The Sri Lankan Army today captured an improvised armoured truck used by the Tamil Tigers (LTTE). No armament, but more of an APC with radio equipment. Evidence that it had been recently used was the finding inside of "empty biscuit wrappers and water bottles".

Anyway, if anyone is looking for something unique (it does look pretty weird) - and it could be of interest to the Steel Beasts of the East Campaign, here is the link:

http://www.army.lk/detailed.php?NewsId=278

Great find Matthew! It sure is weird looking; sorta like something from the Road Warrior.

Ditto the "great find." Wow. From the exterior it looks pretty sophisticated....can't say the same for the inside...

Curious, what's the "basis" of this one? Chassis? Also, what are the two cylinders that run front to back on the left interior? Or the short fat one laying across them?

Very intriguing.

Mike

Mike, I think most trucks in Sri Lanka are made by TATA, Ashok Leyland or Isuzu. There's actually not much to go on in the photo other than the wheels, and these things tend to look quite similar across all manufacturers. Here are three examples of similar trucks from those three makers, somehow the TATA one looks very similar, although the wheels aren't identical - obviously the chassis used could be a few years old:

TATA: http://www.tatatrucks.co.za/content/index.cfm?navID=1&itemID=27
Ashok Leyland: http://www.ashokleyland.com/subproductsdyn.jsp?CATId=2&subcat_id=9&product_id=120
Isuzu: http://www.isuzu.co.jp/world/product/ce_series/lineup.html

If you look at the TATA truck you can see some cylinders mounted on the chassis behind the front wheels which are quite similar I think to those inside the armoured truck; if you look at this same area on the armoured truck there is nothing there, as if everything has been relocated, presumably in order to protect it. I think at least the shorter one is a compressor for the air brakes - here is something similar: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:A_truck_chassis_section.jpg Note the bolt in the end of the long cylinder, like it also houses an electrical coil. I'm sure some truck fanatic could identify these properly.

Obviously one of the main purposes of armouring a truck isn't just to protect the occupants but to protect the automotive parts of the truck so that it is harder for enemies to stop.

There's other quite interesting stuff on the Sri Lankan Army site. Amazingly, the LTTE even made some "submarines" or at least submersible vehicles, presumably in order to carry out attacks on Sri Lankan navy vessels - not sure if they might have tried using them for getting to and from Tami Nadu in India without being detected.

There are a lot of photos of that here: http://www.defence.lk/picturegallery/picc.asp?tfile=Boats&cat=ACHI

In January the SL Army also captured a T-55, apparently they hadn't known that the LTTE posessed one. It seems it was dug in and being used as an artillery piece, but once captured, the Army managed to make it mobile. Heaven knows how on earth you smuggle a thing like that into the country . . . mind you they also had a bunch of 130mm howitzers.

Photos of that here: http://www.army.lk/subGallery.php?galid=21

Don't forget their light aircraft too. The LTTE might be classified as terrorists for legal purposes, but they were running a fully fledged parallel authority in northern Sri Lanka until about 6-8 months ago. They had a pretty well organized military set up, which was pretty well equipped for its size and lack of official status.

I have to say that truck is up there with their midget semi-submersibles as being pretty impressive for local design with no major industry.

Very interesting looking vehicle. I hear about this every morning on the radio while going to work. They are in a stuck spot right now.

Definitely a strange looking truck. I wonder what it was used for. Probably a mobile command centre or similar.

Thanks for sharing

My first thought was RAMMTIGER... anyway. I looked it over a bit. The tube that runs the length of the left side exterior is the exhaust pipe (i am sure most of you noticed that). As previously stated, the best I can figure is that those cylinders are in fact for the air brakes and syspension (as most trucks and buses nowadays use both). The whole engine and the truck's guts are all inside. The chains along the bumpers, I am thinking, serve the same purpose as those used on the Merkava's. They are meant to stop head-on bullets from striking the sensitive areas... like the tires? That must have been one hot, smelly ride! The thing that got me though is the giant gap in the roof! It looks circular... almost like turret housing. I assume that it was simply a firing position, but that is a damn big hole. They say in the press release that it was in fact a command vehicle, or, at the least a command moving vehicle. Pretty crazy though. Great find.

-Mike