Gun Trucks

[Vespers War]

The pickup captioned as a 2010 El Monstruo got some analysis after it was captured in 2011. Its armor was equivalent to B7 civilian armoring, which is roughly equivalent to 14.5mm of steel, or about AV 3 per FF&S; portions of it had 25mm of steel, or AV 5 (both AVs assume good steel; soft steel would be AV 2 or 4 respectively). Top speed was 40-50 km/h. The windshield was replaced by polycarbonate viewing ports, and the fixed turret at the top was for a sniper. It was estimated to carry 19-20 passengers in the rear, along with a caltrop dropper, oil slick sprayer, and smoke generator. It'd be good for protection against the sort of arms police and gangs are typically armed with, but a LAW or even an anti-materiel rifle or heavy machine gun would be bad news for the vehicle, let alone an actual tank.

[Raellus]

An illustrated article on Soviet gun trucks in the USSR's Afghanistan war.

https://www.safar-publishing.com/pos...3eUan58PhB-dyo

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Good stuff. I love dual ZSU-23-2 carriers of all types, cargo vehicles and MTLBs. I think the latter would be a great PC vehicle. The door kicker types can put themselves to the hazard by manning the gun. REMFs can shelter inside the armor, hoping for the best and absorbing spall if things go south.

[Ursus Maior]

Originally Posted by Raellus

An illustrated article on Soviet gun trucks in the USSR's Afghanistan war.

https://www.safar-publishing.com/pos...3eUan58PhB-dyo

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I'm surprised - but should I really be? - to see the C-8 rocket launcher getting mounted on top of a BTR-turret on top of a truck. I first saw these launchers on technicals during the Libyan civil war. Always wondered, where they got the idea. Would be interesting to know, if there was some transfer of experience from former service members of the USSR armed forces.

[Raellus]

Behold, a UAF Kamaz six-by-six truck with a ex-navy over-under 25mm 22M-3 turret on its bed.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidax...h=4191de5747a2

Post-exchange, with many surviving naval vessels laid up in port for lack of fuel and/or spare parts, it stands to reason that useful weapon systems would be stripped and put to use by ground forces. We've already seen the same model gun turret mounted on an MTLB armored tractor by Russian forces (see the Franken-AFVs thread for pics and article links). I reckon something like this naval guns-on-an-army-truck ad hoc system wouldn't be particularly unusual in the T2kU. It would certainly make for an interesting encounter.

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[Raellus]

Stumbled across this odd pairing. The caption on Reddit claims it is a Polish Army training vehicle (for SPAG crews). There's little additional [reliable] info about it in the thread. The truck is a STAR 266; the gun mount looks naval in origin to me.

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[Raellus]

Stumbled across this ad hoc APC whilst looking for info on SPG-9 vehicle mounts (I wanted to learn if the SPG-9 can pivot on its mount at all; I still don't have a definitive answer). Anyways, ungainly AFV started out as a civilian bus. It's new owners, Iraqi Peshmerga (Kurdish militia), armored it, fitted four SPG-9 recoilless rifles in some sort of ad hoc quad mount, and installed an HMG of some sort in a cupola aft.

[Raellus]

Hybris found this interesting armored gun tub for a ZU-23-2 mounting. Protection for the crew is limited, but it's better than nothing. The design is simple, yet makes good use of angles and slopes to increase armor thickness and chances of deflecting projectiles. Since the barbette appears fixed, weapon traverse would be limited to the truck's rear arc.

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[Raellus]

Someone posted these pics of a Russian gun truck, allegedly used in Chechnya, on the Facebook T2k fan group. I wonder how that ad hoc mount handled the recoil of two 14.5mm KPVs.

[Vespers War]

Originally Posted by Ronin

It would seem to me that the Sukhoi PAK FA would be a better choice than the F-35 at the moment. If for no other reason its superior to the Super hornet (etc). While the F35 is potentially a better aircraft. Its a long, long way away. The Sukhoi is a year or two tops, away. NATO countries need to shake the stigma, that the Russians are the bad guys. We cant buy their stuff. Let face it, its a brave new world. Its kinda every country for itself. I mean we buy all kinds of stuff (Clothing, other assorted items) from China for our military here in the US. I think they portray a far greater threat in our future than the Russians. My ten cents anyway

I was reading back through the entire thread and this ended up particularly amusing me since the first Su-57 (the PAK FA's eventual designation) entered service in 2020, nine years after this comment was made, and as of the end of 2022 there were a total of 11 in service. Forecasting the future is always difficult, but this particular prediction aged peculiarly poorly.

Hewing closer to the original topic of the thread, I need to dig through my photo files at some point, because I took pictures of a surviving 1970s gun truck a few years back and I know I still have them but my archives from that far back are a mess.