Thailand has been producing camouflage uniforms since the late Vietnam War, and was one of the first countries outside of South Vietnam to issue tiger stripe pattern uniforms to its military personnel. After the war ended, production of camouflage fabrics increased dramatically, leading the nation to become one of the major exporters of military textiles in Southeast Asia during the 1970s and 1980s. Thai factories have supplied military and paramilitary forces in Laos, Burma (Myanmar), Cambodia, and the Philippines, although since the 1990s they have been hard pressed to compete with the major suppliers in South Korea and China. Yet despite being a major producer of camouflage fabric and uniforms, the Royal Thai Armed Forces have not embraced the dozens of different designs found in neighboring nations like Indonesia or the Philippines. Instead, a core number of designs have been re-printed for years, producing sub-variations of their own as a result of the wide number of production techniques, textiles, and available materials such as fabric dyes. Most Thai camouflage designs fall into three major categories: tiger stripe patterns, leaf patterns, and woodland patterns, with a handful of exceptions falling outside. Virtually all branches of service have worn some form of camouflage at one time or another with very little consistency or regulations within the branches of service themselves, and it is seldom a particular version of a pattern can be categorized as being utilized by a single unit or branch of service.
