POWERED BY
Vehicle with Improvised Armor in Marawi Takes Direct Hit from RPG
Published 3 years ago
A troop transport vehicle sporting improvised armor absorbs a direct hit from an enemy RPG, and manages to pull away from the contact without being destroyed. If it's stupid and it works, it's not stupid.
Never underestimate the ability of a ground-pounder to do everything in his power to keep himself and his buddies alive on the battlefield. Seeing this video reminds me of the early days of the invasion of Iraq, and even some of my time in Afghanistan back in 2009 when we were using poorly armored gun-trucks meant for training, not combat.
The footage you're seeing here was recorded in Marawi during the Filipino military's short battle with the Islamic State. A lot of footage from that conflict has been getting unearthed lately, as the men who fought in the battle are finally starting to get around to uploading and distributing their footage online. The vehicle in question here appears to be an M113 armored personnel carrier, and if you've seen any pictures from Marawi then you're aware of the up-armor systems they were using.
Unlike American armored personnel carriers, the Philippine military didn't have access to conventional up-armor systems, so the Filipinos did what any ground-pounder would do in that situation. They improvised, they adapted, and they overcame. In Marawi, it was not uncommon to see bamboo and wooden planks used as a supplemental up-armoring system, and in this video you're seeing that improvisation paying off as one of the M113 APCs take a direct hit from an enemy rocket propelled grenade.
We're not sure if anyone was seriously injured in this specific attack, but you can clearly see the improvised armor on the vehicle that gets struck fly into the air before it starts to back out of the kill-zone. If something is stupid and it works, then it's probably not stupid.
