Libyan National Army home-made systems: AK-230 naval guns mounted on trucks
Libya under Muammar Gaddafi was considered one huge warehouse. weapons. In fact, the quantity of weapons in the warehouses significantly exceeded the needs of Libya. This allowed Gaddafi to use part of these weapons for supplying various factions around the world fighting with the West, or donating them to countries in the Middle East and Africa. The latter’s donation of weapons was basically a kind of gratitude in the hope that these countries would later support the idea of the United States of Africa, at the helm of which “of course” Gaddafi would be.
Many armories in Libya have become for many of the forces currently fighting for control of Libya, a generous source of modern weapons. However, the lack of spare parts and technical staff meant that only part of this heavy weapon would go back into service. The arms embargo imposed on the internationally recognized Libyan government does not allow the acquisition of new weapons and spare parts for the Libyan armed forces. However, it is known that one of the many opposition factions "Dawn of Libya" received weapons from several countries in the region of the Middle East and North Africa.
This prompted the Libyan national army (LNA) to look for solutions that could allow the level of firepower for their units to reach the required level. And while during the years of the Libyan conflict, we witnessed the appearance of many completely unusual cars, the LNA in the city of Benghazi took this kind of competition to a whole new level, setting 30-mm ship cannons into trucks.
The first product of this limited series (above) is a two-barreled 6-mm AK-6 cannon mounted on the KAMAZ 30X230 chassis, originally mounted on Soviet speedboats, mine trawlers and frigates. Initially, the AK-230 cannon’s task was to fight off attacking missiles and airplanes with the aid of the “Rys” MR fire control system.
In order to provide access to guns and ammunition, the tower was removed. Two 30-mm guns HH-30 with belt feed, each ribbon is placed five hundred shells. But a huge disadvantage is that reloading two guns takes a lot of time, even with experienced calculation.
The Libyan National Army is currently fighting the “Dawn of Libya” in Benghazi, where the latter has entrenched in the hope of holding this city. Libyan Dawn controlled most of Benghazi, but could never capture the port, which serves as the base for the Libyan fleet.
The Benghazi naval base was home to the Koni class 212 Al Hani frigate, Nanuchka class 416 Tariq-Ibn Ziyad (or Gadfly) corvette, one of the few remaining Natya minesweepers and a Foxtrot submarine that was out of order. However, Al Hani left Benghazi a couple of years ago, and Tariq-Ibn Ziyad was shelled with artillery and subsequently sank.
Due to lack of maintenance, the only mine-sweeper of the Natya class sat on the bottom at the end of the last year, but both his AK-230 cannons, which were later installed on KamAZ and Scania trucks, were removed from it. The remains of the ill-fated mine-sweeper Natya class can be seen in the photo below.
Both trucks are in service with the 309 battalion of the Libyan National Army. The text, written on the armor sheet in front of a Scania truck armed with an AK-230 cannon, reads “Council of the General Staff - National Army K 309”.
Whether the design is more practical or not compared to the 23-mm ZU-23 or 30-mm M1980 installed on the machines, life will show, since both of these guns can have the same rate of fire and have the same effect on the target, but at the same time AK-230 is much more difficult to target.
If a ceasefire agreement or an arms embargo does not end, the Libyan national army could well surprise us with even more interesting “do-it-yourself” crafts.
Materials used:
www.spioenkop.blogspot.ru
www.ru.wikipedia.org
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