This week, we’re doing one other ‘foolish’ subject, however this being me, it’s a foolish logistics subject, as a result of – because the saying goes – amateurs speak techniques, professionals speak logistics. So we’re going to be professionally foolish this week and discuss the logistics of auto warfare in a post-apocalyptic sci-fi setting, partially as a result of this can be a good option to additionally take into consideration why militaries (of varied description) use the autos they use, from a logistics standpoint.
Our pop-culture place to begin right here is going to be the ‘Mad Max’ universe and comparable settings (Rage, the latest Badlands Crew, Fallen Earth and many others), notably the imaginative and prescient of motorized post-apocalyptic warfare that emerges fairly clearly from Mad Max: Fury Highway and Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. I ought to observe that whereas I’m treating Mad Max as a single setting right here, I’m going to focus much more on Fury Highway and Furiosa, as a result of these are the movies that characteristic probably the most large-scale warfare (although we’ll get a number of mentions of Mad Max 2 as effectively). We’ll define in a second the general warfare ‘mannequin’ these settings use, however what I discover notably notable are the autos used: usually massive numbers of bikes and motorbikes, muscle automobiles and the distinctive presence of ‘conflict rigs’ – large weaponized vehicles – and the idea that numerous the combating is carried out ‘at pace.’
After all that’s not the one imaginative and prescient for autos within the post-apocalypse. In some settings, autos determine in solely a little bit: within the trendy Fallout video games the one autos of gameplay import are plane. The existence of floor autos is implied in dialogue, however we by no means see them, presumably as a result of they’d be too troublesome to implement within the engine. Zombie fiction usually options small teams of survivors in particular person civilian autos, typically hardened for fight, however sometimes not (and sometimes when they’re hardened, it’s for ‘ramming’ crowds, which isn’t a factor that will be good to switch a civilian car for).
I need to give attention to the Mad Max-style settings as a result of they characteristic bigger factions participating in warfare at a wide range of scales with modified and even purpose-built autos. We wouldn’t count on small survivor teams weeks or months after some type of the apocalypse to be considerably modifying their autos however we might count on substantial modifications to be made by full societies participating in warfare at scale with these autos. Additionally, once more, it’s a enjoyable setting.
So what we’ll do is define the ‘warfare mannequin’ of those Mad Max-style settings, talk about the issues with that warfare mannequin after which lay out a extra believable substitute and within the course of assume a bit about trendy army logistics.
After all, constructing a military of improved combating autos to rove the wasteland web trying to find useful resource wealthy convoys and settlements to plunder doesn’t come low-cost, so should you like what you’re studying, you possibly can assist by sharing it in order that we will assemble the biggest doable post-apocalyptic road-warrior band. For those who actually prefer it, you possibly can assist assist the challenge on Patreon. I can’t promise to make use of your assist to mount heavy weapons to the highest of my Honda Civic, however I additionally received’t promise not to do this. And in order for you updates each time a brand new put up seems, you possibly can click on under for e-mail updates or comply with me on Twitter and Bluesky and (much less incessantly) Mastodon (@bretdevereaux@historians.social) for updates when posts go reside and my common musings; I’ve largely shifted over to Bluesky (I keep some de minimis presence on Twitter), on condition that it has grow to be a significantly better place for historic dialogue than Twitter.
The Mad Max Warfare Mannequin
We need to begin by laying out what I’m going to name the ‘warfare mannequin‘ of the setting. After I say ‘warfare mannequin’ right here, what I imply is how a fictional setting imagines warfare to be carried out throughout the entire completely different ranges of army evaluation. Put merely how does warfare work on this setting? So the ‘warfare mannequin’ is an enormous assortment of smaller fashions, like a ‘strategic mannequin’ (what goals are pursued by conflict within the setting and the way) or the ‘tactical mannequin’ (how does battle with these weapons really work) and so forth. For this put up, we’re actually within the tactical and logistical fashions, however I need to begin by outlining in a primary approach the entire ‘imaginative and prescient’ and the way inside the fiction it matches collectively.
That is, I feel, a very helpful framework to consider in science fiction, as a result of whereas fantasy works usually implicitly borrow numerous their warfare mannequin from pre-modern historical past, science fiction settings don’t. They could characteristic radically alien conflict goals, logistics or techniques, predicated on equally uncommon applied sciences or circumstances.
