Improvised vehicle armour

Improvised vehicle armour is protective materials added to a mobile platform such as a car, truck, or tank in an irregular and extemporized fashion, using available materials. Typically, improvised armour is added in the field and it was not originally part of the design, an official up-armour kit, nor centrally planned and distributed. Improvised armour is used to protect occupants from small arms, crew-served weapons and artillery (or tank) fire, and mines. Improvised additions have included metal plate, scrap metal, sandbags, concrete, wood, and, since at least the 2000s, Kevlar. These materials which vary widely in their ballistic protection.

Improvised armour added to a truck by railway shop workers for the Danish resistance movement, near the end of World War II.

Improvised vehicle armour has appeared on the battlefield for as long as vehicles have been used in combat. In WW I, the first armoured cars were made by adding metal plating to regular vehicles. In World War II, tank crews of many armies attached spare metal tracks to the hulls and turrets of their tanks. In the Vietnam War, U.S. "gun trucks" were reinforced with sandbags and locally fabricated steel armor plate.[1]

In 2003-2011, U.S. troops in Iraq armored their Humvees and various military transport and support vehicles with scrap materials: this came to be known as "hillbilly armor" by the Americans,[2] or sometimes "hajji armor" when installed by Iraqi contractors.[3] Irregular forces, guerrilla fighters, and other militants have also added improvised armour to vehicles. In the 2011 Libyan War, anti-Gaddafi militants used improvised armour on technicals (trucks with mounted machine guns). While most of this article is about military applications, there has been some non-military uses, such as protecting strikebreaker buses.

World War I

The first armoured cars to see combat were entirely improvised, although this soon changed as the war continued. A few were used by the Belgian army during the German invasion.[4] The British Royal Naval Air Service received reports of this and converted some of their own cars.[4] Improvised conversion continued until December 1914 when the first standardized design entered service. [4] The British Royal Naval Air Service in Dunkirk sent teams in cars to find and rescue downed reconnaissance pilots in the battle areas. They mounted machine guns on them[5] and as these excursions became increasingly dangerous, they improvised boiler plate armoring on the vehicles provided by a local shipbuilder.

World War II
An M4 (105) Sherman with spare track-links welded onto its sloped frontal glacis-plate for additional armored protection, shown here at Langenberg Liberation Memorial in Ede, Netherlands.

Most armies involved in the conflict adopted some form of improvised armour at some point. The Home Guard in the United Kingdom equipped itself with a number of vehicles with improvised armour, such as the Bison concrete armoured lorry, intended to be used for defending airfields. Later in 1944, some Cromwell and Churchill tanks had sections of tracks attached to their existing armour to provide yet more extra protection.[6] US M8 Greyhound armoured car crews would sometimes line the floors of their vehicles with sandbags to provide extra protection against landmines.[7]

The addition of improvised armour to tanks was performed by both Axis and Allies forces due to the arms race between the designers of antitank weapons and the designers of tank armour. In some cases, a tank that was effectively protected against existing antitank weapons at the time of its manufacture ended up, once finally tested and delivered to the battlefield, being vulnerable to newly-designed antitank weapons. As such, tank crews would ask field repair workshops to increase their protection, using a wide range of armouring principles, including welded or bolted on metal "skirts" around treads and turrets (spaced armour) and welded screens (slat armour). Some German improvised armour was designed to protect weak points, such as sandbags added by Afrika Korps tank crews to the turret joint. On the Eastern Front, some tank crews added sandbags due to fears of magnetic mines.

A Sturmgeschütz III with added spaced armour and large wooden beams.

The German military became aware of these improvised armour approaches used by their troops and issued a recommendation against using most of them in 1944 in the Nachrichtenblatt der Panzertruppen (Newsletter for the Armored Forces).[8] While the German military was aware that improvised armour boosted tank crews' morale (by giving a sense of increased security) the analysts argued that many improvised armouring techniques were not effective. For example, welding spare tank treads to a turret was not effective, as treads were not armour-grade steel, and concrete was found to offer little protection while also leading to excess fragmentation. Some improvised armour, such as adding concrete or welding on tank treads on an 80 to 90 degree angle, actually made enemy weapons more effective, and both approaches overtaxed the tanks' powertrains from the extra weight.[9]

Welding on improvised Schürzen (skirting) was not permitted, due to concerns that welding the original factory plate armour could weaken it; however, using brackets to mount turret-side and back skirts or side skirts was permitted.[10] Side skirts were permitted because the Soviet 14,5 mm antitank rifles could penetrate the less-armoured sides of the Panzer.

