The use of technicals, or improvised fighting vehicles, dates back to World War One – Craig Allen finds out more about them
SPECIFICATIONS
It seems that no news report from a conflict zone is not complete without footage of a Toyota pick-up packed with armed men and bristling with weapons. These improvised fighting vehicles – commonly known as technicals – seem to have become ubiquitous on modern battlefields. Nominally a light 4x4 truck or pick-up mounting a machine gun, anti-aircraft cannon or rocket launcher, they have become widely popular with insurgent groups and irregular forces the world over. But where does the idea come from?
Technicals have a long history with precedents stretching back as far as World War One when anti-aircraft cannon were mounted on early commercial trucks. Similarly, modified trucks were later used during the Spanish Civil War as mobile field guns.
In World War Two the armed Jeeps and Chevrolet trucks of the SAS, Long Range Desert Group and Popski’s Private Army became famous. The desert war saw the use of anti-tank guns carried of trucks. In the post-war era, armed Land Rovers became a common sight both in the hands of the conventional military and rebel groups.
The confl…