Luckily for us, the Mad Max warfare mannequin will not be so alien, although it does have quirks. Warfare in these settings is waged principally over sources, primarily 4: water, meals, gasoline and ammunition. The primacy of these sources is most clearly demonstrated within the two most up-to-date Mad Max movies (Fury Highway and Furiosa), the place every wasteland ‘fortress’ is clearly tied to one of many sources and the central financial operate of the setting is transferring these sources between the three fortresses. In apply, a wasteland warlord would seemingly produce other useful resource considerations as effectively, however for a setting that as a result of brevity of movie, should dwell in simplicity, this roughly works: these are probably the most substantial logistical calls for of any trendy conflict machine. Warfare is fought both to manage manufacturing of these sources, or to scavenge them, as stronger teams cannibalize smaller ones.
The one oddity right here of observe is that the nodes of useful resource manufacturing (or substantial storage) seem in Mad Max setting particularly as factors, moderately than zones of management. The Citadel, Gastown, the Bullet Farm and even the gas refinery from Mad Max 2 are additionally single factors of manufacturing, in a single settlement. In apply, in the true world, sources are usually much more unfold out than this, demanding army powers – just like the warlords of the setting – to disperse their forces rather more broadly to allow manufacturing and extraction. Lowering useful resource manufacturing to a handful of ‘strongholds’ surrounded by ‘wasteland’ permits these warlords to pay attention their army forces much more than they in any other case would, which we ought to remember. Warfare is thus about both raiding teams transferring between these fastened useful resource factors, or efforts to grab management of one of many factors itself.
To that finish, we see variations on a single army system creating, each in Mad Max and derived settings. Tactically, these programs anticipate primarily car fight: even when attacking a set level, the ‘street warriors’ (because it had been) are by no means removed from their autos. What’s distinctively lacking are motorized or mechanized infantry – troops that, no matter their transportation, count on to battle totally on foot. As an alternative, numerous the combating is finished whereas transferring at pace and autos are current even in static engagements. We’re thus dealing, successfully, with ‘car armies.’
The centerpiece of those car armies is what we might name (following Fury Highway and Furiosa) the ‘conflict rig,’ massive improvised autos that function each transports and combating platforms. Clearly probably the most memorable of those are Immortan Joe’s conflict rigs from Fury Highway and Furiosa, however we see different smaller factions using smaller conflict rigs, just like the spiked and armored tractor-trailer of the ‘Buzzards‘ in Fury Highway. These present up in different takes on the setting idea too, like the large centerpiece autos within the convoys of Rage 2. As famous, the latest Badlands Crew, set in what I can solely describe as a ‘legally distinct’ Mad Max setting is all about constructing and combating with these kinds of conflict rigs.
Battle rigs seem to serve a number of features. On the one hand, they’re bigger, extra closely armored platforms able to absorbing punishment and holding a considerable variety of combatants and heavier weapons. On the identical time, numerous them are constructed additionally for carrying cargo and will – on longer campaigns – serve some type of logistical sustainment operate, refueling the smaller autos.
Supporting the conflict rig are what we’d name ‘outriders:’ smaller fight autos which are extra maneuverable however usually operate principally as escorts for the conflict rigs. Notably, there’s a constant have a tendency in these settings that these are usually automobiles or typically buggies, with the 2 latest Mad Max movies favoring a spread of muscle-car and vintage automobile our bodies, albeit usually with the trunk house opened as much as create a combating platform within the again. These autos are a lot much less closely armored, however quicker and extra agile and make up the vast majority of most military’s fight energy.
Lastly, we see the heavy use of bikes and motorbikes, each as raiders and as escorts. Typically that is by ‘factions’ within the setting implied to be poor (just like the ‘Rock Riders‘) or roving gangs like Dementus’, however we additionally see them employed by massive factions: there are motorbikes within the escort of Immortan Joe’s conflict rigs in each Fury Highway and Furiosa. Notably, these operate in numerous circumstances as main combatants: each Dementus and the ‘Rock Riders’ assault conflict rig convoys with bikes, so these aren’t simply private transport or scouts, at the least for among the factions that use them.
And naturally we must always observe that as fiction these autos have an necessary function in signaling issues to the viewer. A faction that largely makes use of dirt-bikes and lives within the mountains feels rugged and virtually half-civilized, whereas Dementus’ large hoard of motorcycle-mobile raiders visually evokes the way in which Steppe nomads get introduced in media, full with large dust-cloud (becoming, as Dementus is introduced as a nomadic warlord). Automobiles lined in spikes won’t be very efficient as weapon-systems, however they visually talk one thing pretty primal and direct to the viewers.
As a result of many of the combating within the setting includes both overrunning thinly garrisoned fortresses or attacking motorized convoys transferring sources, numerous the combating is finished ‘on the transfer,’ with autos transferring repeatedly at full pace whereas exchanging hearth. Within the Mad Max setting, its clear that correct firearms (or maybe extra seemingly, their ammunition) have grow to be comparatively uncommon, reserved for key combatants and autos: as an alternative, improvised weapons utilizing cruder explosives or gasoline are much more frequent, so thrown explosives are a key element on this type of combating. That varies by setting, after all and in some settings we see much more weapons (or non-gun missile weapons made mechanically equal to weapons by means of the magic of online game guidelines).
