been replaced by grey, which is a more common colour in the autumn and winter.

The cold weather pattern is used on the following FDF equipment:

• M05 Cold weather suit
• M05 Fur hat

Urban camouflage pattern

At the same time Finnish Defence Forces made new grey-brown camouflage pattern for urban areas, but it is not yet used in clothing or gear.

Desert camouflage pattern

M04 Desert pattern

Originally taken in use before other gear of M05 family and is officially called M04 although pattern has the same basic features and looks as other M05 family patterns. The first M04 items were taken in use around 2003 by Finnish contingent of UN peacekeeping mission in Eritrea (UNMEE) as a test pattern called K2004. K2004 garments were printed into heavier cloth than current M04 that is printed to Ripstop cloth. Currently the pattern is used by FDF international forces in Afghanistan (ISAF). It was also used UN operations in Chad and Central African Republic (MINURCAT) and Lebanon (UNIFIL II). Also Finnish officers serving in arid climate as UN Military Observers use M04 pattern equipment.

The desert pattern is used on at least the following FDF equipment:

• M04 Desert hot weather uniform
• M04 Desert hot weather uniform shorts
• M04 Desert boonie hat
• M04 Desert field cap
• M05 Reversible helmet cover (Woodland and Desert patterns)

Russian 'lookalike'

The commercially produced Russian 'Yeger' camouflage pattern, first came to public notice during the 2008 South Ossetia war where it was seen being worn by MVD Internal Troops. 'Yeger' is a four-colour camouflage, comprising irregularly outlined black, dark green and light green blocks on a wood brown background. Very similar in appearance to Finnish M05 woodland camouflage pattern.

The resemblance between 'Yeger' and M05 woodland has given rise to numerous claims that Russia has copied the Finnish camouflage pattern. The claims were outlined by Helsingin Sanomat in an article titled "Russians under suspicion for having purloined camouflage design of Finnish Defence Forces" and Taloussanomat in couple articles. Also US newspaper The New York Times made a story about the claims November 20, 2008.

According to military camouflage pattern and uniforms collectors page kamouflage.net the resemblance between the two camouflage patterns is undeniable; however, there are also significant differences between them. As an example kamouflage.net gives that:

• There appears to be much more light green in the Russian pattern than there is in the Finnish M05 woodland.
• There is more of the medium green and for that matter the Russian 'Yeger' pattern seems to be overall denser than the Finnish M05 woodland.
• The shapes in the Russian 'Yeger' pattern seem to have more irregular outlines than those seen in M05 woodland

According to kamouflage.net, it cannot be said that Russian 'Yeger' is a direct copy of Finnish M05 in the same way that Chinese Type 03 Plateau Camouflage is a direct copy of German Flecktarn, in which case there is a direct correspondence between the shapes of the two camouflage patterns. As and end state kamouflage.net states that, "Russian Yeger pattern is at most an Finnish M05 'lookalike'".

Sources

• Puolustusvoimat ottaa käyttöön uuden taistelijan varustuksen
• Taistelijan vaatetusvarustus m05
• Licence of M05/M04 Design at site of National Board of Patents and Registration of Finland
• Russian Yeger pattern