Written by Aleksandrs Skulte
For thousands of years, light cavalry has existed in some form; the Mongols famously conquered large parts of Asia and Europe using horse archers. The late 20th and 21st century has seen the emergence of a new type of light cavalry: the technical.
Technicals are lightly armored and improvised pick-up trucks or 4x4s mounted with weapons. Their origins can be traced back to the Tachanka horse-drawn carriages used in the Russian Civil War and improvised gun trucks used in WW1.
However, the word technical comes from the Somali Civil War in the 1980s when NGOs hired mercenaries to protect their humanitarian supplies from warlords and looters. The mercenaries used pick-up trucks mounted with heavy weapons such as machine guns. The NGOs listed the expenses of hiring these mercenaries euphemistically as ‘technical support,’ giving birth to the term technical.
Technicals gained extensive renown during the latter stages of the Chadian-Libyan War (1978-1987). Libyan tactics relied on massive firepower and periodic slow-moving frontal assaults. Anti-Libyan Chadian forces countered by using the speed and maneuverability of armored cars and Toyota technicals to outmaneuver and destroy the much less mobile Libyan units.
These Toyotas were provided by the French and retrofitted by the Chadians with the American Redeye surface-to-air missile and French Milan antitank guided missiles. The Chadian leadership recognized that these weapons systems would suit their irregular military, lacking the technical expertise for more heavy machines and weaponry.
Swarm tactics were used to hit them simultaneously from many angles. This swiftness prevented the Libyans from bringing their superior firepower to bear; Libyan crews of T-55 tanks often could not move their turrets fast enough to target the Chadian Toyota technicals accurately. Such was the ubiquity of these Toyotas and their use as mobile weapons platforms that the final phase of the war was christened ‘The Toyota War.’
Toyota trucks in particular (mostly Land Cruisers and Hiluxes) have gained notoriety in their use as technicals. What makes Toyotas in particular popular is part of what makes technicals so popular, especially among irregular militaries that have fewer resources and funds. They are relatively cheap, easy to acquire, reliable, easy to maintain, and very fuel efficient.
However, more recently Chinese trucks have been increasingly used as technicals. At the Shanghai car expo Chinese company, Zhongxing Auto’s pick-up model was emblazoned with “Resist war, love peace!” in Arabic. Ironically, however, the pick-up has a special steel frame on its cargo bed for easy mounting of weapons.
Indeed, thousands of their Grand Tiger Models were sold to Libya before the 2011 revolution and are in widespread use in the ongoing Libyan civil war. Libyan rebel Saad Sati rated the Grand Tiger as…“[a] car [that] really proved its launch strength, engine strength … and stability, “It acted as a catalyst in the process of the Libyan revolution … and gave the rebels the upper hand.”
Technicals have thus become a ubiquitous sight in asymmetric conflicts (conflicts with an unequal power balance and without clear frontlines) which favor the mobility that they provide.
Technicals are not as widely used in conventional conflicts. Conflicts with clearer frontlines allow fewer opportunities for the highly mobile warfare technicals are suited to. Crucially, technicals offer almost no protection against small-arms fire. Thus, having the means to do so, conventional armies tend to opt for purpose-built armored vehicles.
However, this does not preclude from using them at all. The U.S. and the U.K. use technicals too, albeit exclusively for special forces. In the early stages of the War in Afghanistan, US special forces locally sourced 4x4s and converted them into Non-Standard Tactical Vehicles–NSTVs (The U.S. military’s term for technicals).
As the War progressed, the Army recognized the demand for NSTVs and bought and specially customized Toyota Tacomas for the special forces. However, one can argue whether they can be classified as technical as it is some 1600 kilograms heavier from the extra armor, tactical equipment, and an electrical system.
Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 Ukraine converted SUVs and pickups-many donated from abroad- into technicals. They have mounted them with 12.7mm and 50 caliber machine guns, anti-air Stinger missiles, and FGM-148 Javelin anti-tank missiles.
In the Russo-Ukranian War, drones from both sides have been hitting enemy targets, providing reconnaissance, finding targets, and adjusting fire for artillery, thus changing the battlefield forever. To this end, technicals are being used to counter the threat. The US has provided Ukraine with the laser-guided anti-drone system VAMPIRE which can be mounted on a truck to be used as an anti-drone technical. Hence as warfare changes, the ever-adapable technical changes along with it.
Bibliography
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Ford, Peter. “Shanghai Auto Show: Where You, Too, Can Buy a Machine-Gun Ready Pickup.” The Christian Science Monitor, April 26, 2013. https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Global-News/2013/0426/Shanghai-auto-show-where-you-too-can-buy-a-machine-gun-ready-pickup.
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Mizokami, Kyle. “How U.S. Special Forces Get Their Armored Pickups .” Popular Mechanics, April 5, 2018. https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/a19694154/how-us-special-forces-get-their-armored-pickups/.
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Pollack, Kenneth M. Armies of Sand: The Past, Present, and Future of Arab Military Effectiveness. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2020.
Sayadi, Omer. “Exploring the Etymological Origin of the So-Called ‘Technical.’” Silah Report, March 10, 2021. https://silahreport.com/2021/03/10/exploring-the-etymological-origin-of-the-so-called-technical/.
Featured image credit: Ukrainian technical. Facebook. Territorial Defence Forces of Ukraine. Accessed Febuary 9, 2024. https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=466325695666514&set=pcb.466325738999843. Used under fair use policy.
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