Highway Battle Techniques
In apply, I see two issues with this fight mannequin, one tactical and the opposite logistical. We are able to begin with the tactical downside, which comes down to 2 pretty easy factors: first, with out advanced trendy stabilizers (and sometimes even with them) it’s extraordinarily arduous to hit a transferring car firing from a transferring car and second, armoring most of those autos to withstand even small arms hearth can be troublesome and contain prohibitive will increase in weight.
We are able to begin with the accuracy facet of the equation: these settings fairly often characteristic combatants firing (or throwing weapons) from transferring autos on to transferring autos and that’s simply very arduous to do, besides at very shut ranges. In any case, not solely does a shooter on a transferring platform need to account for his or her relative velocity with the goal (which can be quickly shifting) however a transferring platform isn’t going to be completely stage both, with bounces and bumps throwing off intention, probably in all kinds of instructions for a car transferring at excessive speeds on tough terrain.
You may really get a way of how arduous an issue that is with even a quick have a look at the event of stabilizers for the principle weapons of tanks. The primary makes an attempt at tank gun stabilization come within the Nineteen Thirties, however the preliminary capabilities had been actually restricted, requiring tanks to principally cease to have interaction in correct hearth. The USA, as an example, didn’t assume stabilization was actually value it within the Nineteen Sixties and an add-on stabilization package for the M60 primary battle tank didn’t come till the early Seventies. On-the-move accuracy with out a stabilizer – and even with an early stabilizer – was remarkably poor. The consensus to my understanding, as an example, of WWII-era tanks, was that none of them had a lot likelihood of hitting a tank measurement goal at any vary that mattered whereas transferring, even tanks just like the M4 Sherman which included very early stabilization know-how.
Certainly, the Allies ran accuracy checks (due to course they did) on the M4 Sherman the Crusader Tank and their stabilizers and Tank Archives was adequate to dig up the stories. You may actually get a way of the issue from the desk on p. 12 of the report, the desk labeled “Stationary Hearth, Firing from Halt, Shifting Hearth with and with out Gyrostabilizer.” It information accuracy towards a stationary 49 sq. foot (7×7) goal “underneath probably the most beneficial circumstances,” as a ‘chance of hit’ at a given set of ranges:
| Sort of Hearth | 200 yards | 500 yards | 1000 yards |
| Stationary | 99+% | 99+% | 99+% |
| From Halt | 99+% | 99+% | 88% |
| Shifting, with Gyro | 82% | 46% | 19% |
| Shifting, with out Gyro | 46% | 18% | 6.5% (est) |
And the issue ought to simply soar proper out at you: underneath circumstances the place a shot fired stationary or ‘from halt’ (slam the breaks, anticipate the tank to cease and stabilize, then hearth instantly) might be completed (in coaching subject circumstances) with principally excellent accuracy, firing on the transfer with a primary stabilizer was a crapshoot and with out a stabilizer, the possibility of hitting something collapsed to virtually nothing past extraordinarily brief (for tanks) ranges. Because the report notes, in fight circumstances – with all of the stress and confusion that means – these figures have to be considerably decrease. In any case, WWII period tanks didn’t, the truth is, have excellent accuracy at 1000 yards in precise fight – removed from it! The report goes on to notice that the ammunition price of firing on the transfer “is basically wasted in view of the evident lack of benefit gained over firing from halt.” In brief: the possibility of hitting something firing whereas transferring was so low it wasn’t value losing the photographs and also you as an alternative should cease the tank should you wanted to fireplace (‘hearth from halt’).
After all you would possibly attempt to sq. the accuracy downside with quantity of fireside: merely get one thing fast-firing and put numerous rounds within the air. However that runs into the second downside: these are societies with fairly sharp limits on ammunition manufacturing. Spraying 1000’s of rounds into the air to maybe-or-maybe-not disable an enemy car might be not viable. After all one choice can be to drive a lot nearer and have interaction the enemy at very shut vary. However the much better reply most often goes to be cease and hearth when stationary. As soon as you cease transferring, you’ve a steady firing place (no bouncing round) and solely want to steer the goal primarily based on their movement, which isn’t a trivial process at lengthy ranges, however a far simpler process – human troopers with nothing greater than iron-sights and the Mk1 Eyeball are repeatedly in a position to put bullets on rushing vehicles at non-trivial ranges.
