Watching the new on Libya & seeing yet more Toyotas fitted with MGs has made me think the most versatile & widespread 'military' vehicle of the late 20th & Early 21st Century is not your multi-million ££/$$ AFVs but the humble Toyoya pick up. As well as giving low tech rebel armies mobility & a heavy weapons platform I see in the last photo that the Americans are not averse to using them either. Thought I'd link to this article too. Why Rebel Groups Love the Toyota Hilux - Newsweek more photos. Pickup Trucks From Warzones Across the Globe - Newsweek
They were also used during the Rhodesian Conflict as Gun Buses armed with twin .303 Browning WWII vintage aircraft MGS, as convoy escorts manned by police reservists.
I was posted to NORFORCE in the 1980's and we used Troopies then, the only Army unit at that time. Largely because spare parts were readily available while on patrol.
BBC Top Gear attempted to destroy one a fews years back YouTube - Killing a Toyota part 1 - Top Gear - BBC YouTube - Killing a Toyota part 2 - Top Gear - BBC YouTube - Killing a Toyota part 3 - Top Gear - BBC quite a robust vehicle
The daft thing is that if someone from the UK wants to take a seventy year old WD motorcycle to Normandy, they need an export licence as it is a military vehicle which Her Majesty's Government wouldn't want sold to unfriendly powers. The Toyota however is the preferred transport of irregulars everywhere, usually with the maximum number of load-bed passengers firing off a 'Beirut salute' and they can be exported to the third world with no questions asked.
Some good pics of pick ups 'in action' Libya on BBC website today. Not all Toyotas though. BBC News - In pictures: Conflict in Libya
I always think of Mogadishu as the home of the 'technical', or at least where I first noticed 'em on the news. Little slice of 'good' pics: Guerrilla Trucks - Guerrilla Trucks: The Toyota Hilux And for the customer with more bespoke interests: Feature: Toyota Hilux - Holter Industries
Just watching the bbc news report on the recent events in Libya. Lots & lots of Toyotas. Fighting near Libyan capital leaves 21 dead
""It's the vehicular equivalent of the AK-47." These Toyota trucks are popular with terrorists — here's why
The first war involving Toyota pickup trucks was long ago in 1987, in Northern Chad, with Chad fighting LIbya; with the French supporting Chad. See: Toyota War - Wikipedia Somewhere there is a book on this, but the search on another website has failed so far. TRy this 2018 book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Technicals-Non-Standard-Tactical-Vehicles-Vanguard/dp/147282251X/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?keywords=Technicals:+Non-Standard+Tactical+Vehicles+from+the+Great+Toyota+Wa&qid=1578073807&s=books&sr=1-1-fkmr0 Try this too: The Toyota Horde | Small Wars Journal
Reminded of the 2015 US Plumber whose sign-written pickup ended up in the news as an Isis Technical. Vinwiki video from a year back explaining exactly how that happens:
