War Pig (tank)

For the campaign mission, see War Pig (level).

"War Pig" was the call-sign for an M1A2 Abrams tank in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Originally a member of an armored advance into the capital of the Middle Eastern country under Khaled Al-Asad, War Pig somehow found itself stranded in a bog in the city. It was soon besieged by OpFor soldiers. A United States Marine Corps Force Reconnaissance unit, of which Paul Jackson was a member, were tasked with relieving the crew, protecting the tank and securing the area for Combat Engineers to repair the tank. After a fierce battle through the night-time city streets, buildings and alleyways, the Force Reconnaissance unit gets to the tank's position. The tank, still stranded, had lost the ability to use it's main gun and was fending off rebel forces with only its coaxial machine gun. War Pig and the Marines fended off several waves of infantry, armed with RPG-7's and Demolitions Packs. During the fight, the unit was also tasked with destroying a ZPU-4 Anti-Aircraft gun that was preventing air support from assisting the tank and Marines. After disabling the gun emplacement, air support by way of AH-1W Cobra helicopter gunships secured the area.

After a night of repairs, War Pig was fully functional and assisted the same reconnaissance unit in taking a section of the capital in intense urban fighting. The M1A2's main cannon destroyed several embedded positions in buildings as Marines protected the tank from RPG-7 fire and cleared buildings. Towards the end of the engagement, a T-72 threatened several Marines in a dilapidated building. War Pig engaged the T-72 and hit it with a shell through a building, causing an ammunition cook-off which blew the turret of the T-72 off.

It is unknown whether War Pig was caught in the subsequent nuclear explosion that engulfed the capital city. However, the tanks that weren't caught in the blast from the explosion are likely to have survived due to the Nuclear, Biological and Chemical (NBC) weapon protection system.

Trivia

 * The name "War Pig" may be a reference to the song "War Pigs" by Black Sabbath.
 * War Pig is the name of a real-life M1A2 Abrams tank, used by the Infinity Ward team as a sound and modeling reference, and was included as a dedication to the armored unit that provided them the tank.
 * On the barrel of the M256 gun, it can be seen of a picture of a cartoon style pig's face. This picture is used as an emblem in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Modern Warfare 3.
 * On the multiplayer map Bog, one can find War Pig destroyed.
 * Also, in the map "Ambush", the two destroyed Abrams tanks are both labeled "War Pig", though this was probably due to lack of memory space on the designers part.
 * If the player gets out of "Shock and Awe" by glitching, the player can go back to the beginning of the level, where the bridge is, and see that all the Abrams tanks will have War Pig's logo, again most likely to conserve memory. Something similar also occurred in Black Ops, where all M113s have Bottom Feeder written on them.
 * On the ending of the mission "The Bog", there was a map written on the tank's side. On the next mission, the map disappeared.
 * In the beginning of "War Pig", the tank's blueprints show the commander's MG as two 7.62mm M240 machine guns. In game it appears as a .50 BMG Browning M2.
 * After the level War Pig, War Pig is left in the street.