picture 192988

One of the 624 Chieftain Mk. 5/3P MBTs purchased by Iran from the United Kingdom in the 1970s. All Iranian Ground Forces vehicles of the 1970s and early 1980s were painted in the same light olive-green colour, similar to that used by the Israeli Defence Force. National markings consisted of small roundels, usually applied on the storage boxes around the turret. The vehicle number (usually consisting of four digits, but in this case limited to ‘146’) was applied in black on turret sides and the front and the rear of the hull. The so-called ‘Onion’ – the stylised word ‘Allah’, the official crest of the Islamic Republic of Iran – was frequently added on the sideskirts, sometimes in the form of a stencil and in red, as shown here, but at least as often applied rather crudely with a brush. (Artwork by Radek Panchartek)