Ghillie Suits

The Ghillie Suit
All images from Custom Concealment or Combative Concepts

During some of the missions tht Special operations soldiers undertake, it is necessary for them to be almost completely undetectable. Camoflaged uniforms and paint are not enough; the soldier must be able to blend perfectly into their surroundings. In cases like this, many operators elect to wear a Ghillie Suit.

The ghillies were first used militarily by the Scots in WWI, when the Lovat Scout's snipers copied suits made by gameskeepers in their homeland. The literal translation of ghilie is man, so a ghillie suit technically means "man suit"

Most military suits in the US are manufactured from nomex flight suits (less to snag on) with multi-colored strips of burlap sewn on. The strips on the ghillie suit help to break up a person's outline and blend them into their surroundings. A good operator will tailor-make a basic suit that will blend into a variety of basic underbrush then add little bits of brush from the local vegatation to complete the effect.

Because the military sniper does a lot of their close in recon in a low crawl, the front of theh suit is often bare with extra canvas sewn on to protect the sniper's body during the crawl.

Although an excellent form of camoflage, the suits do have some disadvantages. First, they are heavy, and adding them to a soldier's kit that already includes ammunitions, rations, and other heavy items may be undesirable. Also, they require extra maintenance and can be an extreme fire hazard. Generally, as a rule, ghillies are mainly used in cooler forest locals where there is less risk of the sniper or scout suffering from heat stroke.

Where's Waldo???

Believe it or not, there's a sniper with a gun in this picture. Can you see him?
By the way, this picture came from the excellent folks at Custom Concealment, the only folks I know of who have to get special permission from the US State Department to ship their suits out of the country!!