Presentation:
Even at the XIXth century, there were military troops which used to fight dressed in red. Then, some generals have understood that colors like brown or dark blue were more suitable for the battlefield because less flashy. But it is only at the XXth century that camouflage really appeared and was developed scientifically. Today, every army has its own camouflage patterns for fighting in wooden fields, in deserts, during the night, in snowy zone, etc.

My research:
By clicking on the underlined words, the pattern will appear in the following rectangle:

First, a camouflage does necessarily need multi-colors patterns. Simple colors like the following ones can be good camouflage colors:
- black, for night fight (with no moon)
- gray and slate-gray, for night fight with moon or day urban fight
- navy, for night fight
- khaki, for dry zones
- olive drab, for wooden zones
- white, for snowy zones

Multi-colors patterns are numerous and typical of the army that use them.

The US army for instance, has many types of patterns, more or less used, like:
- "Woodland" (the most famous pattern around the world, aimed at wooden fields),
- "Desert 3 colors" (recent camouflage used for the war in Irak),
- "Desert 6 colors" (or "Desert Storm"... camouflage used during the war in the Gulf & in Somalia),
- "Night Desert",
- ERDL (camouflage for jungle, used during the Vietnam war),
- MOUT ("Military Operations on Urbanized Terrain", very recent camouflage tested by the ISMC),
- "Urban" & "Subdued Urban" (camouflage for urban fights, used by police forces & SWAT),
- "Tiger Stripes" (camouflage for jungle or wooden fields with a lot of leaves, it was used by the special forces during the Vietnam war, it exists in various types, Vietnam, actual, Desert, etc.)
- you can also find in shops special camouflages: Advantage Camo, Tree Bark, Smokey Branch, Superflauge, etc.

The French Army uses:
- "Centre-Europe" (woodland-like camouflage for wooden fields) &
- "Daguet" (camouflage for desert, using 3 colors).

The British Army uses "DPM" ("Disruptive Pattern Material"), the German Army uses various camouflages called "B.W." ("BundesWehr" ie German Federal Armed Forces) or "Flecktarn" (in different types: green/brown, white/black, etc.), the Swiss Army uses a very uncommon camouflage with some red color, called "Alpenflage", etc.

Finally, camouflage has been and is still fashionable for streetwear, and many more or less fancy declinations (but sometimes real success in terms of aesthetic) have been launched on the market: red urban/red tiger stripes, yellow urban/yellow tiger stripes, light blue urban, etc.