Some US tanks had spare tracks attached to their armour. This was done with the M4 Sherman and Stuart tanks. Besides spare track-links, other improvised armor included wooden logs, tree trunks, armour plating from other destroyed or abandoned tanks and even a thick layer of concrete, albeit the lattermost very rarely. Concrete was sometimes added above the driver to protect the thinner roof above a driver from antitank rifle fire coming from above. Soviet tank crews sometimes welded old bed frames to their tanks to protect against shaped charge explosives such as the German Panzerfaust anti-tank weapon. The bed frames were an early version of modern slat armor, which was used in the 2000s to protect tanks against rocket-propelled grenades such as the RPG-7.

During the North African Campaign, the German Afrika Korps attached strips of spare tracks to the front of their Panzer IIIs [11] and Panzer IVs. Elsewhere, such as on the Eastern Front and in Italy, the German military also relied on add-on plates of armour of varying thickness (including the well-known Schürzen add-on side armour plating), cement and timber to increase the armour of their tracked combat vehicles, especially those with weaker armour like the Marder series of self-propelled anti-tank guns and the StuG III (many of these were given either timber, concrete, additional armour plating or spare tracks to increase their battlefield survivability). Most German vehicles exported to their allies in the war also carried such forms of armour, such as StuG IIIs sent to Finland, which carried both log (on the sides) and concrete (frontally) armour.

Vietnam War

In the Vietnam War, U.S. gun trucks were armored with sandbags and locally fabricated steel armor plate.[1]

The Troubles in Northern Ireland
See also: South Armagh Sniper (1990–1997) and Attack on Derryard checkpoint

See Improvised tactical vehicles of the Provisional IRA

Iraq War
A U.S. Army 5-ton cargo truck with improvised armor on the doors, rear gunner's box, and an improved bumper.

In post-invasion Iraq, improvised vehicle armor is colloquially referred to as Hillbilly armor, farmer armor or hajji armor by American troops.

During the occupation that followed the 2003 invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein's regime, insurgent forces deployed roadside bombs, RPG teams, and snipers with small arms to attack military vehicles on supply convoys and other known routes.

To protect themselves from these threats, American troops began reinforcing their Humvees, LMTVs and other vehicles with whatever was available, including scrap metal, kevlar blankets and vests, compromised ballistic glass and plywood. In some cases they relied on Iraqis to assist them in these efforts, and referred to the result as "Hajji" armor.[3] They were also officially advised[12] to line the floors of their Humvees with sandbags to deaden the impact of land mine explosions.

Some officers in Iraq were disciplined over their refusal to carry out missions in what they considered improperly armored vehicles.[13]

Hungarian troops were said to be covering their non-armored Mercedes-Benz G-Class vehicles with ballistic vests on the outside.

Military-supplied "up-armor"
"Hillbilly" scrap armor plate on door of U.S. Army 8x8 HEMTT truck at a base at Ar-Ramadi, Iraq.

The US Army began deploying 'up-armor' kits to better protect military vehicles in August 2003, two years before the Marine Corps would. Three levels of 'up-armor' were implemented:

  • Level I: fully integrated armor installed during vehicle production or retrofit (including ballistic windows)
  • Level II: add-on armor (including ballistic windows)
  • Level III: locally fabricated armor (interim solution, lacking ballistic windows)

The process of up-armoring all vehicles was to be complete by mid-2005.[14]

As recently as February 2006, the Army was welding additional armor onto the armored Humvee variant M1114 and 5-ton MTV in Iraq.[15]

The United States Marines developed their own Marine Armor Kit (MAK), consisting of bolt-on armor for the crew compartment, ballistic glass, suspension upgrades, and air conditioning. However, the kit was not fielded until early 2005, and even then only to certain specified units.[16] Level I armor kits are now phasing out MAKs for MTVRs and M1114 HMMWVs.

