Why The US Army Parks Thousands Of Tanks In The California Desert

When it comes to the defense of the United States, the military has something for every possible scenario. In that regard, it also has a place to store everything, from chemical weapons to fighter jets to armored vehicles. You name it, the military has a place for it. There's even a specific location to keep outdated military vehicles awaiting "retrograde, regeneration, reutilization, and redistribution," per the U.S. Army. This location is the Sierra Army Depot (SIAD) in Herlong, California, a high desert approximately 55 miles northwest of Reno, Nevada.

Being a desert, the low humidity and precipitation provide ideal conditions to store mechanized vehicles, such as tanks, long-term. There's little risk that the environment will cause any significant deterioration. Moreover, there's plenty of available space, as the Depot spans 36,000 acres. Assigned to the U.S. Army Tank-Automotive and Armaments Command, SIAD is one of 26 locations that make up the Organic Industrial Base.

As such, it has become what the Army calls the "End of First Life Center" for military vehicles and equipment, where they can be stored until such time that the Army determines their future. It's but one of the ways the U.S. military deals with old decommissioned tanks and armored vehicles. As of this writing, it houses roughly 26,000 armored vehicles, with roughly 2,000 of them being the top-tier M1 Abrams.

During World War II, the Army needed somewhere within the continental United States to store extensive amounts of bombs and ammunition that were accessible to the Pacific, but not so close to be in danger of a potential attack. The site in Herlong already had a rail spur and was situated within a part of the Sierra Nevada mountains that received very little rainfall and humidity, minimizing the risk of rust. 

After that global conflict ended, the site began to transform from a weapon stockpile to a place (a massive parking lot, if you will) where everything from military vehicles to uniforms and other supplies that have seen combat can be sent to get refurbished. SIAD is also the Army's Center for Industrial Technical Excellence (CITE) for all Petroleum and Water Distribution Systems (PAWS), focusing on repairing, resetting, and supplying all of the Army's fuel and water systems and needs.

Well over $1 billion worth of clothing has been shipped to the facility, along with tens of thousands of different vehicles. It's not limited to just repairing items for the Army; it also does so for agencies like the Program Execution Office, the CMO, the Defense Logistics Agency, and the Air Force. As of 2019, it had also repaired over 800,000 defective ballistic insert plates for armor, saving taxpayers over $350 million.