Denmark Bought Combat Uniforms Twice. The Second Order Came With a Women's Cut.

Opening & At a Glance

In June 2025, soldiers of the Slesvig Foot Regiment at Haderslev were among the first in Denmark to be handed the new Nordic Combat Uniform. It was supposed to be the shared kit of a closer Nordic defence. Earlier this year, Denmark's procurement agency stopped issuing the combat garments. The fabric faded. Seams opened. Cloth tore when it got sweaty or wet, as Danish outlet A4 Medier described the problems.

The fix is called M/26. It's made by Belgium's Seyntex together with Crye Precision, the New York company behind MultiCam. On 9 October 2026, the Danish Defence put it at the centre of something bigger than a quality recall: its action plan for conscription that now applies equally to women and men. M/26 comes in a men's model and a women's model. That detail is the story.

What Happened, in Plain English

FMI announced the M/26 deal on 16 June. Only the combat garments are being replaced. The parts of NCU that held up, including underwear, mid-layers, winter clothing and rain gear, stay on the original framework agreement. The Navy gets M/26 in blue. Conscripts who started in August 2026 are still being dressed in NCU and the older M/11, and their NCU combat pieces get swapped out as M/26 arrives.

The money hurts. A4 Medier reported the new agreement at roughly DKK 600 million, replacing parts of a system that had cost about DKK 300 million. FMI's own announcement doesn't give a figure, so treat those numbers as reported, not official.

Then came the 9 October action plan. Under Denmark's new conscription model, everyone who turns 18 is called for assessment, service generally runs 11 months, and the plan states plainly that conscription now has full equality between women and men. Uniforms get their own chapter. It says M/26 was developed with Crye Precision, which has supplied Denmark's special forces Jægerkorpset for years, and that the system is meant to support better fit "across genders and body types". The kit list: combat trousers, combat shirt, shirt jacket, combat jacket and a softshell. From 2021 to 2025, women averaged about 25% of Danish conscripts, according to the plan.

Britain is moving the same way, on a smaller scale. Unite Procurement UK published its notice (reference TSS 793) on 28 September, acting for the MoD, looking for multiple suppliers to provide and replenish Crye Precision G4 combat clothing in Multi Terrain Pattern, including female fit sizes. Contracts Finder lists a value range of £900,000 to £2.7 million. The first deadline was 12 October, and suppliers can keep applying on a rolling basis. This is supplier onboarding for a specialist buy, not a mass-issue contract.

Confirmed vs Analysis — Keep the Labels Honest

Why the Cut Matters More Than the Logo

"I feel like I'm drowning when I wear men's sizes." That's Cmdr. Jennifer Lo, 30 years in the US Navy, quoted by the Navy after a fit clinic for female sailors in August. Plenty of women in uniform could have said it. For decades the default answer was a smaller men's size. On a parade ground that looks sloppy. Under a plate carrier it's a problem: a jacket bunched at the hips, knee pads sitting in the wrong place, a crotch seam taking load it was never cut for.

My take, and it's opinion: putting a women's model into the specification is the clearest sign yet that procurement offices see fit as performance, not courtesy. A uniform that doesn't fit fails the soldier the same way a split seam does. It just fails slower and more quietly. When a quarter of your conscripts are women and conscription is now equal for both, shipping one cut and a sizing chart stops being defensible.

The second lesson is about buying twice. Denmark tried a shared design, watched it fall apart in sweat and rain, and went back to a cut its own special forces already trusted. That's expensive. It's also cheaper than a third attempt. Crye has spent this autumn defending its name too: in September it announced two court wins in China over MultiCam copyright and trademark infringement. The cut and the pattern are the asset. The factory is replaceable.

It's the same pattern we saw from the civilian side last Saturday with VIKTOS building a rain jacket around a sidearm zipper. In this category the winners design for the body and the job first, and the marketing follows.

Questions Readers Are Likely to Ask

Is Denmark changing camouflage too? FMI's announcement and the action plan talk about cut, quality and supplier, not pattern. Some outlets report MultiCam for the land version. We haven't seen that in Danish official text, so treat it as unconfirmed. The Navy version is blue.

Did the UK just buy Crye uniforms for the army? No. The notice onboards suppliers for a specialist requirement through a procurement platform. Nothing had been awarded at the time of writing, and the notice doesn't say which units it serves.

Is Sweden doing the same? Sweden's MSU26, built on Crye's G3.5 in the Swedish M90 pattern, was shown at DALO Industry Days in August. Crye's Swedish partner, MP-SEC International, says only a limited number of units use it so far (via Militarnyi).

Closing & Sources

Confirmed: Denmark halted parts of NCU over quality, ordered M/26 from Seyntex with Crye Precision in separate men's and women's models, and on 9 October wrote it into its plan for equal conscription, with conscripts fully kitted by August 2027. A UK notice for Crye G4 with female fit sizes closed its first round on 12 October. Opinion: the women's cut is the procurement signal to watch. The real test comes in 2027, when the uniforms reach conscripts and have to survive the same sweat and rain that broke the last ones.

• Danish Defence (Forsvaret) — "Ny handleplan skal styrke ligestillingen i den nye værnepligt" (9 Oct 2026) and "Handleplan for ligestilling i Ny værnepligt" (October 2026)
• FMI — "Nye uniformer til Forsvaret" (16 Jun 2026); Nordic Defence Sector English summary (16 Jun 2026)
• A4 Medier — reporting on the M/26 contract value and NCU quality problems (25 Jun 2026)
• UK Contracts Finder — "Supply of Specialist Military Clothing", Unite Procurement UK, TSS 793 (published 28 Sep 2026, deadline 12 Oct 2026)
• US Navy / NEXCOM Public Affairs — female uniform fit clinic (Aug 2026); Crye Precision — China IP rulings (26 Sep 2026); Militarnyi on MSU26 (25 Aug 2026)

Methodology Note: Editorial synthesis of Danish Defence and FMI primary documents, the UK Contracts Finder notice, and named secondary reporting. Contract values from A4 Medier are reported figures, not official. Danish quotes and details translated by RogueGhost. RogueGhost is not affiliated with Crye Precision, Seyntex or any government buyer. Not procurement advice. Analysis labelled as analysis.