Mongolia

Mongolia

With the assistance of the Soviet Union, the Mongolian People's Republic was formed in 1924 along collectivist lines. Under Khorloogiin Choibalsan, the nation's population suffered a series of Stalinist purges in which religious institutions such as Buddhist monasteries were destroyed and as many as 30,000 people were executed. The nation was successfully defended by Russia during the Soviet-Japanese War of 1939.

In the early 1990s, Mongolia experienced a democratic revolution following the Russian example, introducing a multi-party system, market economy, and a new constitution. Its name was changed to the Republic of Mongolia (Mongγol ulus).

The Mongolian Armed Forces consist of the General Purpose Force, Border Defence Force, and the Internal Security Force, with a total strength of approximately 28,000 personnel. Mongolia has been an active participant in peacekeeping efforts in recent years, participating in missions to Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, Congo, Eritrea, Western Sahara and Liberia, as well as the ongoing ISAF effort in Afghanistan.

Mongolian Camouflage Patterns

• The standard camouflage pattern of the Mongolian armed forces is a three-color arid design incorporating dark and medium brown shapes (with small patches of black) on a light brown background.

• Mongolian Border Guards 1st pattern - used 1990s until replaced by the 2nd pattern in 2007

• Mongolian Border Guards 2nd pattern - used since 2007

• The pattern below is worn by the Mongolian Customs Department, a non-military organization.

• Special Police of the Internal Security Force wear the pattern below, which seems to be a copy of the Turkish "compressed leaf" design.

• The Police Academy issues the blue camouflage pattern seen below.

• In 2011, a pixelated version of the standard three-color arid pattern was introduced to the Mongolian Armed Forces. This pattern has been printed on heavier cotton twill and lighter weight ripstop cotton-blend fabrics.

• Introduced in 2012, the Border Guards have replaced their old organic camouflage design with a pixelated pattern of their own. Seen below, the BG pattern is in fact a completely different design from the Army version with a much more dense concentration of pixels.

• As far back as 2017, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) or Онцгой байдлын ерөнхий газар began wearing one or possibly more variations of the "Universal Camouflage Pattern" (UCP) previously developed for the US Army. The pattern has appeared primarily on personnel participating in the annual Khaan Quest event, a military exercise hosted in Mongolia in which various peacekeeping practices are exchanged among as many as a dozen visiting military delegations. Although the example in this photograph appears to have a primarily grey color palette, some photos exhibit a more greenish-tone.

• Circa 2017, students attending the Law Enforcement University of Mongolia (Хууль сахиулах их сургууль) - now known as the University of Internal Affairs - began wearing a blue-dominant pixelated camouflage design for some duties.

• A more recent Border Guard issued camouflage pattern is seen here, closely based on the USMC MARPAT temperate design. The pattern has specifically been documented in use by the Border Guard Unit serving in the Lake Buir Nuur region (on the border with China), formed in 2019. This pattern has also been seen in use with Mongolian Army Special Forces (84th Special Task Battalion).

• The organic camouflage design seen here, with grey color palette, has also been documented in use by Mongolian Border Guards personnel. All photos suggest the uniforms are lined for extreme cold weather usage.

• Circa 2021, the Mongolian Army 84th Special Task Battalion (Зэвсэгт хүчний 084-р анги), a special operations unit, adopted Multicam for training, deployments and operational use.

Other Camouflage Patterns worn by Mongolia

• Considering the longstanding role played by the Soviet Union in establishing and supporting the Mongolian Armed Forces, it is no wonder that some Mongolian military units made significant use of Soviet era camouflage patterns prior to the development of their own indigenous designs. Photographic evidence suggests the use of two-color "amoeba" MKK coverall suits, as well as berezhka pattern KLMK and KZS uniforms well into the 1980s and possibly even later.

• The Mongolian contingent deployed to Iraq from 2005-2006 wore modified American tricolor desert pattern camouflage uniforms.

Comparison Photos

• Comparision of the old (left) and the new (right) Border Guards patterns

Notes

We gratefully acknolwedge the assistance and contributions of Ben Playford in creating this article.