The opposite tactical complication, as soon as your war-vehicles are being shot at by stationary enemies, is that armoring massive autos towards that small-arms hearth is definitely fairly difficult. It takes a non-trivial quantity of metal plate to cease even normal rifle calibers (5.56mm, 7.62mm, and many others), as you’ll find any quantity of YouTube checks demonstrating. The upshot is that for a steel-plate protection, ‘security’ appears to be greater than a quarter-inch (nearer to half an inch) and that’s numerous armor, which substantial weight implications. In apply, plenty of trendy armored autos, just like the M2 Bradley and the M113 APC use aluminum armor (on the Bradley, enhanced by laminate plates) at an inch thickness or extra (aluminum is nearly thrice much less dense than metal).
However the weight premium for ‘can resist small arms and never rather more’ over a whole car is substantial: the M113 APC is 13.6 (brief) tons, the BTR-80 is 15 tons. Not solely is that car going to wish a way more highly effective engine, that engine and weight goes to have logistically important impacts to gas effectivity (to say the least!) which we’ll get to in a second.
However tactically, the implication right here is fairly unhealthy for our ‘conflict rigs’: as transferring, combating platforms, they will’t hearth again successfully, however they’re so huge {that a} stationary enemy can in all probability put a great quantity of fireside on them as they go by. Worse but, there’s merely no possible option to shield the rig or its combatants from a lot of that fireside. You in all probability can slap armor on some key parts (the tractor cab on the entrance is the apparent selection), however there’s actually no option to offset the vulnerability created by measurement (and fewer potential to maneuver) by simply slapping on armor. Particularly, the ‘tanker’ elements of the Fury Highway and Furiosa conflict rigs, merely as a result of measurement, are going to need to be far too skinny to really repel rifle hearth, which might be notably awkward if gas or ammunition is being moved.
So whereas I can think about throwing a few lightweight combating positions on to a big cargo-carrier merely to supply an additional quantity of deterrence and firepower, you actually wouldn’t need to take it right into a battle. You is perhaps barely extra prepared to threat the outriders and bikes, however even then, these are going to be thin-skinned autos that may’t do rather more than show with hearth except they cease. After all I’m assuming nobody has a purposeful stabilizer right here, however we’ll come again to that in a second.
As a result of first we have to discuss…
The Logistics of Highway Battle
The logistics of this sort of warfare, like practically all trendy logistics, facilities round two concerns: gas and ammunition (and, as we’ll see, additionally spare components). However we have to distinguish between operational logistics considerations and strategic logistics considerations, each of which matter right here. Put it this fashion: a given faction within the wasteland might have a sure stockpile of gasoline and bullets, however any given raid or convoy is simply going to hold some a lot smaller quantity of that bigger stockpile. As soon as they depart base, they’ve to perform no matter their mission is with that smaller quantity, so there a priority with how a lot can a given drive carry within the subject (operational logistics) and a priority with how a lot do operations within the mixture devour towards manufacturing and stockpiles (strategic logistics).
In essence the operational query revolves round matching up consumption (of gas and munitions) towards the carrying capability of the autos concerned, which determines operational endurance. Against this, the strategic query revolves round matching the consumption of many operations towards the productive capability of the faction as an entire to find out how lengthy operations may be sustained and at what tempo.
Each concerns would form the precise conduct of ‘street conflict,’ albeit in numerous methods.
We are able to start with the operational limits: any given raid or convoy can solely carry a lot gas and ammo for itself. Spare components are much less of a priority right here, as a result of solely comparatively minor repairs are going to be doable within the subject. After all not solely can autos transfer gas of their gas tanks, if they’ve cargo capability, they will additionally retailer spare gas (and spare munitions). Now, I’ve to admit, I’m not a ‘automobile nerd’ – nothing towards automobile nerds, it simply isn’t my model of nerd – however we actually do have to benchmark right here towards some numbers, as a result of the precise gas mileage, gas tank measurement and cargo capability for precise autos issues for this query. So forgive me if I’ve made any errors right here, however listed here are some related figures:
| Automobile | Gas Mileage (mpg) | Gas Tank (gallons) | Op. Vary (miles) | Cargo Capability | Notes |
| Yamaha WR250R (motorbike) | c. 54 | 2 | 108 | Not A lot | 295lbs whole mass |
| BMW R18 (motorbike) |
c. 50 | 3.5 | 175 | Not A lot | 761lbs whole mass |
