Youโve been reading this for years (and thank you for that): Fifty Shades of FDE. Chances are if youโre one of our regulars, you know whatย FDEย actually is, but some people do not. Letโs fix that.
FDE
Flat Dark Earth
FDE is the acronym for Flat Dark Earth. In simplest terms, itโs supposed to be a specific shade of earth-toned brown. Some people say it closely resembles some of the colors that can be seen in rural Afghanistan, which is probably why the guys at Breach-Bang-Clear call it โMud Hutโ or โMud Hut Brownโ when theyโre trying to describe it.
We say โsupposed to beโ because as with any color in the tactical/gun industry, not everyone gets it right. Each letter in the acronym is indicative of something, i.e. โFlatโ means itโs matte, with no shine.
Cerakote (the actual company) defines FDE as a โโฆmedium-dark, flat brown.โ There are variations and gradations, of course, which is probably why they go on to clarify:
Notice: Flat Dark Earth (H-265) and MagPul Flat Dark Earth (H-267) are very similar in color and in some cases H-265 may be a closer match to MagPulโs OEM Flat Dark Earth color.
FDE is different (though varyingly close t0) a number of other colors. Some companies make up their own names, some use a generic term, others go by specific color codes defined with great specificity by DoD contract.
Field Drab, for instance, is Military Color Code 30118. Yes, Military Color Code is a thing. As in, Army Green = #4b5320.
Thereโs much, much more to this, and as you can tell by our publicationโs title itโs something we have an interest in. Check back periodically, weโll be updating this article a lot!
Read the original article in its entirety at fiftyshadesoffde.com.