"Sick SURPAT Bro", An Analysis of the Philippines' Light Reaction Regiment Distinctive Uniform Pattern
“Sick SURPAT Bro”
By Diego
“Sick SURPAT bro”, a Russian gear aficionado quipped at one of my friend’s Instagram post of the three of us, my friend in question, another compatriot, and me, clad in our Philippine Army Light Reaction Regiment Distinctive uniforms paired with M4A1s and Filipino made 2nd line gear. Of course, for the obscure and esoteric Filipino impressionist, already such a niche impression group within a niche hobby, that statement stings a little bit. Banter aside, the comment was purely made in jest, and I got a chuckle out of it.
A few months later, as I was reorganizing my closet that houses my airsoft guns, uniforms, gear, and nifty little jackets and sweaters for the winter time, my Russian made vest in the Survival Pattern camouflage and Light Reaction Regiment uniform trousers crossed paths, both ending up strewn together, side by side while looking indistinguishable together on the otherwise barren closet floor. That’s when I remembered the SURPAT joke and realized that lighthearted jab of LRRDU being a Filipino SURPAT isn’t a terrible comparison after all.
Before we delve into the LRRDU pattern and its unintentional yet uncanny resemblance to SURPAT, we will take an inside look into the real-life wearers of LRRDU, the Light Reaction Regiment, an eccentric and low profile Philippine Army counter terror unit that needs some light shed upon its obscure yet adventurous history, a history that solidifies its reputation as the Philippines’ Delta Force.
Light Reaction Regiment as it is known today can trace its lineage to 1995, when selected men from the Philippine Special Forces Regiment (Airborne) were taken to be an ad-hoc counter terror team called A-20, as at the time there were no dedicated special forces units created to address modern counter terror tasks. Significant gaps that require more specialized units prompted the Philippine government to bolster its counter terror capabilities, a task that was placed into the hands of Philippine SOCOM’s Major Adrian Angel Sievert II, former USSF ODA Major Joseph H. Felter, the military attaché at the US Embassy and went on deployments to Mindanao in the early 1990s, as well as Philippine Army Major Teodoro Llamas. The trio established the Light Reaction Company discreetly in 2000. 9/11 and hostage situations involving US citizens were what spurred the US to address Felter’s request that would further fund, train and equip this nascent counter terror unit.
Because of their unparalleled effectiveness as a CT unit and their success in the Zamboanga City siege of 2013, under the direct orders of president Benigno Aquino III and approved by Defense Secretary Gazmin, additional Light Reaction Companies were to be trained and established, adding three more companies totaling to six which led to the LRC’s growth as a Regimental sized unit the following year, hence the name changes from Light Reaction Company to the modern Light Reaction Regiment.
LRR in Marawi
All six Light Reaction companies would go on to play a pivotal role in assassinating key ISIS leaders and spearheading the Marawi Siege which took place in 2017. A Vice video showcased the LRR’s missions, skill sets, equipment and their digital green LRR uniforms during this battle. Many of their missions, whether past or current, remain classified and only a few of their past missions are declassified, thus such glimpses of the Light Reaction Regiment are incredibly rare.
Hal in his LRR kit
Despite the LRR’s secretive nature they adopted what is called the “LRR Distinctive Uniform” in Philippine military circles. The Philippine military has a somewhat standardized outlook when it comes to uniforms, with a DPM copy being a mainstay for army and air force personnel since the early ‘90s, before adoption of the new digital PHILARPAT uniforms, and the navy adopting a single, standard digital camouflage for its personnel, save for their special NAVSOG unit which still retains its proprietary tiger stripe uniforms. Special forces units in the Philippine military have historically adopted their own distinguishing uniform pattern which greatly serves as a status symbol, and, with the exception of the Scout Ranger Regiment’s distinctive digital black uniforms that are not used in combat, made of a practical color scheme and pattern to blend into environments well.
