Slashdot Mirror
Playstation Controller Runs Syrian Rebel Tank
SternisheFan writes "As Syria's rebels work to overthrow the tank-equipped Assad regime, they've learned that it helps to have tanks of their own. They deserve bonus points for integrating video game technology. This is no exaggeration. Have a look at the opposition forces' "100 percent made in Syria" armored vehicle, the Sham II.
Named for ancient Syria and assembled out of spare parts over the course of a month, the Sham II is sort of rough around the edges, but it's got impressive guts. It rides on the chassis of an old diesel car and is fully encased in light steel that's rusted from the elements. Five cameras are mounted around the tank's outside, and there's a machine gun mounted on a turning turret. Inside, it kind of looks like a man cave. A couple of flat screen TVs are mounted on opposite walls. The driver sits in front of one, controlling the vehicle with a steering wheel, and the gunner sits at the other, aiming the machine gun with a Playstation controller."
So I did some more looking and it really is a death trap. The wheels are still exposed, and the steel is at most 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick, which would easy be penetrated by an AK-47 or an Nato 556 round. It is really just a death trap.
Light Armored Vehicle maybe, but not a tank... Tanks have a heavy caliber main gun with machine gun as backups. A vehicle with only a machine gun isn't a tank... Probably well within the category of LAV though.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
That is not a tank. That's an armored car.
A tank requires three things: heavy armor, a turret-mounted gun capable of anti-tank combat, and the use of tracks instead of wheels.
This arguably fails all three. It's a wheeled vehicle, and that 7.62mm gun may as well be paintballs to other tanks - it's a common caliber for the coax gun on modern tanks, for use when you don't want to waste your expensive ammo against mere infantry. The armor is definitely insufficient to handle modern tanks, but it would have been enough for 20's and '30s tanks (or perhaps WW2-era Italian or Japanese tanks), so you could probably squeeze it in.
That said, as long as the rebels use it intelligently, an armored car is a very useful tool. Keep it in the cities, where tanks have difficulty maneuvering, but use its mobility to outflank infantry. It will be interesting to see how long it lasts - it doesn't look like it could handle modern anti-tank missiles, but it *might* stand up to an RPG-7 or so.
Here's 3/8" steel scrap at 50 yards with 7.62x39 fired from an AK47. I recommend muting the volume.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zke2JLYWlMc
It'll go right through it and then proceed to shred the occupants of the vehicle, incidentally also spraying whoever is missed with molten steel.
"Tell me doctor, with all of your defenses, are there any provisions for an attack by killer bees?"
How do you get 1/4 - 1/2 inches from 2.5cm? 2.5cm is .98 inches. Both articles cite 2.5cm as the thickness of the steel.
"Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
While that's a nice video, both articles cite the thickness at 2.5cm, or 1 inch.
"Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black