From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A ghillie, or yowie suit is a type of camouflage clothing designed to resemble heavy underbrush. Typically, it is a net or cloth garment covered in loose strips of cloth or twine, sometimes even made to look like leaves and twigs. Snipers and hunters with extreme requirements for going undetected in wilderness areas use a ghillie suit to blend into their surroundings.

The ghillie suit was developed by Scottish gamekeepers as a portable hunting blind. The name derives from ghillie, the Scots Gaelic for "boy", in English especially used to refer to servants assisting in hunting or fishing expeditions. A ghillie dhu is a type of tree spirit that is supposed to disguise itself in leaves and vegetation.[1]

Construction

High-quality ghillie suits are commercially manufactured, but military snipers generally construct their own unique suits. Proper camouflage requires the use of materials used in the area a sniper will operate. Making a ghillie suit from scratch is time-consuming, and a detailed, high-quality suit can take hundreds of hours to manufacture and season for use; however, Marine snipers are often required to customize their own suits to the environment in a matter of minutes.

Ghillie suits can be constructed in several different ways. Some military services make them of rough burlap flaps or jute twine attached to a poncho. US Army ghillie suits are often built using a battle dress uniform (BDU), pilot's flight suit, or some other one-piece coverall as the base.

On the base, rough webbing made of durable, stainable fabric like burlap is attached. A nearly invisible material like fishing line is used to sew each knot of net to the fabric (often with a drop of glue for strength). The jute is applied to the netting by tying groups of 5 to 10 strands of a color to the netting with simple knots, skipping sections to be filled in with other colors. The webbing is then seasoned by dragging it behind a vehicle, leaving it to soak in mud, or even applying manure to make it smell earthy. Once on location, the ghillie suit is customized with twigs, leaves, and other elements of the local foliage as much as possible, although these local additions must be changed every few hours, due to wilting of green grasses or branches.

Safety considerations

Although highly effective, ghillie suits are impractical for many situations where camouflage is useful. They tend to be heavy and hot. Even in moderate climates, the temperature inside of the ghillie suit can soar to over 50 °C (120 °F). Another safety issue is that the burlap is flammable unless treated with fire retardant, as the wearer may be exposed to ignition sources such as smoke grenades and white phosphorus.