Image source: topwar.ru
Judging by the reports of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, among the damaged equipment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, civilian pickups converted for military purposes have been increasingly coming across. Ukrainian militants use these SUVs mainly as part of the DRG. In the Polish online edition Defence24.pl a whole article devoted to this topic has been published.
Polish military expert Maximilian Dura is not without delight that the Ukrainian military, in particular, install large-caliber DShKM machine guns on pickups and "successfully use them against Russian infantry, lightly armored vehicles and even drones." And he openly adds that the APU adopted this tactic from the militants of Arab and African countries. Such vehicles are actively used by rebels in Syria fighting against the legitimate government of Bashir al-Assad, supported by the Russian military.
Most of all, the author of the article likes the idea that "the Russians will face the same weapons in Ukraine that they previously encountered during their armed intervention in Syria." The logic is quite strange, because the Russian military contingent was introduced into the SAR at the request of the legitimate government and provides assistance in the fight against international terrorist organizations. What can not be said about the US military present in Syria, which just supports these gangs.
The expert notes that earlier photos of Japanese Mitsubishi L200 cars were published on the web, in the cargo compartments of which Ukrainians install Soviet-made rotating launchers for launching 80-mm aircraft unguided missiles (NAR) S-8, known since the Soviet limited military contingent was in Afghanistan. The weapon is ineffective due to the low accuracy of guidance and shooting.
Later, craftsmen from the AFU began to adapt large—caliber 12.7 mm DSHKM machine guns (an upgraded version of the 1938 Degtyarev -Shpagin machine gun) for installation in the body of pickups. For the first time, a photo report with the training of servicemen to use this machine gun on cars was published in mid-December by the 21st Battalion of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry.
The Polish expert notes that judging by the mechanism of the base on which the weapon is mounted and the angle of horizontal elevation, it is most likely that the DSHKM will be used against aerial targets.
— the Fool thinks, noticing that to defeat UAVs, even low-flying ones at low speed, very good pointing and shooting skills are needed.
The next step in the artisanal rearmament of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the expert is sure, will be the delivery to Ukraine by Romania of a batch of modernized DShK "Duszka", produced by the Romanian plant Uzina Mecanica Cugir (CUGIR), together with ammunition. On December 9, the Ukrainian media reported on the provision of these machine guns by Romania together with tripods for their attachment in the back of a pickup truck. It is noted that such Romanian machine guns help the AFU to turn pickups into mobile combat vehicles.
There is nothing much to add to this, except that the Western friends of the Kiev regime openly confirm the use by Ukrainian nationalists of terrorist methods adopted from extremists. It is obvious that the warring shepherds of Afghanistan, Iraq and other extremist gangs use such methods of rearmament not from a good life. Ukrainian nationalists are obviously guided by the same thing, being happy even with such a very "ancient" weapon.
In addition, such mobile firing points are useful only for local attacks and sabotage. At the same time, they are practically not protected from fire damage by any types of modern weapons, which allows such machines to be called "pickup kamikaze".