| 1973 Ford Falcon | c. 7.4 – 13.8 | 21.2 | 225 | ||
| Toyota 1995 Hilux | 22-27 | 13.7 | 335 | 1,820lbs | |
| Toyota 2025 Tacoma | 21-26 | 18.2 | 428 | 1,700lbs | |
| Semi-Vehicles (estimate) | 6-8 | c. 300 (in two tanks) |
2,100 | c. 45,000lbs on street | Not designed for off-road |
| Deuce & 1/2 (Army Truck) |
8-11 | 50 | 475 | 5,000lbs (off street) | 12+ passengers diesel |
| Humvee (HMMWV) | 8-11 | 25 | 237.5 | 2,500lbs | ~4-6 passengers diesel |
| M2 Bradley IFV | 0.75(-1.6?) | 175-197 | 80 (300 on-road?) | 6 passengers diesel |
|
| M1 Abrams MBT | 0.19-0.52 | 504 | Highway: 265 Off Highway: c. 100 |
Makes use of JP-8 jet gas |
And from that we will make some observations. First, the relative weak point of motorbikes and bikes comes out fairly clearly. Positive, they’ve very excessive gasoline mileage, however for nearly no cargo and an especially low passenger rely. Cargo payload and passenger rely matter right here as a result of that’s the place our fight energy – mounted weapons, munitions, or combatants past the driving force – go. A motorbike delivers a fight energy of one human with small arms. Against this, the pickup vehicles have half the gasoline mileage, however if you’re prepared to load up the mattress can ship half a dozen or extra combatants, making the fuel-to-combatant ratio really very unfavorable for bikes. Certainly, given how mild a few of these bikes are, you possibly can load the bikes and its drivers on the again of a truck (both a pickup or the heavier Deuce-and-a-Half) and acquire operational vary with out shedding mileage effectivity. Heck, placing ten Yamaha WR250R’s at the back of a Deuce-and-a-Half would possibly seems to finish up as considerably extra fuel-efficient than driving the bikes, plus you additionally get a truck out of the association.
Consequently, the utilization of bikes, so frequent in these settings, would in apply in all probability be extraordinarily restricted. They’re not efficient fight platforms – too unstable for efficient hearth and unhealthy at carrying further combatants – and they’re horrible as a method to maneuver combatants to a fight space as in comparison with simply loading the identical troops in a truck. The place one may think them used is as couriers or scouts, the place a ‘minimal car to maneuver one individual’ is effective. I might thus see a raiding celebration loading a bunch of bikes on the again of a truck exactly to have the ability to use them as scouts and flankers, notably if they will talk again to the principle drive by way of radio (thus permitting for over-the-horizon scouting). However you wouldn’t need to attempt to use them for any precise combating.
We are able to additionally see, each operationally and strategically, why even when a Wasteland Warlord had entry to army fight autos, they may not hold utilizing them: the gas consumption on armored autos is extraordinarily excessive. The HMMWV clearly has battlefield mobility benefits when in comparison with a Deuce-and-a-Half, however as a pure instrument for transferring combatants, provides (or heavy weapons – we’ll come again to this) it’s a flatly inferior system: the identical gas mileage, with a smaller tank and half the cargo or passenger capability (and nonetheless most often too thin-skinned to essentially operate as an armored car).
In the meantime, the precise armored autos are staggeringly useful resource costly to even use, getting gallons-to-the-mile moderately than miles-to-the-gallon. Working an precise tank or infantry combating car together with your wasteland convoy goes to deplete numerous gas: each operationally (as a result of that tank might have refuel from different autos within the convoy) but in addition strategically: preserving that factor on the transfer goes to quickly overtax no matter fuel-production capabilities your faction possesses. Which matches again to their design: army autos had been designed by and for trendy industrial militaries. They assume a provide chain that reaches again from the entrance line by means of rail and delivery networks to the large manufacturing of large-scale industrial economies; if any of our wasteland factions had such an economic system, it wouldn’t be a wasteland anymore.
Complicating this image additional are spare components. With out the flexibility to fabricate bespoke spare pairs at scale, preserving these autos in operation goes to be very troublesome. So we should count on to see, alongside an emphasis on gas effectivity, a choice for sturdy, easy-to-maintain platforms that use broadly out there civilian car elements, moderately than arduous to supply or scavange army elements. In any case, asking your native junk mechanic to service the AGT1500 gasoline turbine engine in an Abrams MBT goes to be a fairly large ask, in comparison with discovering the components to repair the engine of yet one more Toyota pickup. So whereas I can think about a wasteland warlord sustaining a number of precise army autos as status objects and maybe for emergency use in siege contexts, this stuff are impractical for normal use by wasteland factions who merely can’t afford their sustainment.
