The Sham II armoured vehicle
Whilst some support is being funnelled to the rebels in Syria from Turkey and Saudi Arabia, they remain hugely out-gunned by the regime forces who attack rebels positions with tanks, aeroplanes and helicopters. However a new industry has sprung up in some rebel-held areas of the country in creating “backyard weapons” such as primitive rocket launchers, and more recently armoured vehicles such as the Sham II.
Named after ancient Syria, the Shame II offers protection to a rebel driver and gunman who sit behind the 2.5cm metal walls, which can apparently withstand up to 23mm canon fire but not rocket-propelled grenades or tank shells. The driver manoeuvres the vehicle by watching a digital display that shows video feeds from the three cameras mounted on the front and one on the rear. There is another display for the gunman that shows the feed from a fifth video camera attached to the 7.62mm turret-mounted machinegun, which he controls with a converted videogame controller complete with fire buttons.
The Sham II is, as the name suggests, the second incarnation of armoured vehicles designed by Mahmud Abud from the Al-Ansar rebel brigade in the Aleppo region of northwest Syria, with this version giving protection to the gunman as well as the driver.
Interestingly, the entire vehicle, excluding the gun, costs only $10,000, and most importantly as Abud notes, it is “100% made in Syria”.
