User:SergeantSelfExplanatory/sandbox 1200

MERDC camouflage
MERDC camouflage
	MERDC Winter Verdant colorway in exercise Bright Star 1985
Type	List of vehicle camouflage patterns
Place of origin	United States
Service history
Used by	US Army; US Marine Corps; South Korean Army;
Wars	Cold War; Gulf War;
Production history
Designer	MERADCOM
Variants	Winter Verdant; Summer Verdant; Tropical; Snow with Trees; Snow Open Terrain; Gray Desert; Red Desert

MERDC camouflage is a system of standardized camouflage paint schemes for military vehicles developed by the US Army Materiel Command's (AMC) Mobility Equipment Research and Development Command (MERDC, also as MERADCOM) during the 1970s.^[1] ^[1] The four colors of the pattern scheme could be adjusted as the environments changed.^[1] The US Army and US Marine Corps replaced it in 1984 with NATO 3-color vehicle camouflage.

Patterns

Colors used in MERDC camouflage paint schemes^[1]
Color	FS 595 code
White	n/a
Desert sand	30279
Sand	30277
Earth yellow	30257
Earth red	30117
Field drab	30118
Earth brown	30099
Olive drab	34087
Light green	34151
Dark green	34102
Forest green	34079
Black	37038

Winter Verdant
Summer Verdant
Snow Temperate Open Terrain
Snow Temperate with Trees
Tropical
Gray Desert
Red Desert

Background

Up to this point, historically most vehicles had been painted in arbitrary patterns often devised by the crews themselves.

Apply paint within IR-compliant reflectance levels.

Development

In 1972, MERADCOM conducted vehicle camouflage trials at its Mobility Equipment Research and Development Center (MERDC).

In 1975,^[2] MERDC camouflage was adopted (28 August 1975). Gradually, all seven pattern colorways were painted onto tanks, APCs, trailers, and other vehicles to match the terrain of their environment. A feature of MERDC was that only one to two colors of the four in a colorway would need to be changed for a new environment. This reduced the amount of camouflage paint needed to transition vehicles to environments and also the time vehicles were taken out of combat for.

Technical manuals referencing^[3]

In 1976, two prototype colorways, a unique summer verdant and snow temperate w/ trees winter, were tested during the Dual-tex colorslide series evaluations. The alternate summer verdant (both with and without brown aka Field Drab) colorway received limited field use on M151 MUTTs and by BGM-109G Gryphon units in the 1980s.

Service

Europe

United States

From 197X to 199X, the MERDC Summer Verdant colorway was used during stateside exercises at Fort Knox, KY and Fort Pickett, VA.

Temperate and Arctic zones

During Brim Frost exercises in the 1980s in Alaska

US Desert Southwest/Middle east

In the United States from 197X to 199X, the MERDC Gray Desert colorway was used during Combined-arms 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 MERDC Verdant, Temperate, and Arctic colorways, in NATO 3-color, or in solid Forest Green, had to be repainted as solid desert tan 'Sand'.

Field alterations

Sometimes, Sand would be omitted from the Winter Verdant and Summer Verdant. Earth Yellow would also be omitted from Gray Desert.

Replacement

In 1984, the NATO 3-color camouflage was adopted. There was concern within NATO that the enemy was able to tell which country they were fighting based on the camouflage of the vehicles.