# Tool Talk > Wheels >  Homemade ISIS fighting vehicles

## Jon

A dark but fascinating look at homemade fighting vehicles being used in various conflicts in the Middle East.

The backstory here is that Tanks-Encyclopedia.com has been indexing the homemade fighting vehicles found in the Middle East, in the hopes of creating a database for historians to access in the future. After 8 months of gathering images and videos from numerous sources (Twitter accounts, foreign news clips, now-deleted websites and videos), they've released a 2 gig image dump with hundreds of images and video clips of homemade fighting vehicles. Some of the images have been bouncing around the web for a while, but many of them look new.

Wikipedia has a decent page documenting ISIS's armaments. Their vehicles are mostly captured from other fighting forces, and are often altered into _technicals_ - improvised fighting vehicles.

Here's a selection of photos from the hundreds of images and videos in the file dump. These are a mix of gun trucks, IFVs (Improvised Fighting Vehicles), and VBIEDs (Vehicle-Borne Improvised Explosive Devices). Mostly vehicles from ISIS and miscellaneous anti-ISIS factions, but also some Free Syrian Army stuff. Some of the photos can't be reliably sourced.

Captioned as "assault brick":




Toyota dump truck rocket launcher:


Mobile air traffic control station:


Libyan police truck:


































































Previously:

Homemade Syrian weapons

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sak778 (Jul 26, 2020),

Seedtick (Jul 28, 2017)

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## Dr Stan

Really!!!!!!!!!!!! Just what's with the obsession for killing machines and in this case giving ISIS free publicity?

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## Jon

Some of these vehicles are ISIS, some are from anti-ISIS forces, some are Free Syrian Army, and some are unknown. The mainstream press features some of these images, but nothing of this breadth; this file dump was just recently posted by the guys at Tanks-Encyclopedia.com, in the interest of indexing and categorizing these vehicles for historical reference.

I do agree that it's a bit controversial; I should note that the original file dump contains numerous far more disturbing images and videos that I've excluded. This is an intellectual gold mine for military vehicle enthusiasts and automotive hobbyists; we're not going to ignore it simply because it pertains to war.

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sak778 (Jul 26, 2020)

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## Al8236

> Really!!!!!!!!!!!! Just what's with the obsession for killing machines and in this case giving ISIS free publicity?



Really, You don't think it is valuable to know what our young people (in some cases) are fighting against?

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## volodar

The last picture shows what looks like a bulldozer with a (weight-saving, I assume, in trade-off against impenetrability) metal lattice. I'm curious about the hanging-chain skirt around the already massive dozer structure. Is there any knowledge about hanging chain being any more than random protection against small arms - especially in this particular case?

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## mklotz

> The last picture shows what looks like a bulldozer with a (weight-saving, I assume, in trade-off against impenetrability) metal lattice. I'm curious about the hanging-chain skirt around the already massive dozer structure. Is there any knowledge about hanging chain being any more than random protection against small arms - especially in this particular case?



I'm certainly not an authority but my guess is that the birdcage structure is a deterrent to contact explosives - along the lines of satchel charges, sticky bombs, etc. - that, even if they attached to or detonated on contact with the birdcage would be far enough away from critical structures such as fuel tanks to not disable the vehicle. Additionally, the birdcage makes it difficult for foot soldiers to jump on the vehicle in order to attach contact explosives or IEDs.

The tracks on the dozer are a weak point. As with tanks, sever a track and the vehicle can't move and becomes vulnerable to infantry weapons. The chain skirt may be a device to protect the tracks much as the birdcage protects the vehicle hull.

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Jon (Jul 29, 2017)

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## Frank S

Marv is correct. It was learned by the ground troops as far back as WWI that layers of soft armor offers a huge protection to vital components on vehicles but even further than that almost from the dawn of armed combat soft armor has been incorporated in the protection of Armies against such things as spears arrows swords and fire balls made of mud rocks and flammable oils 
The bird cage acts a lot like chainmail and would probably deflect most small arms fire except for the luck shots that made it between the gaps also you may note that it appears to have another layer of armor on the cab itself but even glass will serve to protect the occupants until it becomes so crazed and broken up that you cannot see out of it.
The chains hanging around the tracks would help to detonate an RPG causing it to expend a lot of its energy before actually doing damage to the tracks themselves.

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Jon (Jul 29, 2017)

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## Jon

People often comment: "Mad Max" when seeing these vehicles. There are indeed some valid comparisons, but the closest pop culture analog I've seen is the Jawa sandcrawlers from the first _Star Wars_. Similarly, the Jawa were a desert-dwelling race of machinery scavengers:



BTW, if you want to keep an eye on ISIS developments, there is a good site called Jihadology.net that acts as a clearinghouse for primary source material from ISIS and other Jihadi groups. It's run by Aaron Zelin, a PhD candidate specializing in the history of Jihadi movements, and a fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Zelin reviews the material, adds academic commentary in context, and provides safe downloads from his own site, so you don't have to go poking around the dark web downloading questionable files. Jihadology.net is essentially a social media-based, in-the-trenches version of something like The Clarion Project.

Sometimes you will see brief clips of ISIS media on mainstream news, with them explaining that the footage came from "ISIS websites" or some such. While this is technically true, they may have just found it on Zelin's website.

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## mklotz

I seem to remember reading about the Seabees in WWII using armored bulldozers to prepare/repair runways under fire.

Interestingly, if you look at the Wikipedia article on Armored Bulldozers...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armored_bulldozer

the first picture shows an Israeli model and it has a birdcage around the armored cab.

The article has pictures of WWII models as well.

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## MadTrapper

The chain skirt is an attempt to disrupt shaped warheads by detonating them early. much as the birdcage does on the hull.

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## Jon

Spotted north of Baiji District, Iraq.

Fullsize image: https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/h...l_fullsize.jpg

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## Radioman

Not much protection around those tires?

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