As an alternative, in an operational context, the wasteland warlord is fascinated by platforms that mix favorable operational vary with carrying capability, both to maneuver combatants, cargo or heavier weapons. On the identical time, on the strategic stage, the priority turns into much less about operational vary and extra about combining favorable gasoline mileage with carrying capability, so as to have the ability to repeatedly transfer fight energy round. We haven’t talked a lot about mounting weapons to those autos but, however carrying capability right here too issues: armor and weaponry are principally going to ‘come out’ of the payload capability of any car, so autos with numerous spare payload can probably be armored and might carry extra fight energy, be {that a} bunch of combatants with improvised weapons or maybe a single extra conventional heavy weapon. Lastly in each contexts, easy, sturdy machines are prone to be prioritized over customized or beautiful programs: you need one thing you possibly can restore simply which shares a lot of components with every part else you’ve.
In that context, the frequent look of ‘muscle automobiles’ and certainly, automobiles normally, is unusual. As you possibly can see, glancing up on the chart there, Mad Max’s personal 1973 Ford Falcon is the worst of virtually all doable worlds: restricted cargo capability, horrible gasoline mileage, extremely restricted vary. It does nothing the wasteland warrior cares about effectively.
So we have now a movie fight system of conflict rigs, outrider muscle automobiles and bikes. Besides that the conflict rigs are too massive and susceptible for fight: sufficiently big that they will’t keep away from the entire hearth they aren’t closely armored sufficient to cease. As you possibly can see above, huge vehicles make sense as pure cargo carriers, however you’d need to hold them out of the battle if in any respect doable. In the meantime, bikes work as scouts however not as combatants, whereas outrider muscle automobiles carry out virtually no process notably effectively, given their price. If we strip many of the weaponry, past maybe token deterrence safety, from our conflict rigs (making them pure cargo carriers) and solely use bikes as scouts and messengers, we’re nearer to a system that works, however we lack a main combatant car, for each fight and combat-transport.
What we really need is a platform that’s sturdy, straightforward to restore, gas environment friendly when in comparison with its payload capability, which may transfer a lot of cargo and other people and which may be fitted with heavier weapons.
And behold, windfall supplied forth the proper car of its wrath and fury: the Toyota Hilux.
Technically Talking
And now, simply 5,000 phrases into this put up, we really get to the meat of it, which is that we may be comparatively what kind of fight autos a faction or warlord underneath Mad Max-style post-apocalyptic circumstances would use as a result of these tactical and logistical circumstances exist already they usually resulted in a particular sort of army car: the Technical.
‘Technical‘ here’s a time period for a militarized civilian car, normally a pick-up truck with some type of heavier weapon mounted on the roof or within the mattress, to be operated by a combatant standing on the mattress. On this sense, the technical is just an improvised model of a gun truck. So far as I do know, there isn’t a transparent consensus on the place the time period ‘technical’ comes from, however in English it has caught because the time period for this type of car.
An open-bed pickup truck is cheap quick and agile and able to rough-road and off-road (inside cause) driving, however on the identical time the mattress can take payloads of upwards of 1,500lbs. That’s sufficient to mount not simply machine weapons (though that’s the commonest armament), however all kinds of heavier weapons: improvised a number of rocket launchers, anti-tank guided missiles (ATGMs), autocannons, rotary cannons, mortars, and many others. and nonetheless have the ability to carry a small variety of ‘dismounts’ both within the cab or the mattress. Meaning a pickup truck technical may be modified – weapons allowing – to operate as an unarmored (or very frivolously armored) model of principally any of the armored combating autos we mentioned again once we talked tanks: it will probably transfer troops (like an APC), supply heavy weapon fire-support for infantry (like an IFV), mount heavy direct-fire weapons (like a tank) or oblique hearth weaponry (like a self-propelled gun), relying on what weaponry is mounted within the mattress.
Now after all these platforms are vastly inferior to their specialised army variants. Whereas there actually are up-armored technicals, that armor – for the explanations we mentioned above – is usually very modest. Most stay ‘skinny skinned,’ providing no actual safety to crew or passengers from even small arms. Furthermore, absent stabilizers and complicated optics, the weapons on the backs of technicals, aimed utilizing the Mark 1 Eyeball, are going to have restricted accuracy – and successfully no accuracy on the transfer. Like WW2 tanks, technicals have to halt to ship hearth successfully (although fire-on-the-move can nonetheless ship some suppression). Technicals can also’t mount the heaviest and most refined weapons, which is a selected downside towards opponents with trendy air forces, since there’s principally nothing you possibly can placed on a technical that may interact a contemporary multirole fight jet.
