"At a weapon workshop in Misrata, a Libyan volunteer fixes a UB-32 rocket launcher pod, attached to the back of a pickup truck on May 28, 2011. The UB-32, a launcher designed to fire Russian S-5 rockets, is normally mounted on an aircraft."
Several Irregulars have forwarded this fascinating link to "DIY Weapons of the Libyan Rebels" at The Atlantic.
"Molotov cocktails rest in a rack as Libyan rebels prepare for battle in Ajdabiya on March 2, 2011."
For the past four months in Libya, rebel forces made up of civilians and army defectors have been waging battles against Muammar Qaddafi's armed forces, holding their own and sometimes advancing with the assistance of NATO air strikes. Scrambling to arm themselves against mercenaries and a professional army, rebels have been making use of everything they can -- from using captured weapons and munitions to rigging anti-aircraft guns and aircraft rocket launchers to the backs of civilian pickup trucks. Collected here are recent images of some of this weaponry used by the Libyan rebels.
Why is this idiot smiling when he is so obviously trying to blow himself up? "A rebel poses with an armful of rocket-propelled grenades taken from an armored personnel carrier (APC) captured from forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi on the outskirts of the town of Zlitan, west of the rebel-held port city of Misrata, on June 10, 2011."
6 comments:
Besides making the Molotov Cocktails the wrong way, it was a good bunch of pictures.
The Molotov Cocktails were too small, used too thick glass, and were not the self igniting type. When you light that kind of Molotov, you give your position away by light. It is also more likely to go off in your hands.
In spite of their questionable transportation skills. These guys are making some very sophisticated rigs. There is a YT video showing them rigging remotely fired guns on the back of pick-ups that have interior video monitors. They have made remote guns on childrens battery powered toys with cameras as well. If these guys can cul together this level of tech from scraps then I have renewed faith that FreeFor can do orders of magnitude better when TSHTF.
Grenadier1
-Now where did that old battery powered jeep that my son had get off to.
I like the rocket pod ones. Likely, that'll be a large source of resistance artillery since the pods shouldn't be too hard to get from lightly crashed helicopters, and the rockets are small and easy to smuggle.
Anyone got a ballistics chart for shooting off our 2.75" rockets like that?
The 7 rocket pods are probably small enough to hide in the trunk of a car, and a handful of pods can put quite a salvo in the air--saturation is one way to defeat point defenses. 2.75" tubes to launch the rockets shouldn't be hard to manufacture either, though I can't see shoulder-held systems with the backblast those probably produce.
IIRC back during the Viet Nam kinetic action the 101stAB built a few mobile rocket launchers using aircraft pods and jeep trailers. Of course the NIH mentality of the military precluded them being considered for production.
That last pic looks more like the shells for the 73mm gun on the BMP-1. Same projectile as the 73mm SPG-9 recoilless, but with a redused propellant charge & no backblast. Looks a lot like an RPG round, though.
Oh, and I seem to recall that they were looking at using a rig with several of the 32 round 2.75" rocket pods as MRLs for the old RDF back in the 1980's. Perhaps someone still has the firing data from those tests.
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