User:SergeantSelfExplanatory/sandbox 1200

MERDC camouflage system
M60 tank and AAV in MERDC winter verdant colorway during exercise Bright Star 1985
Type	List of military vehicle camouflage
Place of origin	United States
Service history
In service	1975–1986 (US Army) 1975–1986 (US Marine Corps) 1975–1986 (US Navy) 1975–1986 (US Air Force)
Used by	See Users for non-US users
Wars	Cold War Gulf War
Production history
Designer	MERADCOM
Variants	Winter Verdant; Summer Verdant; Tropical; Snow Trees; Snow Open Terrain; Gray Desert; Red Desert

The MERDC camouflage system is a set of military camouflage paint schemes. It is named after the laboratory which developed it in the early 1970s, the Mobility Equipment Research and Development Center (MERDC). The schemes were drawn specifically to each vehicle to disrupt its respective contours and highlights. As the season or environment changed, the four colors in the pattern could be swapped out for other colors, typically one to two maximum. The United States Army adopted the MERDC camouflage system in 1975. The US Marine Corps, US Navy, and US Air Force followed suit in adopting the pattern.

In 1984, the MERDC pattern system was replaced in United States armed forces service with NATO vehicle camouflage pattern. Other nations still use the pattern on a fleet-wide level.

Patterns

The MERDC camouflage system contains seven official pattern colorways. Colors were derived from the World Color Regions Atlas.

• 
  Winter Verdant
• 
  Summer Verdant
• 
  Snow Open Terrain
• 
  Snow Trees
• 
  Tropical
• 
  Gray Desert
• 
  Red Desert

A feature of MERDC was that only one or two colors of the four in a colorway would need to be changed for a new environment or season change. This reduced the amount of camouflage paint needed to transition vehicles to environments, and also the time vehicles were taken out of service for.

Official colors purportedly used in MERDC winter verdant colorway for enamel and lacquer

Color	FS 595A code
Forest Green	34079
Field Drab	30118
Sand	30277
Black	37038

Color approximations via official FS 595 colors for MERDC pattern colors

Color	FS 595 code
White	n/a
Sand	30277
Earth yellow	30257
Earth red	30117
Field drab	30118
Earth brown	30099
Light green	34151
Dark green	34102
Forest green	34079
Black	37038

Background

Up to this point, historically most vehicles had been painted in arbitrary camouflage patterns.

Apply paint within IR-compliant reflectance levels.

Development

In 1972, MERDC camouflage blending tests were held at Fort Hood, Texas. The USAMERDC Camouflage Support Team administered 3-day training sessions on camouflage vehicle painting to 30 crews of 2nd Brigade, 2nd Armored Division.

In 1975, a camouflage evaluation conducted by the Navy Weapons Center Aircraft Systems Department utilized 1:84 scale model M113 APCs. It examined the differences in luminance of olive drab/forest green against that of MERDC and other NATO-member camouflage patterns (specifically, standard Swedish/adjusted British and German vehicle camouflage). For testing, subjects had to look through a window out onto a small constructed hill, and in a short duration (Phase I saw 5 seconds, in Phase II it was 10 seconds), look through opened shutters and spot the targets. The report concluded that, between solid color camouflage and disruptive camouflage, there was no significant difference in blending effectiveness.

Adoption of pattern

In 1975, the US Army adopted the MERDC camouflage pattern. The US Marine Corps, US Navy, and US Air Force followed suit in adopting the pattern. Gradually, all seven pattern colorways were painted onto tanks, APCs, trailers, and other military equipment based on the terrain of their environment. Despite recommendation by USAMERDC, US Army aircraft were not directed to be painted in MERDC patterns.

One of the benefits of using a disruptive camouflage on military vehicles, is that it disguises wear such as scratches or dirt, in addition to hiding other paint imperfections such as a mottled appearance from substandard initial pattern application.

Pattern application methods

Physical stencils and precise measurement systems were tested but in the end were discarded for being impractical.

Spray painting and brushes are used. Application times range from 12-30 hours, though, inexperienced crews may take twice that amount of time.

Operational history

Although the MERDC pattern has interchangeable colorways, many vehicles appear using the colorway of another environment. Some reasons as to why correct colorways weren't made use of can be blamed on a lack of adequate painting facilities, or, by not having an allocation of time to repaint in the first place. Most vehicles from the factory came in solid color forest green, except early M2 Bradleys and GLCMs, among others. This ended up eliminating the need to paint one entire color, and ended up shaving off almost half the time taken to paint a vehicle, given that 45% of the vehicle's surface mass was already the correct color.

Europe

M60 and M113 in winter verdant colorway in Europe in 1979

Nuclear missile BGM-109G Gryphon on transporter erector launcher (TEL) in winter verdant colorway in Europe in the 1980s

From 197X to 199X, the MERDC winter verdant colorway was used.

