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• DATE: Wed 21 October 2026, 1.00 p.m.
• VENUE: PVA EXPO PRAGUE, Entrance Hall 1, Innovation Stage
• LANGUAGE: English
• FORMAT: International Panel
• PANEL PROGRAMME
• FREE PANEL REGISTRATION
• Event is part of the Future Forces Exhibition & Forum 2026

MAD21: From Design to the New Czech Armed Forces Camouflage Pattern

The development of a modern military camouflage pattern is not merely a matter of graphic design. The resulting solution must combine camouflage effectiveness in different types of environments, suitable properties of colours and textile materials, military requirements, and the ability to achieve repeated industrial production while maintaining the specified parameters.

The Ministry of Defence has been addressing the need to change the existing camouflage pattern intermittently since 2015, when the need to respond to the changing operational environment, the development of reconnaissance and observation systems, experience from operational deployments, and developments in individual camouflage within NATO became increasingly apparent. At the same time, a requirement gradually emerged for broader applicability of camouflage in different types of environments and for reducing costs through a single multipurpose camouflage pattern instead of using multiple variants of field uniforms with different prints.

The development of a new field uniform also responded to new technological and user requirements. Although the two areas were closely related, the development of the camouflage pattern and the development of the new field uniform proceeded as two separate development lines. The development of the MAD21 camouflage pattern subsequently built on previous camouflage-related activities.

The foundation of its development was the combination of the expertise of three Czech universities. Through the University of Defence, cooperation was developed with Palacký University Olomouc and the Technical University of Liberec. Palacký University contributed expertise in camouflage pattern graphic design, the Technical University of Liberec in colourimetry and the evaluation of colours on textile materials, and the University of Defence in military camouflage, including evaluation in the visible and SWIR ranges.

The result of this cooperation was the initial design of the MAD21 camouflage pattern in 2021. The pattern uses seven colours and a combination of macro- and microstructures intended to support camouflage effectiveness at different observation distances.

The graphic design was followed in 2022–2024 by the MAD21 Experimental Verification Project (POV), coordinated by the University of Defence. It included extensive expert and field testing in different types of environments, climatic conditions and seasons, including environments encountered during foreign deployments. The objective was not to create a pattern optimised for a single type of terrain, but to find a balanced multipurpose solution corresponding to the anticipated range of deployments of the Czech Armed Forces.

The experimental verification was followed from 2024 by the defence standardisation process. In cooperation between the MAD21 team and the Military Research Institute, the results of the development to date were translated into measurable technical parameters that will make it possible, during future serial production, to control the colour characteristics, tolerances and other specified properties of the camouflage pattern. The relevant Czech Defence Standards entered into force in July 2026.

The creation of this standardisation framework made it possible to connect two development lines that had until then been developed separately, the MAD21 camouflage pattern and the new Field Uniform 2022. Their joint verification began in August 2026 as part of military trials, during which the MAD21 camouflage pattern was applied to the new field uniform.

MAD21 therefore represents more than a new graphic pattern. It is the result of combining design, colourimetry, military camouflage, experimental and field verification, and technical standardisation. The aim of the entire process is to create a solution that will not only be effective in real-world environments, but at the same time measurable and reproducible, with the possibility of repeated industrial production while maintaining defined parameters.

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