I have just found this photograph:


"2d Squadron, 4th Cavalry (24th Infantry Division) live fire exercise. Two M-3 Bradleys waiting their turn on range, 19 December 1990. XVIII Airborne Corps History Office photograph by SGT Randall M. Yackiel, DS-F-060-05."

Never seen such colors on Bradley before...

Rgds,
Pawel

This matches the illustration from the Squadron Bradley book. Apparently this unit chose to do this; I don't know if the rest of the 24th ID did the same.

Yep, Squadron's Bradley in Action shows this and lists the colors as dark gray with a black outline, which is how I did my A2. Makes for a quite interesting vehicle.

I think the dark color looks more like some shade of olive drab than gray.

Rgds,
Pawel

This is an M3A1, saw your post on M-L. The color is brown and sand (IIRC). The 24th was always our "go to the desert to fight" division. The rest of the CONUS heavy units were ear-marked for Europe like the 1st Cav, 1st ID, 2nd Armor, 4th Mech, 5th Mech. The 9th ID was to go to Korea. They had a little better experience with desert camouflage than the rest of the Army. I thought they basically painted over the green and black of the NATO scheme. Then the Army decided that it was quicker to just make everything tan.

FYI, to tell the difference between an M3 and M3A1, look at the area below the shovel. On the M3, there are two blanked off bulges that are firing ports on the M2. The M3A1 had the bulges deleted and the area covered with an armor plate. Same thing is done to the right rear side of the hull.

Yes, now when I know it is brown, it really looks brown

Rgds,
Pawel

SABOT you sage of armored vehicles, please enlighten this salt encrusted Chief of the Sea....We used the M2 in Desert Storm and the M3 & M3A1 this time around?

The M2 and M3 where used both times. The M2 is an Infantry Fighting vehicle, carries 6 Infantry men and a crew of 3 and the M3 is a Cavalery Fighting vehicle, carries 2 scouts and a crew of 3. On the outside I don't know of anything outside of the vehicle (other than the bumper number) to tell the differents between the two.

Looked like gray to me though.... but I am no expert or even knowledgable in modern armors.

We used the M2A1, M3A1, M2A2 and M3A2 in Desert Storm and in OIF the 3rd ID is using the M2A2ODS and M3A2ODS. The 4th ID arrived with M2A3 and M3A3. ODS stands for Operation Desert Storm and identifies the M2A2 and M3A2 vehicles that were modified based on lessons learned during Desert Storm.

The M2 (A1/A2/A3) is the Infantry Fighting Vehicle (IFV) variant of the Bradley Fighting Vehicle (BFV). Its primary mission is to transport an infantry squad. The amount of infantrymen has varied from 11 (M2), 9 (M2A1), 6 (M2A2), 6 (M2A3) plus the 3 man crew (driver, gunner, track commander).

The M3 (A1/A2/A3) is the Cavalry Fighting Vehicle (CFV). Its mission is reconnaissance and it has always carried a 5 man crew (driver, gunner, track commander and two cavalry scouts). It also carries more 25mm ammo and 10 TOW rounds.

External differences are (internal differences are mainly seating and ammo storage):

1. Between the M2 and M3: 4 side firing ports on M3 are blanked over, but side firing port bulges are still visible on the vehicle. Firing port persicopes are not present on the M3. 2 rear ramp firing ports are plated over, but are still visible.

2. Between the M2A1 and M3A1: Side firing port bulges are completely removed from the M3A1 and the areas receive a flat plate of armor. Rear ramp ports are not present on the M3A1 (doors are now plain). TOW reload hatch redesigned on the M3A1 to incorporate periscopes into the hatch. Top rear hull periscopes deleted from the M3A1 since they are now part of the reload hatch.

Visually, there's not much external difference between the M2 and M2A1. A1 vehicles have a redesigned bustle rack. Lots of external differences between the M3 and M3A1 as listed above.

3. Between the M2A2 and M3A2: With the deletion of the side firing ports on the M2A2, basically just the TOW reload hatch, upper hull periscopes, and rear firing ports distinguish and M2A2 from an M3A2. The A2 variant's side armor differs from the A0 and A1. It is thicker, higher and flatter. Swim barriers are still present, but have mostly been removed. It is no longer amphibious with the A2 variant.

4. M2A3 and M3A3 maintain the same differences as the M2A2 and M3A2, the A3 modifications are mainly to the turret area. A3s are no longer made with swim barriers.