I’ve been reliably informed, this was a demonstrator for the Polish program to purchase the M1 MBT, hence the different colour.
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I wonder how the situation has changed since the Polish donated a lot of their T-72 MBTs to Ukraine and perhaps some “deal” will equip them with US M1s as replacements.
In other news, the M1A2 SEPs, Strykers, and anything with CROWS II are slated to get BLADE CROWS II with radar for defense against drones and to counter UAS. The USMC JLTV Air Defense units will also get BLADE CROWS II.
Do you mean changed as far as increasing the number of Abrams to be delivered ? The Polish Abrams deal was worked out before the Russians invaded and those T-72 look to have come out of storage.
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Reviving this old thread, the Polish Army 1st Armored Brigade’s (1 Warszawska Brygada Pancerna) official FB page posted this photo recently:
It certainly is not the SEP v.3 shown above.
Looks like they received the USMC M1A1s with SCWS like the one depicted in the new RFM kit:
Polish armor fans can now build it to their liking.
And yet they are not the new two tone scheme, because it was never intended for them.
They have the 8-shot USMC smoke grenade launchers as well. Yup, they look to be ex-USMC M1A1 FEPs that were reconditioned. I wonder if Ukraine will also get ex-USMC M1A1 FEPs?
Considering the way thery have doing things, UA will get these M1’s from PL and PL will get new to them A2’s.
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Some more info on them.
The delivery to Poland will include 116 (two battalion sets) M1A1 Abrams FEP (Firepower Enhancement Package) tanks, as well as 12 M88A2 Hercules Armored Recovery Vehicles (ARV), eight M1074 Joint Assault Bridge (JAB, on the chassis of the Abrams tank), six M577A3 armored command and staff vehicles, 26 NG SECM (Next Generation Shop Equipment Contact Maintenance) mobile repair shops based on M1152A1 HMMWV vehicles, as well as packages of spare parts, equipment, training and logistics.
That’s 1/2 to 2/3 of the MC tanks. Still would have enough for UA if they went that direction.
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I don’t see multiple colors TBH. Then again, colorblindness might explain that.
Hmm. I wonder if any of my models look multicolored to other folk??
On my first tour in Iraq my unit was relieved by a Polish unit, They were in our area on Dogwood, so there was plenty of opportunity to interact. I got to be friends with one of their platoon commanders, in comparing notes we discovered we both served during the same timeframe back in the 80’s. We both found it ironic that we had once been training and prepared to kill each other back then, and now were on the same side, eating chow together. Funny how that happens.
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I did a mission in Hawaii a few years ago - RIMPAC 2018. Our first day on Ford Island saw an assembly of representatives of everyone who would be participating. The Japanese all had their Naval Ensigns on their uniforms (which many people to this day still mistakenly call the “battle flag.”) They outnumbered all of the rest of us combined, and I thought, “Yup, they’ve finally done it!”
(All of this just a stone’s throw from where the very first bomb in the attack landed on Ford Island.)
Of course there were a couple of Germans there too whom I befriended, and then discovered I’d be working with. The Germans had had designs on Hawaii as well back in the nineteenth century, along with the Phillipine Islands. And now here we are, one big happy family.
Three American service members in the center, all of Japanese descent, flanked by two Germans, flanked by an American and an Aussie, all iin front of a very good Hawaiian noodle restaurant.
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It’s not sand, it’s the feathering of the brownish-green paint color.
It can be seen to a lesser effect on the standard NATO 3 color.
You can see this feathering on the front near where it’s marked “5-9”
Different vehicle than the one I commented about. Scroll up to the top of the thread to see this.
Check the barrel. Could be the factory sand color was not completely covered over. Possibly due to some sort of non-contact masking technique?
Two dark colors overlapped do not produce a lighter color.
I enlarged that photo until I ran out of pixels
There seems to be double lines on that bore evacuator, almost as if it was some effect at the edge of the spray pattern. Paint drying too fast at the edge of the spray pattern?
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I’d like to see someone recreate that. It’s not shiny so I’m gonna rule out paint incompatibility or just a bad mix.
um-hum …
That would be interesting
My point is I don’t believe it was a paint interaction problem. I think it was either intentional… like someone was being creative or they were using handheld card type masks and made a placement error.
There is ongoing work with paint to reduce/modify thermal (and other) signature, still provide protection from CBRN agents and protect vehicle from environmental damage. I would expect more “odd” shades of color- mainly to do with the non-standard ingredients of the paint, will see if a Camo pattern stays or there is revision to single color (this also reduces cost and time) is the future.