Dominican Republic

Dominican Republic

The Dominican Republic (República Dominicana) was founded in 1844, following a six year fight for independence from Haiti, which had assumed control in Feburary 1822, just nine weeks after the nation had obtained its independence from Spain. Adopting a Constitution based on that of the United States, the nation was nearly annexed several times, but these attemps were ultimately defeated in the US Senate (finally in 1871).

Early in the 20th century the nation was faced with bankruptcy the threat of unwanted intervention from European powers. US intervention prevented this, but the assissination of President Ramón Cáceres in 1911 resulted in several years of civil war, culminating in a US occupation of the nation from 1916 to 1924. A period of stability ensued under the presidency of General Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina (elected 1930), who ruled the nation with an iron fist but nevertheless secured stability and economic growth. Following his assassination in 1961, the republic suffered another period of instability after the elected leftist government of Juan Bosch was overthrown by a military junta, sparking a revolt and mounting concern that another communist revolution might take place. The United States (along with contingents from other Latin American nations) again intervened militarily and occupied the country for a year, until the election of Joaquín Balaguer (a former political ally of Trujillo). The nation has been largely free from political violence and intimidation since.

The Fuerzas Armadas de la República Dominicana are the Armed Forces of the Domimican Republic, and consist of the Army, Navy and Air Force, with approximately 25,000 active duty personnel. Uniforms are the same as those worn by the United States.

Camouflage Patterns of the Dominican Republic

• By 1971, the country had adopted a copy of US ERDL "leaf" pattern camouflage, which was being worn by personnel form the Army and Air Force.

• The standard US m81 woodland camouflage pattern BDU has been worn by Dominican forces since the late 1980s.

• The small contingent of Dominican military personnel deployed to Iraq (circa 2003-2004) wore US six-color desert camouflage uniforms provided by the United States. On later deployments, Dominican troops wore US-provided tricolor desert camouflage uniforms.

• The Dominican National Police SWAT Team (Unidad SWAT) employs commercial tiger stripe camouflage uniforms on some occasions. A variety of different patterns have been observed, including those illustrated here.

• Since approximately 2008, units of the Dominican Army are transitioning to a copy of the USMC MARPAT temperate camouflage MCCUU style uniform.

• The Naval Infantry Battalion have recently adopted the USA's Universal Camouflage Pattern (UCP) for its operational uniform. Prior to this the unit wore solid tan (khaki) uniforms.

• Most recently, the Fuerza Aerea Dominicana (Dominican Air Force) have adopted a copy of the US developed digital "tiger stripe" pattern worn by the US Air Force. This appears to be issued service-wide now.

• In August, 2022 the Dominican Ministry of Defense announced that all three branches of service would adopt a unified camouflage pattern in an effort to give the Dominican Armed Forces its own distinctive look. Incorporating colors reflective of the predominant features of the Caribbean nation, the design appears to be based on Multicam with a much more green-dominant color palette. Although all three branches of service will wear the same uniform (given the colloquial name chamaco), each branch will retain some identity by featuring embroidered insignia in a particular color - green for the Army, khaki for the Navy, and blue for the Air Force. This new uniform was debuted during the National Independence Day parade on February 27, 2023.