Flora camouflage

Flora (Russian: Флора, sometimes erroneously called VSR-98, which stands for Vooruzhennyye sily Rossii or Russian Armed Forces 1998.)^[1] is a military camouflage pattern formerly used by the Russian Armed Forces.

Flora camouflage
Flora camouflage pattern
Type	Military camouflage pattern
Place of origin	Russian Federation
Service history
In service	1998-2011
Used by	See Users
Wars	Second Chechen War Russo-Georgian War Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation War in Donbas

The pattern has some design similarities with the Butan and Tiger stripe camo.^[2]

History

A. Kolmakov, commander of Russian VDV forces (right), in Flora camouflage receiving a report from a soldier in Dubok camouflage. The soldier on the left and the troops in the background are wearing Zabralo armor in Barviha camouflage. 2004.

Flora came as a replacement for the "Barvikha" camouflage - the name of the R&D program. The pattern did not have an official name, so popular nicknames like "vertikalka" (vertical), berezka (birch), VSR-93 and so on appeared.^[3]

Flora was adopted into the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in 1998.^[2]

The camo was last seen with claimed pro-Moscow Crimean auxiliaries during the Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation^[4] and with some Russian troops in the War in Donbass.^[5]

Design

Flora is optimised for an environment typical of central Russia and is effective at silhouette dissolution.^[6] Because of the characteristic stripes, "Flora" was nicknamed "Arbuznyj" (watermelony; арбузный) camouflage.

The overall color scheme can vary widely depending on the fabric used by the manufacturer.^[7]

"Flora" consists of the green Flora pattern and the Mountain Flora pattern, which has dark yellow, sand or khaki color.^[8]

Users

Former

Russian paratroopers wearing Flora camouflage

• Belarus: Replaced by EMR.^[9]
• Russia: Formerly used by all branches of Russian Armed Forces.^[10] Replaced by EMR by 2011.^[11][12] However, some are still used by military educational institutes,^[2] Russian soldiers in parades^[13] and in Ukraine.^[5]
• Tajikistan: Adopted EMR to replace Flora.^[14]

Partially-recognized states

Donetsk's Vostok Battalion wearing Flora during the rehearsal for the 2015 Victory Parade in Donetsk

• Donetsk People's Republic^[15]
• Luhansk People's Republic^[16]