However in a context the place purpose-built army autos and fight plane are uncommon – be {that a} post-apocalypse or just civil wars in creating international locations with restricted economies – the technical has some outstanding benefits. Trying above, we will see, particularly, the way it solves numerous the logistical issues our wasteland warlord would possibly in any other case face. As a front-line fight car, it’s remarkably fuel-efficient, out-performing even purpose-built army mobility autos (just like the HMMWV) when it comes to delivering combatants and light-weight vehicle-mounted weapons. After all for transferring heavy hundreds and reserve troops, a heavier truck (just like the deuce-and-a-half or extra trendy Medium Tactical Automobile or the same modified civilian platform) goes to be much more efficient. It’s straightforward to think about then entrance line and escort forces using technicals, supported by a logistics spine and cell reserve in vehicles of varied sorts – alas, no place for our iconic ‘conflict rigs.’
The opposite main benefit the technical affords is upkeep and restore. In the true world, teams utilizing technicals are likely to choose easy, sturdy, easy-to-maintain fashions with minimal ‘frills’ – famously the Toyota Hilux and Land Cruisers have usually been the fashions of selection. Keep in mind: trendy purpose-built army autos are constructed by and for militaries that sit on the tip of huge industrial programs able to mass-producing exact, interchangeable spare components at scale and sustaining costly, advanced, refined programs. Like several group utilizing technicals, our wasteland factions do not need that background: what they can’t scavenge, they have to, at greatest, hand-craft. Meaning easy and dependable are the watchwords, adopted by frequent: the extra frequent a platform is, the better will probably be to supply or scavenge substitute components as issues break or put on out and the better will probably be to seek out or develop the mechanical experience crucial to take care of them within the subject.
And ho boy are these platforms frequent. The USA has constructed, for itself and its allies, some 281,000 autos of all fashions of HMMWV as of 2015 (manufacturing began in 1985), slightly below 10,000 autos per 12 months. Against this, Toyota began making the Hilux in 1968; by 2017 they’d bought 17.7 million items, greater than 350,000 per 12 months. That’s, a well-liked shopper pickup truck would possibly produce extra autos in a 12 months as a purpose-built army car would possibly produce in three a long time. Now I ought to observe, relying on the place you’re, the regionally out there and well-liked pickup truck is perhaps completely different: Land Cruisers and Hiluxes dominated within the technical-centric warfare in Africa during the last a number of a long time as a result of they’re well-liked fashions there. Against this, the Hilux isn’t even bought in North America – as an alternative the heavier (and for these functions, notably much less succesful) Toyota Tacoma is. However a post-apocalyptic faction isn’t going to get to decide on: in case your wasteland warlord is working in Nebraska, the core of his technical fleet goes to be Ford F-Sequence vehicles, just because they’re the commonest in Nebraska (though a considerably lighter, extra sturdy and easier mannequin is perhaps higher in some preferrred sense). Merely being frequent makes these autos simpler to restore and keep; that they are usually constructed to be sturdy underneath heavy use is an extra benefit.
Technicals of this type are a typical characteristic in warfare in components of the creating world and have even proven up in industrialized peer-warfare (as an example, within the Battle in Ukraine). Maybe most famously, in 1986-1987, Chad was in a position to defeat a Libyan invasion of their nation utilizing a military primarily composed of technicals (largely the Hilux and Land Cruiser, after all), though the Libyan military had massive numbers of standard army autos, together with tanks and plane, in what has grow to be referred to as the Nice Toyota Battle. One wonders what Toyota’s PR arm thinks about that. Using technicals gave the Chadian army numerous operational and tactical mobility in sparsely populated areas and the Chadians benefited from French air cowl which stored Libyan plane largely out of the battle. That mentioned, I ought to observe the victory of technicals right here was uncommon: usually technical-based armies that discover themselves combating standard armies lose, badly and rapidly: technicals aren’t survivable towards trendy armored combating autos.
A New Mannequin of Highway Battle
With that, we will return to our unique subject: the form of post-apocalyptic wasteland ‘street conflict.’ Now I ought to observe that, as is the case with any fictional setting, an writer that wishes to can tweak the world virtually endlessly to produce a selected imaginative and prescient of warfare. If the sources of the wasteland had been much less concentrated, or its business extra superior, or much less superior, or the legal guidelines of physics altered, we might have a distinct consequence. However continuing with the ‘guidelines’ of the setting – Mad Max-inspired wastelands – as they’re introduced, we will posit a extra grounded mannequin for ‘street conflict.’
Wars on this setting are fought over sources – meals, water, gas and ammunition primarily – that are concentrated in very small geographic areas, linked collectively by journey routes. Giant factions management the useful resource nodes themselves, whereas small factions try to survive both scavenging over the wasteland or by raiding the routes between the most important settlements. That raiding menace in flip requires useful resource shipments to maneuver in guarded, road-bound convoys. Giant factions thus want army drive which may each safe the important thing useful resource nodes and in addition guard convoy transit between them, whereas smaller factions intention merely to raid transit routes.