Reforger

United States

M60A1 in summer verdant colorway at Fort Knox, KY during exercise Gallant Eagle '79 in summer 1978

M1 Abrams and M3 Bradley in summer verdant colorway at the US Army Armor Center at Fort Knox, KY in fall 1983

From 1975 to the 1990s, the MERDC summer verdant colorway was used during stateside exercises at Fort Devens, Massachusetts, Fort Knox, Kentucky and Fort Pickett, Virginia.

Arctic zones

M973 small unit support vehicle (SUSV) in snow trees colorway being offloaded during Brim Frost '87 in Alaska

American Hoist M2380 mobile crane in snow open terrain colorway in the Overloon War Museum, Netherlands

During the 1970s and 1980s, Brim Frost exercises in the 1980s in Alaska

Some vehicles operating in Alaskan arctic terrain can be seen in winter verdant, summer verdant, and gray desert colorways.

US Desert Southwest and Middle East

Assault Amphibious Vehicle (AAV) in gray desert colorway during an exercise at 29 Palms MCWGCC, CA in 1982

5-ton truck in gray desert colorway of B Company, 1st Battalion, 3rd Marines in Kuwait in the Gulf War, February 1991

Solid tan equipment of the 24th Infantry Division is loaded aboard a rapid-response vehicle cargo ship in Savannah, GA in preparation for deployment to Saudi Arabia during Operation Desert Shield on 23 January 1991

In the United States from 1975 to 199X, the MERDC gray desert colorway was used during exercises at Marine Corps Twentynine Palms base and in training at Fort Bliss.

In Egypt during Bright Star exercises between the US military and the Egyptian military in use from 1981 biannually until the late 1990s.

In Beruit

In early 1991, the gray desert colorway saw limited use in Operation Desert Storm. Any vehicles not painted in a desert camouflage colorway, particularly those in a MERDC verdant/temperate/arctic colorway, in the NATO 3-color pattern, or in solid forest green, had to be repainted in a desert colorway, such as solid desert tan 'sand'.

Tropical zones

An M151 MUTT in tropical colorway at Ramey AFB, Puerto Rico on 20 April 1984

During the 1980s in Puerto Rico, the US Air Force used the tropical colorway on security police (SP)'s M151 MUTTs.

Field adaptations

Omitting of color #3

Sometimes, sand would be omitted from the winter verdant and summer verdant. Earth yellow would also be omitted from gray desert.

• 
  Dodge M886s in winter verdant without sand colorway in West Germany during Reforger '83 on 14 September 1983
• 
  An AAV in summer verdant without sand colorway on 29 January 1987
• 
  M577 armored command vehicle and M113 APCs in various interpretations of the snow trees colorway in Alaska during Brim Frost '87 in 1987
• 
  M60s in gray desert without earth yellow colorway during an exercise at Fort Irwin in April 1982

Experimentation

M113A1 in Dual-tex camouflage pattern in West Germany in May 1979

One of eight Unimog 406s acquired by the Mobility Equipment Research and Development Command for evaluation, depicted in 1983

BGM-109G Gryphon in alternate summer verdant colorway in the 1980s

In 1976, the Dual-tex slide series evaluations tested the then-standard MERDC pattern against the experimental MERDC-derived dual-texture gradient pattern. Two experimental colorways, a unique summer verdant, and a snow trees pattern were used.

The alternate Summer Verdant colorway received limited field use for the special evaluation of vehicles, on BGM-109G Gryphon units in Europe in the 1980s, or by choice of a unit commander.

• 
  Summer Verdant (Field Drab instead of Sand)
• 
  (Only used in camouflage tests) Snow Trees (Field Drab instead of Sand)

Replacement

In 1984, the NATO vehicle camouflage pattern was adopted. There was concern within NATO that the enemy was able to tell which country it was fighting based on the camouflage of the vehicles.

Users

New Zealand Army M113A1 APC and ambulance using the red desert colorway in East Timor during UNMISET in August 2002

Current

• Greece: Hellenic Army
• South Korea: The Republic of Korea Marine Corps uses it fleet-wide on vehicles since the 1980s.

Former

• New Zealand: Red desert colorway used by the New Zealand Army from the 1999 until 2002.
• United States: Used by the US Army, US Marine Corps, US Navy, and US Air Force from 1975 until late 1990s.

• 
  Hellenic Army M113 on parade in a local interpretation of the MERDC winter verdant colorway in March 2008
• 
  South Korean AAVs in MERDC winter verdant colorway with shark mouth nose art in March 1982

See also

List of military vehicle camouflage

Other US vehicle camouflage:

• USAREUR vehicle camouflage pattern
• NATO vehicle camouflage pattern

External links

• Historical US Vehicle Colour Schemes in Team Yankee - overview of US military Cold War camouflage paint schemes
• The Army's New AFV Camo Paint Job - US Militaria Forum
• Camouflaged HUEY 1st Cavalry Division Ft Hood TRICAP Era - US Militaria Forum
• Mk19's and helicopters - ARC Discussion Forums