2 x ZPU-1 14.5mm Anti-Air MG's Nailed in Helmand

[The Bread Guy]

Copies of official statements attached as .pdf - will share originals when available.

Armed Forces News Service, 21 Apr 09:

.... In Lashkar Gah, a pair of Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt IIs engaged an enemy truck armed with an anti-aircraft machine gun. The A-10s used their 30mm Avenger cannons to destroy the truck and the machine gun ....

Digital Visual & Imagery Distribution System (1)

A coalition forces precision strike destroyed an anti-aircraft weapons system in the Nad Ali district, Helmand province, in the early morning hours April 21.  Coalition forces learned through villagers that militants in the area had obtained a ZPU-1 anti-aircraft gun and were staging it on the back of a pick-up truck for use against friendly forces' helicopters.  Coalition forces located the ZPU-1, which was loaded and ready for use. After ensuring there were no non-combatants in the area, the coalition forces destroyed the weapons system with a precision strike ....

Digital Visual & Imagery Distribution System (2)

For a second time in less than 12 hours, coalition forces used a precision strike to successfully destroy an anti-aircraft weapon system in the Nadi Ali District of Helmand province today.

Coalition forces learned through villagers' reports that militants in Nadi Ali had obtained a ZPU-1 anti-aircraft gun and were staging it on the back of a pick-up truck for use against friendly forces' aircraft. The militants were seen firing the weapon in the vicinity of the local bazaar, endangering the lives of those nearby.

"Use of these weapons by militants in such a populated area shows their total disregard for innocent human lives," said a coalition spokesperson.

Coalition forces located and positively identified the ZPU-1, loaded and ready for use, mounted to the back of a pickup truck. After ensuring there were no non-combatants in the area, coalition forces used a precision strike to destroy the weapons system....

Link to nine pages (490 kB) of open source media on incidents in .pdf format here.

- edited to add .pdf attachment of official statements from USFOR-AFG -

 

[GAP]

Leftover from the Russians, or imported from Pankistan?

 

[X-mo-1979]

Or hand made in Kandahar?

 

[The Bread Guy]

Leftover from the Russians, or imported from Pankistan?

Or hand made in Kandahar?

Depending on how true this MSM account is, maybe "none of the above"....

.... As all four weapons were destroyed it has been difficult for forensic analysis to be carried out on their origins. But there is some intelligence that suggests the guns were of Chinese origin and might have been bought from arms dealers in Iran and slipped across established smuggling routes through its border into Afghanistan ....

 

[wannabe SF member]

Have we been seeing ZPUs in Taliban possession for a long time or is their acquisition by them more recent?

Also, can we speculate that they might have more in stock, if yes won't that threaten our choppers?

 

[X-mo-1979]

Anything could threaten the choppers I guess.However if their anything like the insurgents in our area,they will use it as a show of force to the public.I.E them firing it in their bazaar. This shows their strength in the area and acts as a "dog and pony" of sorts.

When they actually use large weapons that they cant run away with they usually lose it quick having to abandon it to live,or it blows up with them.

Or they just haul it out for special occasions to use as a show of force to the "civilian" population.

 

[The Bread Guy]

Depending on which account you believe, an RAF Chinook pilot won a DFC for flying the beast in May 2008 (carrying the governor of Helmand, no less) after one of the rotor blades took a "Taliban rocket" (lead paragraph) or "AAA (anti-aircraft artillery) hidden in a wadi dry river bed" (paragraph 13).

Also, based on (albeit inconsistently translated) recent Taliban statements, they've been trying to take credit for shooting down a NATO Chinook more than once.

 

[McG]

Have we been seeing ZPUs in Taliban possession for a long time or is their acquisition by them more recent?

ZPU-1, ZPU-2 and Chinese clones could be found in Afghanistan before the west arrived in '01.  There has always been the potential for a number of these to be floating around.

 

[The Bread Guy]

ZPU-1, ZPU-2 and Chinese clones could be found in Afghanistan before the west arrived in '01.  There has always been the potential for a number of these to be floating around.

Yup - confirmed by Janes....