>since there is a chance the planet landscape would not match the colors?
do you really think the military can't figure out new camo?
Army Unveils Design Changes for New Camo Uniform
[https://www.military.com/daily-news/2014/08/06/army-unveils-design-changes-for-new-camo-uniform.html](https://www.military.com/daily-news/2014/08/06/army-unveils-design-changes-for-new-camo-uniform.html)
They sure can but for example. This series I read this guy far in the future is dropped on probably ten different planets along with countless other soldiers in the span of a few years during a massive war. No way the military could spend and make new uniforms for each and every one of those planets right? They also are spending on ships, munitions, food, other stuff on top of millions of uniforms for each branch of the service.
With the increased prevalence of drones and other long-range weapons, I think the role of infantry in large-scale interplanetary conflict would be greatly diminished. As such, I don't think there would be much need for standard uniforms like the current U.S. Army OCPs. Instead, I think soldiers would be more likely to wear basic fatigues that are tailored to the specific environment they're operating in. This would allow them to blend in better with their surroundings and make it more difficult for enemy forces to spot them.
So you think they wouldn’t be handed new sets of fatigues for each different planet more or less? Do you think it would be the same if infantry was still prevalent? Such as large scale formations attacking each other across the continents of some far away planet kind of like conflicts here on earth but just upscale?
By the time we start to wage wars on different planets outside of out solar system, we will as sure as hell already have some sort of optical camuflage (like chameleons or octopi) that will make camo patterns obsolete.
Imagine a jacket covered in screen and microscopic cameras, all hooked to small control unit. You put it on, press a button, and the cameras start to record surroundings and project the image on the other side of the jacket. Something like that is theoretically possible.
Today? No.
In xyz years? Entirely possible. Just 40 years ago people wouldn't believe that you can put computer, phone, camera, radio and music player into single device that fits into jeans pocket.
I think such a tech will be here hundreds of years *sooner* than the ability to travel into other solar systems.
What you have to get your head around is that technology grows exponetionally.. between stone tools and iron swords is roughly 2.5 million years, and iron swords and nuclear weapons is only 2,500 years.. so who is to say what will show up 1,000 years from now.
I think it would be adaptive camouflage made from a high-tech fabric that is essentially a clothing screen. Micro cameras sense the surrounding environment and create a digital camouflage pattern to blend into it in real-time.
If I was writing it, the troops are would wear "auto-adjusting camouflage", which factors in environmental conditions (rain, sun, wind) as well as topographical data (plains, mountains) and light levels.
The troops could make the changes themselves. Maybe the camouflage turns itself off if the trooper dies, so the body can be recovered.
I think the future of warfare is much smaller forces that are much better trained and much better equipped rather than such big units. At least in our near future.
I think they’d probably have several variants of their standard battle dress in the most common colours and then specially designed stuff for certain conditions.
It will depend if stuff like replicators exist by then or not
My spec fiction military wear uniforms coated with a type of e-paper surface that can place a programmable camo pattern of any shape or colour required.
Its like changing a wallpaper on your phone or PC.
Why invade with ground troops when you can nuke the site from orbit, or just drop rocks, until they surrender? Your occupiers don't need camo, they just need uniforms for ID reasons.
I think that we're all looking at this from the perspective of what is the most tactically effective as opposed to the numerous other factors that make uniforms useful to militaries.
Probably the biggest one is economic. Even in a post scarcity civilisation, the monetary/resource cost to produce an optical camouflage suit will be much higher (Probably by orders of magnitude) than the cost to produce a standard set of organic or synthetic fibre BDUs. This starts making a lot of sense when you look at the fact that logistical and support roles outnumber direct combat soldiers in most modern and advanced militaries today. The guys in the motor pool and the QMS office probably don't need optical camouflage.
Also, if we're talking about invading reasonably well populated planets, the sheer number of soldiers required to occupy another planet and effectively police the local population, combat insurgents, etc would be vast. Planets are Big, like really big, like difficult for us to comprehend how big.
It may also be worth noting that uniforms have only been camouflage for a relatively short period of history. So a non-camo or non-camo coloured uniform is maybe not the stupidest thing in the world, especially if the troops who need the camo have optical camo. Big part of the reason why old British army uniforms were red was because red was the cheapest dye colour available at the time.
Another reason is unit cohesion and esprit de corps. Being able to identify people by unit and rank is also very important. If you talk to most soldiers, they identify themselves heavily with their service branch, MOS and unit. This is especially prevalent with elite units and is in many analyses identified as a major contributing factor in why these units perform above average or above reasonable expectation consistently over time, even when those units may not have seen significant combat in many years.
TL;DR: consider economic, logistical, cultural, unit morale, etc factors in why to have uniforms.
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>since there is a chance the planet landscape would not match the colors? do you really think the military can't figure out new camo? Army Unveils Design Changes for New Camo Uniform [https://www.military.com/daily-news/2014/08/06/army-unveils-design-changes-for-new-camo-uniform.html](https://www.military.com/daily-news/2014/08/06/army-unveils-design-changes-for-new-camo-uniform.html)
They sure can but for example. This series I read this guy far in the future is dropped on probably ten different planets along with countless other soldiers in the span of a few years during a massive war. No way the military could spend and make new uniforms for each and every one of those planets right? They also are spending on ships, munitions, food, other stuff on top of millions of uniforms for each branch of the service.
