Battle Dress Uniform (BDU) - BDU Uniforms - BDU Uniform Called Battle Uniforms - BDU Uniform used by Armed Forces - Battle Dress Uniform

Army National Guard troops in 2000 during a field training exercise, wearing woodland BDUs.

The Battle Dress Uniform (BDU) were the fatigues that the armed forces of the United States used as their standard uniform for combat situations from September 1981 to April 2005. Since then, it has been replaced in every branch of the U.S. military. Only the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Navy currently authorize wear of the BDU uniform (the former until October 2011, the latter at locations such as U.S. Special Operations Command until a Navy-specific digital woodland camo uniform is available). BDUs are also still worn by officers of the US Public Health Service in dirty or austere environments, and is often the prescribed uniform for any deployment activities. BDU-type uniforms still see active use in other nations (most of them ex-US stocks transferred under US security assistance programs), while others are still worn by some US Federal, state and local law enforcement agencies or activities who may work in tactical situations, such as the DEA and SWAT.

These uniforms are called battle dress uniforms because they are intended for use during "battles", as opposed to "garrison" dress uniformsworn at parades and functions. The general design and configuration of the U.S. BDU uniform was similar to that of Vietnam-era jungle fatigues, which were in turn similar to in configuration to specialty uniforms worn by U.S. paratroopers during World War II.

The Battle Dress Uniform (BDU) appeared in September 1981 in the woodland camouflage pattern. It was based primarily on the woodland colors of Northern Europe. It used shades of green, brown, tan, and black, initially printed onto cotton-nylon blend twill cloth. A lightweight BDU uniform was introduced in 1989 with the pattern printed on 100% rip-stop poplin cloth. It was the first camouflaged uniform approved by the Army since the U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam, where the ERDL pattern was in limited use. The BDU soon replaced all earlier camouflage pattern uniforms for all wooded, jungle, and tropical environments, and, by 1989, had completely replaced the standard olive drab uniforms that were used since 1952.

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