View Full Version : Syrian Rebels Build Homemade Weapons
One could be forgiven for thinking that the Syrian rebels currently fighting to overthrow the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad have spent a little too much time watching "Junkyard Wars."
To wit: the unfortunately named Sham II. (It's a reference associated with a geographical region known as Greater Syria, in case you're wondering.)
Using the chassis of an old car and some 2.5-centimeter metal plating (sporting what looks to be a healthy patina of rust), rebels based in Bishqatin, near Aleppo, constructed a homemade tank.
Perhaps the singular feature of this killing contraption is that its turret-mounted 7.62-millimeter machine gun appears to be controlled by a game console from an old PlayStation.
http://www.rferl.org/content/syria-rebels-homemade-tank-sham-ii/24794510.html
And so it goes...
Richard :munchin
http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2013/02/diy-weapons-of-the-syrian-rebels/100461/
A number of very good photos of some of the clever designs they are coming up with. The slingshots are interesting. The rocket pod, from a (?HIND? or some former Russian aerial) platform mounted in the back of the pickup is new, I have never seen anything like that before.
The ability of some of these groups to make the weaponized rockets has always astonished me. I remember as a kid how difficult it was to make rockets fly perfectly straight as models. Then how much harder it got with larger and heavier versions. When these low-tech wars start, all the sudden people are mass manufacturing some pretty sophisticated detonation nose cones and nozzles. Mostly by hand and without a whole lot of "rocket science". To mention as well the thrust vector and energy necessary to even get those steel tubes off the ground. Makes me remember to never doubt anyone's capability to adapt to wage a war.
What is that saying out necessity being the mother of invention?
Nice work!
I do not know who would have made the rocket pod, that it would have English writing on it. I will ask around. Unless another board member has an explanation. I'm sure it must be something simple, like a batch of them sent to some English country.
Another reader in the comments pointed out the trebuchet siege weapon in picture #9. Of course the media did not pick up on how unique and interesting that photo really is. That is also pretty cool that someone took the time to weld that thing up!
From an intelligence stand point of how technologies are changing war at the soldier level can be seen well with the group using the smart phone to aim their rockets. It wont be long before there are apps for unconventional warfare. Its getting pretty easy to write phone apps these days. "Artillery bracketing made easy" or "One shot GPS correction" (35NCO Tm ;) ) could be very near future apps for anyone to download.
I have an app on my phone that tells me where satellites are in the sky at anytime. I just pick the name of the bird and point the phone at the sky until it targets the bird. I will let your imagination run with what could be done with such on demand knowledge.
It's an old Soviet rocket pod - I suspect the writing is the result of it being passed around in the global arms market where English is often used as a common language or it may even have been bought from some salvage company or museum and resurrected.
The 'Rube Goldberg' trebuchet is a hoot.
Guerrillas can be an entertainingly and effectively creative bunch.
Richard :munchin
RedLegGI
03-10-2013, 10:07
Very interesting thread. I've been watching a lot of their videos and was aware of the catapults, slingshots and the 'armored' cars, but hadn't seen a lot of the stuff in the link. Something I also found interesting was the 'rifle grenade' launcher they had adapted.
It makes sense to me that the rebels will continue to pick up their ingenuity. Wouldn't surprise me to see the influence of terror organizations growing, most of the IED strikes clearly are students of Iraq and Afghanistan. We'll see how this continues to develop at a rapid pace.