gray paint scheme, although some major units like aircraft carriers changed to a dark sea green. Some aircraft carriers had their flight decks painted in a dazzle camouflage, but this seems to have been ineffective. By 1945, with the remnants of the Japanese Navy seeking to hide from American air power, its battleships were painted in a variety of camouflage measures. Haruna for example wore olive green overall, its turrets painted light green with gray stripes, whereas Ise's olive dress was broken up with patches of gray, red-brown, yellow, and dark green. Soviet ships were dark gray overall, sometimes with medium gray upperworks. The French Navy used light gray before the war and under the Vichy regime. Free French ships that operated with the British adopted one of the British schemes. Those that were refitted in American shipyards were usually repainted in the American Measure 22. Later uses After the Second World War, the universal adoption of radar made traditional camouflage generally less effective, and led to development of stealth ships, a form of radar camouflage. However, camouflage may have helped United States warships avoid hits from Vietnamese shore batteries which used optical rangefinders. Some U.S. Navy PTF boats were camouflaged experimentally in 1975 with green overall, broken up by patterns of gray and black. USS Freedom, a littoral combat ship, is however said to be the first U.S. Navy ship to have camouflage reminiscent of that used in the World Wars. Notes References Sources External links The Ship Camouflage Website Ships Military camouflage Camouflage patterns Vehicle markings