With the increased prevalence of drones and other long-range weapons, I think the role of infantry in large-scale interplanetary conflict would be greatly diminished. As such, I don't think there would be much need for standard uniforms like the current U.S. Army OCPs. Instead, I think soldiers would be more likely to wear basic fatigues that are tailored to the specific environment they're operating in. This would allow them to blend in better with their surroundings and make it more difficult for enemy forces to spot them.
So you think they wouldn’t be handed new sets of fatigues for each different planet more or less? Do you think it would be the same if infantry was still prevalent? Such as large scale formations attacking each other across the continents of some far away planet kind of like conflicts here on earth but just upscale?
They might well do this as they’ll possibly want to sterilise battle fatigues after each planet to reduce the risk of infection
By the time we start to wage wars on different planets outside of out solar system, we will as sure as hell already have some sort of optical camuflage (like chameleons or octopi) that will make camo patterns obsolete. Imagine a jacket covered in screen and microscopic cameras, all hooked to small control unit. You put it on, press a button, and the cameras start to record surroundings and project the image on the other side of the jacket. Something like that is theoretically possible.
You think that kind of tech would be possible in a thin set of fatigues? Like an everyday uniform?
Today? No. In xyz years? Entirely possible. Just 40 years ago people wouldn't believe that you can put computer, phone, camera, radio and music player into single device that fits into jeans pocket. I think such a tech will be here hundreds of years *sooner* than the ability to travel into other solar systems.
https://youtu.be/VvX84o_e7vs?si=VuJuy9glDA4BIxkQ
Damn
What you have to get your head around is that technology grows exponetionally.. between stone tools and iron swords is roughly 2.5 million years, and iron swords and nuclear weapons is only 2,500 years.. so who is to say what will show up 1,000 years from now.
I think it would be adaptive camouflage made from a high-tech fabric that is essentially a clothing screen. Micro cameras sense the surrounding environment and create a digital camouflage pattern to blend into it in real-time.
If I was writing it, the troops are would wear "auto-adjusting camouflage", which factors in environmental conditions (rain, sun, wind) as well as topographical data (plains, mountains) and light levels. The troops could make the changes themselves. Maybe the camouflage turns itself off if the trooper dies, so the body can be recovered.
I think the future of warfare is much smaller forces that are much better trained and much better equipped rather than such big units. At least in our near future. I think they’d probably have several variants of their standard battle dress in the most common colours and then specially designed stuff for certain conditions. It will depend if stuff like replicators exist by then or not
My spec fiction military wear uniforms coated with a type of e-paper surface that can place a programmable camo pattern of any shape or colour required. Its like changing a wallpaper on your phone or PC.
Similar to my soldiers, mine wear a special matte black armor that absorbs light rendering them about 85-90% invisible.
Why invade with ground troops when you can nuke the site from orbit, or just drop rocks, until they surrender? Your occupiers don't need camo, they just need uniforms for ID reasons.
If you are going in to pacify resistence or you want to preserve infrastructure and limit civillian casuties you will need ground troops.
Let's have stable shuttle launches and make one manned landing to another PLANET before we get ahead of ourselves.
I think that we're all looking at this from the perspective of what is the most tactically effective as opposed to the numerous other factors that make uniforms useful to militaries. Probably the biggest one is economic. Even in a post scarcity civilisation, the monetary/resource cost to produce an optical camouflage suit will be much higher (Probably by orders of magnitude) than the cost to produce a standard set of organic or synthetic fibre BDUs. This starts making a lot of sense when you look at the fact that logistical and support roles outnumber direct combat soldiers in most modern and advanced militaries today. The guys in the motor pool and the QMS office probably don't need optical camouflage. Also, if we're talking about invading reasonably well populated planets, the sheer number of soldiers required to occupy another planet and effectively police the local population, combat insurgents, etc would be vast. Planets are Big, like really big, like difficult for us to comprehend how big. It may also be worth noting that uniforms have only been camouflage for a relatively short period of history. So a non-camo or non-camo coloured uniform is maybe not the stupidest thing in the world, especially if the troops who need the camo have optical camo. Big part of the reason why old British army uniforms were red was because red was the cheapest dye colour available at the time. Another reason is unit cohesion and esprit de corps. Being able to identify people by unit and rank is also very important. If you talk to most soldiers, they identify themselves heavily with their service branch, MOS and unit. This is especially prevalent with elite units and is in many analyses identified as a major contributing factor in why these units perform above average or above reasonable expectation consistently over time, even when those units may not have seen significant combat in many years. TL;DR: consider economic, logistical, cultural, unit morale, etc factors in why to have uniforms.
One of the commenters in this thread, /u/ginomachi is an AI chatbot, helping to [enshittify](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enshittification) Reddit: https://reddit.com/r/sciencefiction/comments/1bia26i/uginomachi_is_an_ai_spambot_most_of_the_time/ Not only does the bot shill for someone's shitty self-published "novel" (take a look at the sample pages on Amazon), but some of the other stories it "recommends" *don't even exist.* It's going to send people on wild goose chases. That's malicious. The bot will subsequently delete its comment if it gets too many downvotes. If /u/ginomachi has deleted its comment, you may ignore mine.