The KLMK — Kamuflirovannyy Letniy Maskirovochnyy Kombinezon, or Camouflaged Summer Disguise Coverall — names a garment form, not a pattern. The stair-step birch design it became synonymous with entered service in 1968, issued first to the units that needed it most: VDV paratroopers, Naval Infantry, Spetsnaz, and reconnaissance forces operating where concealment was the difference between a mission and a casualty. The green-and-white colorway is the canonical issue variant — worn by Soviet special operations forces through Afghanistan, and after 1991 by successor state militaries across the former USSR: Ukrainian special units, Georgian forces, Central Asian armies, and fighters on every side of the Chechen conflicts. It remains one of the most recognizable camouflage patterns in the world, and one of the few that has never stopped being worn.