Rumsfeld questioning incident
A U.S. Army LMTV cargo truck with up-armored cab.
A 10K forklift outfitted with hillbilly armor protecting its cab
An Airman works on a truck as part of an expanded program to improve the armored protection for U.S. troops. Balad Air Base, Iraq (April 2005).

The practice of U.S. troops reinforcing their vehicles with improvised armor became well known after a U.S. soldier questioned U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld about the need to salvage armor from scrap materials on December 8, 2004 at Camp Buehring, Kuwait.[17][18] The question was met with cheers from fellow troops.[19]

Wilson: "Why do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to up-armor our vehicles? And why don't we have those resources readily available to us?"

Rumsfeld: "It isn't a matter of money. It isn't a matter on the part of the Army of desire. It's a matter of production and capability of doing it. As you know, ah, you go to war with the army you have -- not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time. You can have all the armor in the world on a tank and (still) be blown up..."

Rumsfeld was paying a visit to approximately 2,300 troops on the eve of their deployment across the border to Iraq. Specialist Thomas Wilson of the 278th Regimental Combat Team (Tennessee Army National Guard) asked the question, but it was later revealed that Lee Pitts, an embedded reporter for the Chattanooga Times Free Press, had asked Wilson to make the inquiry.[20][21][22]

Several related questions were asked of Rumsfeld by other troops. Some of Wilson's fellow soldiers and commanders supported his inquiry in later interviews. Col. John Zimmermann, Staff Judge Advocate of Wilson's unit said that 95 percent of the unit's 300 vehicles lacked appropriate armor, and suggested that it was the result of a double standard used to equip the National Guard as compared with active-duty forces.[23][24]

On December 9, 2004, President George W. Bush responded to the incident, saying that the expressed concerns were being addressed.[12]

On December 10, 2004, it was reported that following the incident, Armor Holdings, Inc., the company producing armored Humvees for the Army, was asked to increase production from 450 to 550 per month—its maximum capacity.[25] Also on December 10, Congressman Marty Meehan (D-MA, House Armed Services Committee) issued a news release harshly critical of the Bush administration and The Pentagon: Meehan described the shortage of armored vehicles as "a dangerously exposed center of gravity" of America's military presence in Iraq, and the lack of preparedness for insurgent tactics such as deploying improvised explosive devices (IEDs) as "symptomatic of a headlong rush to war."[26]

On December 15, 2004, the Department of Defense held a special briefing on the issue of up-armoring. Officials stated that the process of up-armoring SPC Wilson's unit was nearly complete on December 8, and was completed within 24 hours of the incident. Brig. Gen. Jeff Sorenson, Deputy for Acquisition Systems Management, stated during the briefing that fully armored vehicles had been isolated and destroyed in the former Soviet Union's campaigns in Afghanistan and Chechnya, and that the hearts and minds aspect of the Army's counterinsurgency efforts would be negatively impacted were soldiers to remain isolated from the populace in fully armored vehicles.[14]

Aftermath

The incident sparked criticism of Rumsfeld,[27] and led some to question the nation's commitment to its troops.[28]

Libyan civil war

During the 2011 Libyan civil war, anti-Gaddafi forces were seen operating T-55 tanks and technicals (trucks with mounted machine guns) with improvised armour mounted on them, likely in an attempt to improve survivability against superior Libyan Army hardware such as T-72 tanks.

War in Donbass
Metal plates welded onto a truck in Ukraine.

During the War in Donbass, units on both sides of the conflict have improvised armour added to vehicles like the BTR-80, an armored amphibious personnel carrier.[29][30] The Azov Battalion has developed their own vehicle, the Azovets, similar to the Russian BMPT Terminator.[31][32]

Syrian Civil War and War against the Islamic State

In their role in the ongoing Syrian Kurdish–Islamist conflict and Syrian Civil War and finding themselves lacking in the amount of modern armor, members of the Kurdistan peshmerga and People's Protection Units (YPG) were reported to have fabricated homemade armored fighting vehicles of widely varying designs to fight ISIS militants, who are armed with captured modern armor. Many of the improvised vehicles were converted tractors and farm equipment fitted with Soviet-era guns, some with elaborate paint schemes and designs. Western commentators and reporters have likened the appearance of some of these vehicles as like the makeshift vehicles featured in the Mad Max post-apocalyptic action multi-media franchise.[33] The allied Free Syrian Army rebels have also been reported to have fashioned similar makeshift armored fighting vehicles.[34]

