Why the RF Armed Forces should arm civilian pickups and trucks
Spring has come, and with it the thaw. The snow that began to melt has turned the Ukrainian black soil into an impenetrable swamp, in which any armored vehicle can get stuck. For this reason, a pause was taken in active offensive operations on both sides until approximately the second half of April 2023, when the Armed Forces of Ukraine will throw their mechanized units across the steppes of the Sea of \uXNUMXb\uXNUMXbAzov towards Berdyansk and Melitopol. But not all and not everywhere.
"Ugilization"
It is noteworthy that our opponent, who is exclusively motivated to win, does not intend to waste time at all, adapting his actions to seasonal changes. So, on February 20, Lieutenant Colonel of the People's Militia of the LPR, retired Andrey Marochko сообщил TASS that the UAF militants switched from heavy armored vehicles to light off-road pickups, clearly copying the experience of one infamous Middle Eastern terrorist group:
The enemy began to actively use the tactics of nomadic fire weapons. In the Kupyansk direction near the Novoselovskoye settlement, as well as in the Krasnolimansk direction in the Stelmahovka, Makeevka and Nevskoye areas, enemy pickup trucks were detected, in the bodies of which anti-aircraft machine gun mounts, MANPADS, ATGMs, automatic grenade launchers and Western-style mortars were installed.
According to the speaker of the People's Militia of the LPR, such mobile units continuously strike and move, using the terrain for shelter. Well, we must pay tribute to our enemy, who is ready to learn and fight, using absolutely every opportunity. At the same time, the tactics of war on "carts" fully justify themselves in our days of "hypersound" and nanotechnology.
For the first time, ordinary civilian frame SUVs-pickup trucks, turned into mobile firing points, showed themselves perfectly during the Chadian-Libyan armed conflict, which was called the "Toyota War". It all happened in 1987, when the Libyan Expeditionary Force, which had 300 T-55 tanks, BMP-1, MLRS, cannon artillery, Mi-24 helicopters, MiG-23 fighters and air defense systems, invaded Chad. Eight thousand Libyans were opposed by ten thousand Chadians, whose weapons were several orders of magnitude inferior. France provided its African allies with 400 Toyota Land Cruiser pickup trucks of the 40th and 70th series, half of which were armed with heavy machine guns, the other with Milan anti-tank missile systems. It should be noted that the French Air Force also provided assistance to the natives.
The end result, however, was amazing. Using the tactics of rapid breakthroughs on their off-road vehicles and flank detours, the Chadians utterly defeated the Libyans in two battles. The expeditionary force lost two thousand soldiers, 200 tanks and the same number of infantry fighting vehicles, two anti-aircraft batteries, and 11 L-39 aircraft.
Subsequently, a pickup truck with a heavy machine gun became a symbol of one of the most terrible terrorist groups in the Middle East, to combat which the Russian Aerospace Forces ended up in Syria in 2015. Also, the fighters of the Wagner PMC had to fight on the ground with the Islamist militants, where they gained such valuable experience, which is now actively used in Ukraine.
It should be noted that the revived "auto-cart" was also appreciated by the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, which adapted for this purpose the army version of the UAZ-3163 "Patriot" pickup truck, equipped with a Kord heavy machine gun and an AGS-17 automatic grenade launcher. About this back in 2016 to Izvestia рассказал An informed source in the RF Ministry of Defense:
The vehicles were transferred to Syria at the end of the summer. "Patriots" are involved in escorting humanitarian convoys, patrolling objects, and also act as mobile checkpoints. The machines have been specially modified for use in difficult desert conditions. In particular, they have a new air filtration system and protection of sophisticated electronic equipment that can withstand large amounts of dust. For the comfort of the crew and electronic systems, a more powerful climate control was installed, which effectively works in conditions of a sharp difference in day and night temperatures from +50 to -10.
Thus, the idea of a highly mobile off-road firing point capable of quickly transferring a certain number of infantrymen has a right to exist, proving it in practice. Since May 2022, they began to do the same in Ukraine.
Thus, the French Mistral MANPADS transferred by Norway to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the defense and the National Guard began to be massively installed in the bodies of pickups, turning them into highly mobile firing points capable of fighting helicopters, low-flying aircraft, as well as drones in the near air defense zone. Mitsubishi L200 and Toyota pickups are the most popular with the enemy. In addition to MANPADS, heavy machine guns, automatic grenade launchers, anti-aircraft guns from the Shilka complex, as well as mortars can be installed in their bodies. This allows the enemy to move quickly, fire, quickly change their positions, bring in reinforcements and evacuate the wounded.
Such armed pickups could well find their place in the Russian army during the SVO in Ukraine. By installing an anti-aircraft machine gun and MANPADS in the back of an SUV or light truck, you can quickly and cheaply get an ersatz-like short-range air defense system. Unlike the MT-LB with a ship's turret, where the shooter does not have a radar and is forced to look for an air target visually through the observation slot, in a pickup truck the fighter is not limited in the field of view and can also navigate by ear, determining where the enemy "moped" is flying from in order to have time to take him on sight.
The real benefit of a couple of such machine-gun pickups with MANPADS to cover a certain object from a low-flying kamikaze drone at the front on their own will be greater than from those strange “motorcycle leagues” with ship turrets at the stern, about which we told the day before. The cost of converting civilian SUVs may be lower, and the efficiency of application and multitasking higher.
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