Miltary Tanks? passing through New Orleans on train.

I thought this was interesting to see. On my way to Wally World, we saw a train with, from the untrained eye, appears to be tanks. Coming to the East bank on the Huey P. Long bridge over the Mississippi River at 5:00PM today, May 12, 2011.

I didn't see the beginning of the train, so I dont know if anything else was being transported, or how many there were, but from what I saw, It was a straight line of these things that seemed to never end.

I am just sharing this for the purpose of situational awareness, ..with the Mississippi River overflowing, New Madrid Fault 'scares', FEMA, and other things. Not sure where they were going.. the train was headed east.

Just keeping my eye on whats going on. Thought I'd share.

Those are Bradleys (kind of like a cross between an APC and a tank). They were probably headed from the manufacturer/refurbisher to a military base would be the most obvious guess of mine.

Get ready everyone. It's on. Looks like TPTB are planning something larger than a few dam blow outs. Time to grab your ankles.
P.s. That would sincerely suck if they were meant for use on American soil. God help us all.

reply to post by alittleironic

Nice find !

Anybody know what type of tanks they are??

They appear to be bradley fighting vehicles.

Chances are they were being moved to or from a sea port to be sent somewhere or brought home or for depot maintenance.

If you had some closer pictures we could probably give you better answers

Looks like Bragg or Benning is getting an early Christmas present this year.

Seriously though, they have to move this equipment often and they certainly cant drive them on the highway, can you imagine the explosion of posts on ATS if they did.

They could be brand new, going to get a new paint sceme, going to a military excersise or going to a port to be sent to a deployment.

I doubt they would be heading to a flood zone, they aren't water proof.

Claremore, Oklahoma. I watched a train with what looked like a mile long line of new APC's. Both new and old. They parked it for a week outside of town for a almost 2 weeks on a side rail. I wish I had pictures.

Edit to add.. I noticed a few that looked old but it was one massive train.

reply to post by thislifetimeismine


I swear....does anybody read threads before posting anymore? Those are M3 Bradleys. They're made by BAE Systems in Minneapolis. It's basically a heavily armoured personnel carrier with a turret on it. If anyone wants to know more about this particular weapon system, U2U me.

See trains like this at least twice a year here in Kansas City, nothing to worry about. More than likely these are just refurbished units getting sent back to where they came from.

The bradley fighting vehicle is what is known as an IFV aka Infantry Fighting Vehicle.

It has a 25mm Bushmaster M42 autocannon. along with a coaxial 7.62mm machine gun secondary armament and a two missile TOW anti tank launcher on mounted on the turret.

It holds between 2 and 6 infantry men in it's two most common variants the m2 and m3 plus it's crew.

their spaced laminate armor can defeat up to 30mm Armor piercing auto cannon fire and has the ability to accept Explosive Reactive Armor add on's / add on armor packs.

These ones looked new with no unit markers at all which probably means they are brand new ones or ones fresh from a depot rebuild/upgrade cycle.

Hope this helps

Originally posted by Becoming
...they aren't water proof.

Yes they are. Wouldn't be much use if you couldn;t seal up when the BZ, etc... started popping off.

reply to post by 35Foxtrot


It was a joke.

Should have put in one of those smiley faces I hate so much.

Originally posted by xXxinfidelxXx
Those are Bradleys (kind of like a cross between an APC and a tank). They were probably headed from the manufacturer/refurbisher to a military base would be the most obvious guess of mine.

edit on 12/5/2011 by xXxinfidelxXx because: (no reason given)

Thanks for clearing that up. I hope we don't see them being used around here.

Sorry the pics are so far. As you can see the there is no way I could have gotten closer if I wanted to. The tracks are really high in the air.. and to add, they all looked new or unused,

Trains are the most cost effective way to move those things and as someone mentioned they can't drive them on the roads. If you think about the size of our military and the number of Bradley's we own the real mystery is how the heck we don't see this all the time.

Originally posted by roguetechie
The bradley fighting vehicle is what is known as an IFV aka Infantry Fighting Vehicle.

It has a 25mm Bushmaster M42 autocannon. along with a coaxial 7.62mm machine gun secondary armament and a two missile TOW anti tank launcher on mounted on the turret.

It holds between 2 and 6 infantry men in it's two most common variants the m2 and m3 plus it's crew.

their spaced laminate armor can defeat up to 30mm Armor piercing auto cannon fire and has the ability to accept Explosive Reactive Armor add on's / add on armor packs.

These ones looked new with no unit markers at all which probably means they are brand new ones or ones fresh from a depot rebuild/upgrade cycle.

Hope this helps

Thanks for the info. Hopefully I dont see anymore of these, so I wont have to identify them, but it always helps to stay informed!

Possibly moving them out of the flood zone. I'm sure there are bases in the path of the water.

Seems prudent, they aren't cheap and 15 feet of water would do a number on them.

Originally posted by Trublbrwing
the real mystery is how the heck we don't see this all the time.

My theory, probably mostly in part due to the Constitution.

Out of site out of mind, so we do not start conspiracy theories as to why we have military equipment running down Main St.

*Shrug*

No doubt in my mind those are M-2 or 3 Bradley IFV/CFV . I think roguetechie's got it right on his post. Those are new or recently rebuilt/refitted vehicles. No unit markings, and they might even have the swim kit still on them which I've only seen coming off brand new ones. I was actually a gunner on a Bradley once upon a time. I vividly remember removing the swim kits from the first ODS variants that were deployed to Ft. Stewart once back in the mid nineties.

Originally posted by Trublbrwing
Trains are the most cost effective way to move those things and as someone mentioned they can't drive them on the roads. If you think about the size of our military and the number of Bradley's we own the real mystery is how the heck we don't see this all the time.

I don't know about elsewhere, but a lot of freight trains, including those carrying military equipment in Texas, run at night, and there are no lights on the carriers, just on the engines pulling them, etc.