Camo scout armor

"This is a extremely good body armor for snipers. It doesn't really help you against attacks, but keeps you well-hidden."

- Homack, on the camo armor

The camo scout armor, camo armor, camo suit or camosuit was an armor designed by Creshaldyne Industries to protect the wearer from both injury and detection. Using miniature photoreactive fibers, the suit blended into the background. Its hard plates provided protection against damage. Limitedly available through the galaxy since the times of the Clone Wars (sometimes through the illegal Gundark's Gear Datalog), the camo armor was used by bounty hunters and members of the Alliance to Restore the Republic.

Description
"A camo suit works well on unenhanced vision, but it doesn't provide much of an advantage over species that possess infravision."

- Vox

The camo armor, also known as camo scout armor and as camo suit or camosuit, was a protective covering that prevented damage from being inflicted to the user. To do, using common armor technology, several hard plates were woven into the fabric of a body glove armor.

The camo armor based its marketing advantage in a technology of passive defense that increased the hiding or stealth abilities of the user. To do so, the camo armor had a network of miniature photoreactive fibers embedded within it. Those items allowed the armor to absorbe surrounding light and change color, matching its present environment. While this tricked Human eyesight, the light- and color-sensitive fibers could not absorb and process every kind of light. The person known as Vox noticed that it was less than useful against species with natural infrared vision or against lifeform scanners, including specifically-configured macrobinoculars.

The camo armor was a light item, weighing no more than six kilograms.

History
"Back during my days with the Rebel Alliance, I had a suit of camo armor in my X-Wing's survival gear kit."

- Homack



Developed by Creshaldyne Industries, the camo armor was commercially available from the last days of the Old Republic onward, although frequently only in limited areas.

During the Galactic Civil War, users of the camo armor included a number of bounty hunters and, sometimes, members of the Alliance Special Forces who wore camo armors for both protection and furtiveness. Homack, a member of the Alliance to Restore the Republic, kept one suit of camo armor in the survival kit of his X-wing starfighter and considered that snipers could profit from its use. Once, he was shot down and crashlanded on Atrivis. Thanks to his camo armor, Homack evaded enemy Storm commandos long enough to steal a starship.

In the first days of the New Republic, the camo armor was available through Gundark's Gear Datalog, the illegal database of the arms smuggler Gundark. Homack posted there about the advantages of the camo armor and his own experiences with it; he was answered by Vox, who listed the perceived disadvantages of the item.

Circa 10 ABY, members of the Karazak Slavers Cooperative used camo armors and mounts to patrol the perimeter of their camp on Gabredor III. An enemy mercenary unit, the Red Moons, detected these riders using macrobinoculars, and one of the camo-using slavers was defeated by mercenaries Lex Kempo and Sully Tigereye.

Behind the scenes
The camo armor was first mentioned in the supplement Galaxy Guide 10: Bounty Hunters (1994), written by Rick D. Stuart for West End Games' Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game, with an illustration by Chris Trevas. Its stats were repeated, along with new information, in Gundark's Fantastic Technology: Personal Gear (1997), written for the same game. Both sources list the camo as a light armor, more effective against physical damage than against energy, and available for undefined1,500. Arms & Equipment Guide (2002), written for Wizards of the Coast's Star Wars Roleplaying Game, and The Clone Wars Campaign Guide (2009), written for Wizards' Saga Edition Roleplaying Game, both see the same item as a medium armor, more difficult to use, equally effective against all kinds of damage, and valued in undefined6,000. The Clone Wars Campaign Guide also considers this item to be particularly hard to obtain. When in conflict, this article assumes the more recent source is right.

As of 2010, no source has related the camo armor with the cloaking device used to hide starships and other objects in the Star Wars canon.

Appearances

 * Tales from the Empire
 * Tales from the Empire