FRXL with his LRR uniform, 2010
Thanks to a historian who specializes in Philippine police and military uniforms, we have found that LRR’s camouflage was adopted in 2009. Interestingly enough, their camouflage pattern wasn’t tailor made for them. It started off as a commercial pattern, likely made by a local uniform and textile manufacturer in Nueva Ecija and simply named “Jungle MARPAT”. Fort Magsaysay, the Light Reaction Regiment’s home, also happens to be in the province of Nueva Ecija. This province, known for having the largest rice production yields in the Philippines, is found 3 hours north of Manila. Uniforms and vests are made in the Nueva Ecija produced pattern, and was a popular sight in army and tactical stores. A friend bought himself a set around 2009, and stated that these digital green uniform were on the Philippine tactical gear market earlier than that, readily found on the shelves since at least 2008. The time from this camouflage being introduced to the market to its adoption as the Light Reaction Regiment’s unique camouflage pattern took at least a year. Because of the textile source’s relatively close proximity to Fort Magsaysay, what most likely happened was that an LRR official tasked with acquisition for a distinct camouflage stumbled upon the pattern and was elated by it, then the official brought some samples back and it was adopted as LRR’s uniform. Recent reports from sources in-country state that the rolls of fabric used for making LRR uniforms are now restricted and only come from a textile source in Nueva Ecija.
FRXL’s friend at an airsoft game, 2009
Survival Corps’ Russian SURPAT pattern took a more industrial approach in its development. In 2009 research and development started, the rights to use French CCE woodland was acquired, and so was the digital pattern of Hyperstealth’s CADPAT camouflage. In effect, the original SURPAT was the marrying of French CCE woodland’s colorways, and the digital pattern scaling of CADPAT. Survival Corps also mentions the addition of a grey tone to SURPAT to aid in blending into urban AOs. Uniforms and 2nd line gear are made in SURPAT, as well as helmet covers for K6-3s, RBR/PASGT and ACHs, rifle slings, among others.
SRVV SURPAT (Left) and LRRDU trousers (Right)
Taken at 7PM during golden hours, clear sky, at 3 meters.
Photographs were taken at 1, 3, and 5 meters in the evening in the spirit of conducting a ratchet version of Natick Labs testing (I’d probably do better anyways considering the adoption of UCP), and replicated at the same distances the following day during the late afternoon with overcast. All photographs positively conclude the resemblance of SURPAT and LRRDU, which is further exacerbated ad a distance.
Despite the completely deviant design stages these two camouflages took, the truth of the matter is they look very identical, which leads to some theories and speculation that will be addressed. One such theory is that LRRDU was initially an experimental Philippine Army camouflage that eventually saw small scale adoption with the LRR. Documentation of the pattern being trialed as an experimental camouflage would have surfaced, however, eliminating this theory. LRRDU merely started off as a commercial pattern that by happenstance was adopted by the LRR.
A more creative but zesty theory is that there was some espionage involved on behalf of Philippine interest. Its premise is that a spy stole SRVV’s SURPAT schematics during development which helped create a bootleg copy in the Philippines before being picked up by the Light Reaction Regiment. As hilarious as it sounds, intellectual theft is not the case when it comes to LRRDU’s development. For starters, the Filipino camouflage appeared around 2008, at least a year before SURPAT even started its development which means intellectual theft was impossible as LRRDU predates SURPAT. Secondly, it would behoove the government powers that be who stole the pattern to perhaps keep the camouflage under wraps and not immediately sell uniforms, caps, and vests in the pattern publicly. Thirdly, there is no geopolitical advantage or reason for the Philippines to spy on and siphon military technology from Russia, and even if espionage was involved, why steal a camouflage design when there are more pressing matters to steal?
Screencap of Jolly Tekstil’s alleged LRRDU camouflage. This photograph prompted my Turkish friend and I to look more into Jolly Tekstil’s product offerings.
Finally, a fairly plausible theory is that the uniform fabrics are Turkish of origin. Turkey has a sizable textile export industry and provides countries such as Albania and Somalia with military uniforms. Turkey and the Philippines have friendly relations which is reflected with the Filipino acquisition of Turkish Aselsan made night vision devices, FNSS ACV-15 APCs, and the occasional talks of acquiring T192 ATAK helicopters. So, importing Turkish fabric would not be out of the question.
