How Interconnected the World Is...

I've been real lazy of late and haven't really posted anything in quite some time.  Busy time of year made busier by some some outside factors.

Regardless, this story struck me as instructive of just how interconnected our world is these days.

A plumber in Texas with deer heads on his office walls and with a decidedly redneck tone to his voice ends up getting harassing phone calls from other Americans because he left his company's logos on a Ford F250 he traded in almost exactly a year ago and said truck somehow ends up in the middle of the Syrian Civil War with an anti-aircraft cannon mounted in its bed.  Someone posts a picture of this truck on a "terrorist" Twitter feed, the phone # for his company is visible...and so the calls begin.

To me its shocking that such a truck would be found profitable to sell who knows how many times over and be found desirable enough to ship overseas.  Also given the length of time that the Syrian Civil War has been going on I'm betting it was imported to the area specifically for this purpose.  Generally Syria is a complete friggin disaster and I don't see too many common Syrian folk looking to rapidly import an American heavy duty truck and then leaving someone's English language logo on the truck to drive around downtown Damascus.  ISIS is about the only people in the MidEast not caring what negative attention they draw to themselves.  What's that mean then?  It means the truck was likely purchased at auction in the States, moved to Mexico and shipped to the MidEast with the specific intent to act as a support vehicle in the conflict.  I would wonder if there isn't a big stream of American trucks heading over there.  ISIS is flush with millions of stolen and oil derived dollars.  They are likely shut out from the typical arms markets but shipping big American trucks doesn't draw near as much attention and from the years of video we've seen of airstrikes in the Mideast we've seen if there is one thing we know they aren't short on over there its anti-aircraft guns and ammunition--so seeking to mount a bunch of these cannons that are useless against a generally non-existent air enemy is a logical move.

Just gotta make sure my Nissan doesn't end up over there!


https://autos.yahoo.com/news/texas-plumber-ford-truck-ends-terrorists-133033518.html

Today's Edition of Things Going Badly for Syrian Tankers...

And this one goes REAL bad...

can't identify the anti-tank weapon used here but its safe to say that its likely one the the US manufactured (Raytheon) BGM-71 TOW that have been flooding into "rebel" hands.  On the other end of the wire is the Syrian tank which goes up like no other tank I've seen in this conflict.  Most take these hits and just erupt in black smoke with the individuals inside likely all turned to hamburger but the exterior remaining roughly intact.

Not so here.  This one goes up like it was rigged to blow with several truckloads of high explosive material.  Only thing I can think of is that this TOW got a lucky hit and took out the tank's armament magazine blowing it all sky high and more or less turning many tons of steel into razerblade material...

And Yet Another Syrian Tank Going Bye-Bye...

Again at the hands of a Raytheon produced TOW missile.  Safe to say I wouldn't want to be a Syrian Army tanker at this point.  The Syrians appear to be deploying their tanks on a near individual basis while the rebels remain under little pressure, just taking easy shots at them...virtually suicide at this point to be operating a tank in a rebel contested area with no air or infantry support.

Another Syrian Tank Destroyed At The End of a US TOW...

These videos seem to be coming in more frequently now.  Here is another Syrian tank going up in flames at the end of a "rebel" launched TOW missile.  The tank looks like it was moving backwards before it was hit and then continued backwards after the impact as the fire resulting from the burning tank moves behind the building it was initially retreating to.  I'm shocked it could move at all or be under any sort of control after the TOW takes it out...The smoke and dust make it difficult to make out what kind of tank it was unfortunately.

Syrian Rebels Take Out Syrian Artillery with US TOW Missile...

Now here's hoping that these are the "nice" Syrian rebels and not of the ISIS variety.  What we have here is the use of an American made (Raytheon specifically) BGM-71 TOW missile which was designed to be an anti-tank/anti-armor weapon but can also be used as an anti-structure or in this case anti-artillery weapon.  You can see that the operator of the missile has to stay with the launcher after firing as it needs to be guided in to its target--not the best of circumstances in a hot shooting environment but like the video I posted the other day of the helicopter shootdown, they do not seem to be under any pressure from an opposing force during these raids.

BGM-71 TOW in Afghanistan for comparo

On the Syrian side of the equation it has to be

especially frightening as the attacks come in what appears to be a "calm" environment when suddenly your helicopter is blown apart or your cannon is made into easily recyclable material.  Attacks are very asymmetrical in this environment.  The artillery piece in question looks to be a Russian 2S3 self propelled howitzer of the 152.4mm variety.  The Syrians bought about 100 of these from Russia in recent years.  Given their maximum armor of

 Model of 2S3 for comparo with the video

30mm and the TOWs rating for armor penetration of at least 450mm (up to a reported 900mm in some varieties) it is safe to say that this howitzer is no longer in use.

Syrian Rebels Take Out Russian Helicopter with Russian Missile

There should be a bit of irony here.  The Syrian rebels (likely to be of the extreme Islamic variety given their use of social media and apparent sophistication) here are using a  relatively modern Russian anti-tank guided missile to shoot down/blow up a Syrian government helicopter of the Russian variety.

The missile appears to be a Kornet which first came into production in the mid 90's and has been used by Iraq against American tanks in the early '00s, damaging a few but not destroying any and also against the Israeli's by Hezbollah (targets have included Isreali tanks and a child laden schoolbus).  Russia has supplied Syria with these anti-tank missiles for years and they appear to have now fallen into the hands of the Syrian rebels/ISIS.

The helicopter here appears to be an MI-2 which is more of a transport helicopter than an attack platform (though it can be outfitted with various short range offensive weaponry).  Supposedly Syria had about 20 of these at one point--make that 19 now...Produced in Poland beginning in the late 60's/70's and designed in Russia these helicopters serve in secondary regimes around the world.  Though the Kornet missile is not specifically designed to take down helicopters, given the static position this one was in during its landing and apparently unpressured position the attackers were located in, made this takedown easy.