‘Leg infantry’ is out besides as stationary garrison forces on the useful resource nodes: the expanses of distance and troublesome terrain primarily rule out foot-mobile infantry. On the identical time, the sharp limits on gas and spare components rule out a contemporary mechanized army, so we might count on to see a drive composed of militarized civilian autos. We would see motorbikes and bikes utilized in scouting and courier roles and bigger vehicles used for bulk freight or to maneuver troops, however the entrance line autos are in all probability going to be armed pickup vehicles, as a result of they provide probably the most favorable mixture of reliability, firepower and fuel-efficiency.
For a small, raiding faction, you may think a handful of gun-armed technicals to characterize the ‘excessive finish’ of their army energy, since ammunition is uncommon within the setting. Against this, an enormous time warlord like Dementus or Immortan Joe might need fleets of technicals. As a result of the technicals themselves are the fundamental unit of army energy, their show turns into an necessary ingredient of status, a approach of demonstrating the facility of bigger warlords. On the identical time, it looks as if in numerous these settings correct firearms and ammunition are uncommon sufficient (and gasoline-based explosives frequent sufficient) that we’d additionally see ‘low finish’ combatants utilizing improvised grenades (just like the ‘firesticks’ of Furiosa and Fury Highway) or flame-throwers as close-combat instruments, in all probability additionally from the again of militarized pickup vehicles.
So we’d think about a convoy raid carried out ‘to doctrine,’ being a little bit of a multi-stage affair, primarily utilizing technicals. Initially, the convoy is noticed in motion by scouts, maybe utilizing motorbikes, and communicated to a primary raiding drive, cut up between higher-end technicals armed with firearms or heavy weapons and low-end autos (once more, in all probability additionally militarized pickups) with combatants armed with these incendiary grenades or flamethrowers. The mobility of the technicals permits the drive to achieve the convoy and have interaction it (in all probability establishing forward of the convoy on its route). The ‘gun-technicals’ aren’t going to perform a lot firing on the transfer – they’re virtually actually not fitted with even very primary stabilizers, in order that they wouldn’t hit something – so we’d think about them maneuvering to a firing place and them firing ‘from halt’ and stationary because the convoy handed.
That fireplace can be supposed to take out convoy escorts, but in addition to ‘suppress’ the convoy – composed of heavy vehicles and armed technicals – by forcing it to hold transferring, thus significantly lowering the effectiveness of its return hearth. These high-end gun-technicals may be carrying ‘dismounts’ to each shield the autos, but in addition to dismount and supply further hearth from small arms or crew-served weapons. In that context, you would possibly create sufficient hearth superiority for the low-end autos, full of combatants utilizing cheaper, shorter-range weapons (since you haven’t sufficient weapons or bullets to go round) to shut in, drive the convoy to halt and seize its autos and sources.
After all an enormous warlord operating these convoys needs to stop this and a method they could achieve this is by deploying extra threatening escorts. By having extra technicals with heavier, longer-ranged weapons, an enormous warlord would possibly have the ability to deter such assaults by having sufficient firepower for his or her escorts to additionally halt to fireplace (bear in mind, nobody can hit something whereas transferring) and proactively participating opposing autos or dismounts. Slightly than a huge conflict rig – which is each bit as susceptible to long-range hearth from technical-mounted heavy machine weapons as the rest – the fearsome property of a warlord is perhaps technicals carrying heavy weapons, like recoilless rifles, anti-tank weapons, autocannons or mortars which might quickly destroy enemy technicals even at longer ranges. As famous, I can think about such a warlord rigorously hoarding a small provide of precise purpose-built armored combating autos, however I’ve to think about these can be employed hardly ever, not repeatedly on convoy obligation – they’re too costly to gas and keep to make use of incessantly.
That leaves capturing these key useful resource nodes. The work of capturing a bigger, resource-producing settlement goes to be largely accomplished by infantry except the defenses can by some means be compromised, which suggests the inducement right here is for autos which may ship probably the most infantry and provides for the minimal of gas and upkeep prices. Technicals really sq. up effectively right here – you possibly can load numerous armed combatants on the again of a pickup – however I think you’d additionally see bigger vehicles loaded with as many combatants as they may carry. That mentioned, given that only a few of the settlements we see in these settings are totally self-sufficient, a siege strategy would even be viable and possibly obligatory for factions too small to mount a big clearing operation of a fortified settlement.
All of that could be a sort of warfare that truly helps the fractionalization of energy, producing the type of smaller-scale warlordism that the fiction tends to need in these settings. However moderately than show their energy with large (however very susceptible) conflict rigs, such warlords would seemingly try to overawe foes with spectacular shows of their massive inventory of technicals. And, this being a Mad Max themed setting, by massive spikes positioned on every part.
