Commanders!
We haven’t had a proper historical skin outside of the Battle Paths for a while now so we do hope you’ll enjoy this one because it’s one of the most complicated skins we have ever done technically. Meet the M1A2C War Pig!
As the name suggests, this skin is intended for the M1A2C Tier 9 progression Main Battle Tank. It’s based on a Barracuda camouflage kit as seen on an M1A2 Abrams Main Battle Tank in 2016. The kit was also offered back in 2012 to Australia and its fleet of M1A1 tanks, with limited success.
The first country to adopt the Barracuda was apparently Australia in 1997. The Barracuda kit was used by the U.S. Army to some degree but according to some reports it didn’t work too well on the Abrams, neither for the Americans nor for the Aussies. It was too expensive, wasn’t robust enough, it caused some component overload (bearings), was difficult to set up properly and to maintain and was generally not deemed worth it.
Canada, on the other hand, used it in Afghanistan on their Leopard 2s where its IR properties not only helped to conceal the vehicle, but also reduced the internal temperature from 50 to 40 degrees Celsius, allowing the air conditioning to actually function.
But let’s get to the skin itself. For starters, the skin will unlock the top configuration of armor (TUSK v2 ERA) but, other than that, it works with other visual upgrades such as the APS. But that’s not all.
The truly interesting part about this skin is that it changes color depending on the base paint you select. That way you can run this skin in green for woodland environments and in white or blue for the winter environments.
As for the name – well, the name was used on an M1A1 belonging to the U.S. Marine Corps (C Company, 1st Tank Battalion) used in Iraq during the Second Gulf War, 2003. Alternatively, you can take it as a tribute to a very famous tank in a very famous mission in another game. Or you can take it as a tribute to an even more famous song. Either way, we really liked the name and we hope that you will like the skin as well.
And, as always:
See you on the battlefield!