Mystery U.S. Army vehicles spotted in Hawaii are fake tanks

Unusual armored vehicles hidden under camouflage netting and tarps that turned up at a U.S. Army exercise in Hawaii have turned out to be mock enemy tanks used to play the opposing force.

The vehicles arrived on semi-trailers at the Kahuku Training Area on Oahu on November 5, during preparations for Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center Rotation 27-01.

Images of the covered vehicles prompted speculation on social media, with some users suggesting they could be prototypes of the U.S. Army’s new infantry fighting vehicle meant to replace the M2 Bradley. A U.S. Army photo caption identified one of them as “an opposing force tank simulation” arriving for mission preparations.

Opposing force units at the Army’s combat training centers play the enemy during large exercises. To make the fight look realistic, they use visually modified vehicles, often called VISMODs: ordinary military trucks or light vehicles fitted with shells and kits that make them resemble foreign tanks and armored vehicles. Some of the newer kits were built with help from Hollywood special effects designers and can turn a Humvee into a convincing copy of a Russian T-72, Army Times reported.

The Army is in the middle of testing prototypes for the XM30 Mechanized Infantry Combat Vehicle, the program to replace the Bradley, and covered vehicles on trailers have drawn attention before, as when a new photo showed the Wolf XM30 hidden under a tarp. General Dynamics Land Systems and American Rheinmetall are competing for the program, and GDLS delivered its first XM30 Wolf vehicle to the U.S. Army for testing.

JPMRC 27-01 brings together U.S. forces with troops from South Korea, Singapore, France, New Zealand, Japan and the Maldives to practice large-scale combat operations in jungle and island terrain. The rotation involves about 10,000 personnel from the U.S. Army, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps, along with allies and partners, and its main training audience is the 25th Infantry Division’s 2nd Mobile Brigade Combat Team.

The exercise has already brought some unusual equipment to the islands. The Army shipped its Arctic BvS10 Beowulf all-terrain vehicles to the Pōhakuloa Training Area, and paratroopers from the 11th Airborne Division flew nearly 3,000 miles from Alaska to jump into Hawaii as part of the rotation.

The mock tanks at Kahuku will be used by the opposing force to give the training brigade an armored enemy to fight during the exercise.