Battle of Marawi

During the Battle of Marawi, the Ground forces of the Philippines' Army and Marine Corps used wooden armor plating on their Armored Personnel carriers such as the GKN Simba, V-150, M113A2 and Marine LAV-300 FSV/APC to protect against rocket propelled grenades fired from the Maute and Abu Sayyaf terrorists in the city.[35][36][37] [38][39]

Non-military use

During the 1984 UK miners' strike, buses used for transporting strikebreakers to work were armoured against attacks by strikers by fitting metal bars to their windows. These improvised armoured buses were nicknamed "battle buses".

In recent years, some storm chasers in the United States have developed purpose-made Tornado Intercept Vehicles designed to survive the hostile environment inside a tornado. These vehicles are built on truck and SUV chassis with heavy armor shells built onto them consisting of steel, kevlar, polycarbonate, and Rhino Linings to protect against airborne debris.

Drug gangs involved in the Mexican Drug War have in a number of cases fitted improvised armor to heavy trucks.[40]

In the Marvin Heemeyer incident, a disgruntled man built an improvised armoured bulldozer and attacked buildings and police. The machine used in the incident was a modified Komatsu D355A bulldozer,[41] fitted with makeshift armor plating covering the cabin, engine, and parts of the tracks. In places, this armor was over 1 foot (30 cm) thick, consisting of 5000-PSI Quikrete concrete mix fitted between sheets of tool steel (acquired from an automotive dealer in Denver), to make ad-hoc composite armor. This made the machine impervious to small arms fire and resistant to explosives: three external explosions and more than 200 rounds of ammunition were fired at the bulldozer and had no effect on it.[42]

See also

References
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  2. Hirsh, Michael; Barry, John and Dehghanpisheh, Babak. "'Hillbilly Armor': Defense sees it's fallen short in securing the troops. The grunts already knew," Newsweek, December 20, 2004.
  3. Moran, Michael. "Frantically, the Army tries to armor Humvees: Soft-skinned workhorses turning into death traps," MSNBC, April 15, 2004.
  4. Livesey, Jack (2007). Armoured Fighting Vehicles of World Wars I and II. Southwater. pp. 12–13. ISBN 978-1-84476-370-2.
  5. Band of Brigands p 59
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  11. Jorgensen, Christer; Chris Mann (2001). Tank Warfare The Illustrated History of the Tank at War 1914-2000. Amber Books Ltd. p. 87. ISBN 1-86227-135-6.
  12. "Bush: Soldiers' equipment gripes heard: To colleagues' cheers, soldier complained about armor to Rumsfeld," MSNBC, December 9, 2004.
  13. Currey, Richard. "Waiting For Justice: The Saga of Army Lt. Julian Goodrum, PTSD, Hillbilly Armor, and Whistle-Blowing," Archived 2008-11-28 at the Wayback Machine The VVA Veteran, March, 2006.
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  15. Hunter, Duncan. "Military is Functioning Well in Iraq," The San Diego Union Tribune, February 17, 2006.
  16. Crum, R. USMC Maj. "New Marine Armor Kit to Upgrade 'Hummers'," Transformation, December 2, 2004.
  17. Burns, Robert. "Soldiers criticize lack of armor," Associated Press, December 9, 2004.
  18. "Rumsfeld Responds to U.S. Soldier's Grilling: Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld Tries to Quell the Firestorm Over the 'Hillbilly Armor' Issue," ABC News, December 9, 2004.
  19. Sonnenfeldt, Helmut and Nessen, Rob. "You Go to War with the Press You Have," Washington Times, December 30, 2004.
  20. It was widely reported that Wilson was "asked" to make the inquiry by Pitts or somehow "pressured" by him. Tom Griscom, executive editor of the Times Free Press, wrote the following in a December 10, 2004 editor's note: "Questions have been raised as to whether Mr. Pitts used the soldier or put words in his mouth. While Mr. Pitts states that he discussed the armor question with the soldiers, Spc. Wilson chose to ask the question."
  21. "Reporter planted GI's question for Rumsfeld: Says issue of unarmored vehicles wasn't being covered," CNN, December 10, 2004.
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    Full PDF on armamentresearch.com
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