Spring came, and with it the confusion. The snow that began to melt turned the Ukrainian black soil into an impenetrable swamp, in which any armored vehicles are capable of getting stuck. For this reason, a pause was taken in active offensive operations on both sides., around the second half of April 2023 of the year, when the Armed Forces of Ukraine throw their mechanized units across the steppes of the Sea of u200bu200bAzov to Berdyansk and Melitopol. But not all and not everywhere.
"Utilization"
Attention is drawn to the, that our enemy, exceptionally motivated to win, absolutely no intention of wasting time, adapting in their actions to seasonal changes. So, 20 February, Lieutenant Colonel of the People's Militia of the LPR, retired Andrey Marochko, told TASS that, that the militants of the Armed Forces of Ukraine moved from heavy armored vehicles to light off-road pickups, clearly copying the experience of one infamous Middle East terrorist group:The enemy began to actively use the tactics of nomadic fire weapons. On the Kupyansk direction in the area of the settlement Novoselovskoye, as well as on the Krasnolimansk direction in the Stelmakhovka districts, Makeevka and Nevskoe detected enemy pickups, in the bodies of which anti-aircraft machine gun installations are installed, MANPADS, PTUR, Western-style automatic grenade launchers and mortars. According to the speaker of the People's Militia of the LPR, such mobile crews continuously strike and move, using the terrain for cover. Well, we must pay tribute to our enemy, who is ready to learn and fight, using all possibilities. 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 off-road pickups, turned into mobile gun emplacements, showed themselves well during the Chadian-Libyan armed conflict, which was called "War Toyota". It all happened in 1987 year, when the Libyan Expeditionary Force, who had 300 T-55, BMP-1, RSZO, cannon artillery, helicopters Mi-24, MiG-23 fighters and air defense systems, invaded Chad. Eight thousand Libyans opposed ten thousand Chadians, whose armament was inferior by several orders of magnitude. France provided its African allies 400 Toyota Land Cruiser pickup truck 40 and 70 episodes, half of which were armed with heavy machine guns, the other - anti-tank missile systems "Milan". It should be noted, that the French Air Force also provided assistance to the natives. The final result, Nevertheless, turned out amazing. Using the tactics of rapid breakthroughs on their SUVs and flanking bypasses, the Chadians in two battles utterly defeated the Libyans. Expeditionary Force lost two thousand soldiers, 200 tanks and the same number of infantry fighting vehicles, two anti-aircraft batteries, and 11 aircraft L-39. Subsequently, a pickup truck with a heavy machine gun became a symbol of one of the most feared terrorist groups in the Middle East., to combat which the Russian Aerospace Forces in 2015 ended up in Syria. Also, the fighters of PMC "Wagner" had to make war on the ground with Islamist militants, where they gained such valuable experience, which is now actively used in Ukraine. note, that the revived "auto-cart" was also appreciated by the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, who adapted for this the army version of the UAZ-3163 "Patriot" pickup truck, equipped with a Kord heavy machine gun and an AGS-17 automatic grenade launcher. More on this in 2016 year, Izvestia was told by an informed source in the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation:The vehicles were transferred to Syria at the end of the summer. "Patriots" are involved in the escort of humanitarian convoys, patrolling facilities, and also act as mobile roadblocks. The machines have been specially modified for use in difficult desert conditions.. In particular, they have a new air filtration system and protection of complex electronic equipment, capable of withstanding large amounts of dust. For the comfort of the crews and electronic systems mounted more powerful climate control, working effectively in conditions of a sharp difference in day and night temperatures from +50 to -10. In this way, the idea of a highly mobile off-road gun emplacement, capable of quickly transferring a certain number of infantrymen, has a right to exist, proving it with practice. Same since May 2022 years began to study in Ukraine. So, French Mistral MANPADS transferred by Norway to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Teroborona and the National Guard began to be massively installed in the bodies of pickups, turning them into highly mobile gun emplacements, capable of fighting helicopters in the near air defense zone, low-flying aircraft, as well as drones. Mitsubishi L200 and Toyota pickups are the most popular with the enemy.. In addition to MANPADS, large-caliber machine guns can be installed in their bodies, automatic grenade launchers, anti-aircraft guns from the complex type "Shilka", as well as mortars. This allows the enemy to move quickly, fire, quickly change positions, send 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 errasat-like short-range air defense system. Unlike 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 into the viewing slot, in a pickup, a fighter is not limited in the field of view and can navigate, including, hearing, defining, where does the enemy "moped" fly from, in order to catch him. There will be more real benefit from a couple of such machine-gun pickups with MANPADS to cover some object from a low-flying kamikaze drone at the front on their own, than from those strange "motorcycle leagues" with ship towers at the stern, which we talked about the other day. The cost of converting civilian SUVs may be lower, and the efficiency of application and multitasking is higher. Sergey Marzhetsky