A Turkish source found a jacket made by the Turkish uniform, fabric and military gear company Jolly Tekstil which seemed to have the likeness of LRRDU. The fact that it was a digital camouflage and had virtually the same colorways was a promising discovery. Upon investigating Jolly Tekstil’s catalog however, some key differences arose. Jolly Tekstil’s green digital camouflage, designated as JTK 003 in their fabrics catalog, has a more aggressive ripstop grid pattern, like those found on most Turkish Army Nano uniforms. Its color was indeed a match, consisting of black and tan digital increments on a green background, but its pixels have a more pronounced rounding on the pixel corners as well as having more compressed digital blocks, features not found on LRRDU’s pixelized design. Due to the discrepancies we can rule the theory that the camouflage was sourced in Turkey despite the possibility of it being of Turkish origin. However, there is still a slight chance that Jolly Tekstil does offer LRRDU as not all of their myriad of camouflage offerings are publicly listed, and other Turkish companies like Raff produce AFP DPMs (M. Tursak, 17 March 2021). Further investigation into a possible Turkish link will be done in the future, though all evidence point to LRR camouflage being an indigenous Filipino creation.
LRRDU, Philippines. This photo is taken at a closer distance hence the larger pixels, but the colorways are easy to see.
SRVV SURPAT, Russia
Jolly Tekstil JTK 003, Turkey
The simplest and most conclusive answer is that these camouflage patterns took different development paths and ended up looking alike, which is a notable anomaly in and of itself. SURPAT has the French woodland pattern’s colors of brown, tan, black and green, with a grey tone added for urban settings. LRRDU, the brain child of a small Nueva Ecija textile and military shop, features only 3 colors, black and tan on an olive drab background. The trained eye can tell the difference up close, though these digital camouflages “bleed” at a distance and become even more similar looking with factors such as overcast.
Screengrab of RUSFOR at Counterstrike Luhansk. Note SURPAT uniforms and CWG.
With all of these facts laid out on the table, would I recommend acquiring Light Reaction Regiment patterns for your AFP LRR kit? Absolutely. With the proper M4A1 14.5” or 10.3“ barrel lengths, paired with a Trijicon ACOG 4 x 32 or RX01 scope, PEQ2, M951 light, proper 2nd line gear by Venum, and accurate headgear, you have a unique Filipino Light Reaction Regiment kit that will surely turn heads. In terms of impression vogue, it is subjectively a step above DPM and PHILARPAT because of how much more gauche it is being the camouflage is specific for the LRR.
Some considerations to acknowledge, however. Will the pattern be approved for a milsim event where Russian units can use SURPAT? Most likely not, and at best, definitely ill-advised. Me personally, SURPAT will always have a soft spot in my heart, and I love Filipino kit dearly, so obtaining an LRRDU set is a no brainer and a double win. Get you a set and have fun with it, just don’t expect to use it to a major event with Russian factions involved.
Photo slides below show SURPAT and LRRDU compared at 1, 3 and 5 meters in the evening during evening light. Second set of photos are at the same distances, under afternoon overcast light.
Author (left) and his friends fielding the LRR uniforms. The famous photo that an AFP/PNP page thought was real LRR. More accurate optics and vests will be acquired.
Special thanks to FRXL, Oliver, Patrick, Benjamin, Mark, the LRR Appreciation Club in the PI, Mr. Javier for his AFP uniform expertise, and Francis V. for providing information, photographs, and a guiding hand from him and his Tiradores book for this article. Their in-country assistance continue to be a great help in pursing accurate Filipino kits and quality research thereof.
As well as to Mert for his assistance with Turkish kits for FET, and investigating a possible local origin of the camouflage.
If you have FET related gear or camouflages that you’d like to see featured on our blog and social media sites, plese feel free to reach out to us on our Facebook or Instagram!
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