Smoking marijuana may land you in hot water with the U.S. Army if you flunk one of those regularly scheduled mass urinalysis tests they frequently hold, but that's not stopping them from seeking out a hemp-based ghillie suit for snipers.
The Army has been testing its Improved Ghillie Suit (IGS) for years and has now submitted a request for information to help them with planning via the Product Manager Soldier Clothing and Individual Equipment (PM-SCIE) for the next fiscal year. They are requesting information about jut or hemp fibers.
In case you're a part of the square community, we can fill you in without having to risk losing your security clearance by hanging out with the wrong crowd, listening to jazz music, and smoking reefer.
A ghillie suit is usually handmade by sniper students (although some are commercially available) usually based on a standard army uniform which then has some kind of netting sewn into it. From there natural fibers like jut, or maybe hemp, can be strung into the netting.
The point is to break up the sniper's outline and make them look like a natural part of the terrain. The jut/hemp can also be used to tie in natural vegetation for further camouflage, which is seen as the key element.
Hemp fibers could potentially be a viable product to use in the construction of ghillie suits as opposed to the more traditionally used jut, something that the Army seems to recognize in their RFI.
If you or your friends from the wrong side of the tracks have any sweet hook-ups with hemp products, you can try selling to the Army.
Related
Want to get more connected to the stories and resources Connecting Vets has to offer? Click here to sign up for our weekly newsletter. Reach Jack Murphy: jack@connectingvets.com or @JackMurphyRGR.