Star Trek

Just finished watching the DS9 Episdoe, Siege of AR-558 the other night.

IMO, one of the best episodes of DS9 or any of the series.

Has anyone heard an explanation of why some of the ground troops have differently styled uniforms?

A black shirt with a single strip (horizontal) of one of the main colors used for the departments.

I'm sure it was a costuming choice to make use of material, but I didn't know if there was an expanded explanation.

I always thought that they might be uniforms for ground troops.

I agree - IMO it was specific to MACO or whatever troops they were using at the time.

I'm not sure that they ever explained in detail, but I think it just makes for better camoflage for combat troops. The top part is padded underneath too, I guess to imply some form of armour -- and they used the same uniform in Nor the Battle to the Strong from season five as well. I guess to focus heavily on why the combat troops have different uniforms, they would have to imply that someone in the series doesn't know. Which wouldn't work so well in scenes where most of the characters are from the Federation.

Edit:

Okay here's the relevant Memory Alpha entry http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Starfleet_uniform_%28late_2360s-early_2370s%29 Check the section under "Combat Jacket".

The bit that amuses me is this:"While the jacket clearly provided added protection against bodily harm, it is unclear if the armor was able to withstand phaser fire."

lol-- That picture clearly shows that it doesn't!

They should wear body-armor like Stormship Troopers or the Storm Troopers in Star Wars.

Faced with the power of an energy weapon, hard armour would probably splinter and turn to shrapnel in their chests. What might be better would be some kind of armour that would disperse intense energy away from the body so that the person is not injured.

They need small shield generators in them. Even if they only be used one or they might even deflet the energy.

They similar to the hazard team from Elite force 2 game.

Those guys is very powerful and cool.

Federation officers had individual shield generators in the animated series.  Then they just kinda forgot about it in all the later series

It really shows that wars can still continue no matter how far we go beyond war will always find a way back into the world.