Saturday, July 15, 2006
Lebanese Forces Fight Back
But probably not very effectively. In this AP photo, the soldier is firing a Russian ZU 23-2 twin anti-aircraft automatic canon (23mm) mounted on an American M 113 APC (talk about a hybrid). The gun's vertical range is just over 16,000 feet so what he can mainly do is keep the Israeli airplanes higher or harass them as they dive.There is an emblem on the side of the tracked vehicle, but I don't recognize it and it's not on the Lebanese Army website. His camouflage is not a Lebanese pattern I'm familiar with (it's not a Syrian or Iranian pattern I know either).
You can see an empty seat next to him (no idea what that's about) and the box of ammunition on the side of the gun. This contains 50 shells on a belt. The maximum rate of fire is 2,000 rounds per minute but with replacing the boxes of ammunition and changing out the barrels periodically, it's more like 300 to 500.
# posted by Roger Fraley @ 12:50 PM 
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The usual reason to have two gunner seats on AAA is that one person runs azimuth and the other runs elevation at the same time. Note that this is not a radar-guided battery, so it's pretty much useless, even against low-flying jets, because it can't track fast enough. (It might have some use against propeller-driven aircraft or helecopters.)
As to the BDU, that looks rather like US Army forest-pattern camouflage (prior to the current digital camo). I don't make the claim that it certainly is, but it's just not that hard to find that pattern in surplus stores and elsewhere.
As to the BDU, that looks rather like US Army forest-pattern camouflage (prior to the current digital camo). I don't make the claim that it certainly is, but it's just not that hard to find that pattern in surplus stores and elsewhere.
Thanks for my continuing education in military matters. At least I got the ineffectual part right. I have to doubt the US Army forest camo, not that it doesn't look a little like it or you can't find it, but I just doubt Lebanese soldiers would wear US camo. They are using our old APCs, though.
Aw, heck no. We 'uns shoots our 23mm twin AAA from the hip. 'At recoil's a b*tch. But with a little practice we occasionally hit the broad side of a barn. From the inside. When it's not moving.
8-)
(I suppose that there might be a radar unit off-screen linked to drive units in the APC, but I don't see evidence of that. With radar, the ZSU 23-4 [Soviet quad SP AAA] was thought to be a pretty effective anti-helicopter asset back in the '70s.)
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8-)
(I suppose that there might be a radar unit off-screen linked to drive units in the APC, but I don't see evidence of that. With radar, the ZSU 23-4 [Soviet quad SP AAA] was thought to be a pretty effective anti-helicopter asset back in the '70s.)
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