Interesting SF article.

[Dos Equis]

Here's some background info from a SAS officer who fought in country:
 http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/news/pages/sti/2001/09/23/stiusausa02023.html?

[Dowding]

Thanks for the link.

 

My boss at MI6 gave me a Flashman novel about a cowardly British officer in the first British Afghan war of 1839-42. It was full of knife-wielding maniacs who carved up British soldiers.

I've read that book. It's a comedy with historical accuracy - good detail on one of the myriad wars Britain fought across the world.

[miko2d]

A british SAS specialist thinks that russian ZSU-23 is a 3-barrel 50-calible machinegun carted around in the back of a pickup truck.

 In fact ZSU-23-4 Shilka is a Self-propelled Antiaircraft Complex (Zenitnaya Samokhodnaya Ustanovka).
 From an outside it is a tracked vehicle with a turret kind of like Abrams tank only bigger with four 23mm barrels (hence "23-4") and a huge radar dish on top. In fact the standard AA shooting mode is completely radar-controlled.
 It is an extremely powerfull weapon but it has maximum slant range of 3,000 meters, not 4,000 yards. No 50cal weapon has 4,000 yards effective range.

 It should be is a bit hard to confuse with a small 3-barrel machinegun.

 I guess his story got a bit distortrd in the translation...

 miko

[Hangtime]

A new gimmick on the ZSU-23 is the addition of an SA-7 radar emitter.

Threat reciever on the targeted A/C sees an SA-7 SAM radar; pilot reacts with a dive to the dirt to evade the SA-7's envelope. Then the ZSU lights up his normal gun-track radar and nails the plane as it comes into the GUN envelope.

Tricky bastards. I wonder if the Taliban has any of these field modified ZSU's.

FYI, the Shilka is the most feared anti-aircraft gun platform in the world...

[Thud]

I think he might be referring to the ZU-23, still not a .50 cal but very omnipresent in  and around the former SU.

[lord dolf vader]

probly meant sa-6