US Army ACU uniforms

The US Army announced they would be getting new uniforms late last year. But they only recently started appearing in discernable numbers. You may have even spotted a few on soldiers deployed for Hurricane Katrina Relief and wondered who those guys were that wandered in from the set of a Sci-Fi movie.
The new uniform is actually very different from the BDUs that have been around since 1983. Obviously the camo patter has been changed from earth tone splotches to these grey and khaki tones in a digital pattern. (The US Marines went to an earth tone digital pattern a couple of years ago, and the Army was immediately jealous.)
You may find it hard to see, but the pockets have also been rearranged. There are now large pockets on the upper sleeves that allow storage accessible while wearing an armor vest. The ches pockets are now slanted to make it easier to rummage in, and the thigh cargo pockets have been similarly slanted. There's also a shin pocket on the leg. They are now going to a tan, desert style combat boot. Velcro has been incorporated instead of buttons on the pockets, and also to hold the unit patches and badges.
This is the camo pattern all by itself.

Now, back in the early Eighties when the Powers that Be at the Pentagon decided to issue the BDUs, the main reason given was that they wanted to standardize the look, and creat more efficient costs, across the services. Now the Marines have re-designed their uniform, the Army has too, and the Air Force is considering adopting a blue and grey, tiger stripe camouflage (which looks really silly). While costs sky-rocket in Iraq, and we can't seem to get enough of the essentials (e.g. armor in all shapes and types) to the men and women in the field, we have spent goodness knows-how-much taxpayer dollars on redesigning, field testing, and deploying new uniforms.

Oh, and the Army uniforms look terrible.