This has been pointed out by a number of ex tank corps. Our tanks have been tan for decades. Did Trump spent a few million to paint them in the color he wanted?
I thought they were painted for the area in which they operate. Tan for Desert Storm and other operations in the Mid East.
I’ve read that US tanks began being green to improve camouflage in European environments, transitioning from the desert tan that was common during deployments in the Middle East. The shift reflects a change in operating theaters and a need for better concealment in forests and other green terrains. However, since we may soon be involved in a ground war in Iran, this doesn’t make much sense to me.
I believe some have always been kept green because the USA has always maintained some level of forces in NATO, such as Germany. On top of that, the United States has been donating some Abrams tanks to Ukraine, so it would make sense that more would be painted green in preparation for possible donation.
Green is the original color (a camouflage pattern dominated by green). The Cold War period pitted the western allies against the Soviets in the forests of Europe. Hence green. Along came Desert Shield/Storm and the battlefield shifted to the desert and brown patterns*.
Depending on where the tanks were sourced from, the tanks would be one or the other color predominately.
Most reserve or active bases will have a mix of patterns on all the vehicles, not just tanks.
Why not repaint them? It’s a special Chemical Agent Resistant Coating (CARC). Not cheap, labor intensive and the next action could be in desert/forest or perhaps artic. If you only need to repaint half your vehicles, you’re ahead of the game.
*the Desert Storm repaint was a hoot. All that was needed was a water spray and short drive through the mud/sand and the camouflage would be perfect. We’re in the middle of a move or I’d show pictures of my SUV back in theater, an Isuzu Trooper, in two tone burgundy and silver - then brown dirt after a rain storm/drive.
Green(ish) is the general default color of Army field vehicles, and you repaint as needed for where you’re going to use it.
I venture that a lot of the equipment we saw around in the past decades stayed desert tan upon returning stateside because it would have been an extra expense to undo perfectly good paint after every deployment (for the reasons smithsb mentioned).
I don’t get it. I mean, I can see the value of having a chemical agent-resistant coating, but why not just put ordinary paint over that? Or, if ordinary paint would degrade the coating, then it’s not actually very chemical-agent-resistant, is it? Sure, ordinary paint might be damaged on deployment, but that’s a really easy thing to fix when it happens.
Tanks are mostly back to green after being tan for a while. Nothing unusual about it especially since the ones I’ve seen from the parade appear to be new.
Specifically the Abrams tanks in the parade were the newest M1A2 SEPv3 version.
CARC paint is designed to be able to be decontaminated. That doesn’t work if it’s covered with other paint.
This is like asking why a dry erase white-board doesn’t work anymore when you spray paint it. CARC is a durable, non-pourus coating that allows for easy decontamination. It’s not designed to neurtralize chemical weapons, it just prevents them from sticking, absorbing or otherwise persisting on the surface of the vehicle or other equipment. It’s not just vehicles that are coated in CARC. Radios, generators and other hardware get it as well. Back in 2017, an armor brigade deploying to Europe made the decision to prioritize camouflage over chemical resistance, and painted all of their tan tanks green using commercial paint. They had to remove the paint 6 months later when they returned from Europe. Because of the CARC, the paint came off easily with a pressure washer.
As for the green parade tanks. The Army has been gradually returning to green for a few years now. It’s not related to the parade.
Are they actually just green? I was under the impression that if they weren’t desert tan, they are painted in 3 color NATO camouflage.
US tanks flown across Europe for training | Article | The United States Army
New/refurbished ones are single-color green.