ISIS' DIY Tanks: A Killer or a Joke? You Decide.

[rangerrebew]

January 17, 2020

ISIS' DIY Tanks: A Killer or a Joke? You Decide.

They're shoddy, but deadly.
by Michael Peck

Mix-and-match tanks are nothing new. The Nazis mounted captured Russian artillery pieces on looted Czechoslovakian tank chassis to create the Marder self-propelled antitank gun. The Israel Defense Forces put British tank cannon on American-made Pattons and American engines on British-made Centurions.

But a surprising source of do-it-yourself armor has been Islamic State. ISIS has modified its arsenal of captured, mostly Soviet- and Russian-made armor to create some bizarre vehicles. The Oryx Blog, run by two Dutch military analysts, has put together a fascinating collection of information and photos of these homebrew vehicles.

https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/isis-diy-tanks-killer-or-joke-you-decide-114566

[PeteS in CA]

The jury-rigged up-armoring means fewer weapons can take out the Franken-tanks, and their shells still go boom. The Franken-tanks are meant to take on towns with limited defenses and lightly armed infantry units, not to take on a full-scale armored division.