Ever since the Toyota War, when Chad’s cheap, fast-moving force of Toyota-based technicals left $1.5 billion worth of Libyan Soviet equipment burning in the desert, it’s been obvious that such forces could be very cost-effective units in future conflicts. The furious rate of smart-munition depletion in the Russo-Ukrainian War also demonstrated the need for cheaper alternatives to Stinger and Javelin.
Enter the VAMPIRE.
L3Harris’ Vehicle-Agnostic Modular Palletized ISR Rocket Equipment (VAMPIRE) is a portable kit that can be installed on most vehicles with a cargo bed for launching of the advanced precision kill weapons system (APKWS) or other laser-guided munitions.
This L3Harris suitcase-type APKWS launcher and designator kit provides a rapid solution for arming non-tactical vehicles (NTV) and a variety of tactical vehicles, while integrating components to customer-specific specifications. Our capability provides ground forces the ability to engage targets beyond the range of weapons normally carried by SOF and light forces.
Modular and palletized, the VAMPIRE system offers a low-cost and effective weapon deployment solution.
VAMPIRE FEATURES
Designed to complement the low-cost, low-signature and availability of common NTVs and fit in any pickup or vehicle with a cargo bed Installation can be completed in approximately two hours by two people using common tools Can be configured to meet customer-specific requirements Everything is on the pallet. Power supply eliminates the need for a 24-volt alternator on the vehicle The WESCAM MX-10™- RSTA independent stabilized sighting system provides ISR overmatch Can be equipped with APKWS or other laser-guided munitions
The Fat Electrician (who you may remember from his Sky Warden video) has an amusing rundown:
Takeaways:
to the brochure, two men in two hours can install it on any pickup truck, giving them what amounts to a miniature version of HIMARS.” More like a miniature MLRS.
those are really expensive, so we made this as a cheaper alternative, and I’m not gonna lie, it’s way fucking cooler.”
When Russia bogged down trying to take Kiev, I thought that a raiding force of 100 or so technicals would be perfect to destroy those long lines of trucks (assuming they could be equipped with wheels wide enough to make it across the infamous rasputitsa mud). A system like VAMPIRE, with an ability to take out both light armored vehicles and helicopters, moves us significantly closer to making such a force a lot more practical.
Tags: drone, Military, technicals, The Fat Electrician, Toyota, VAMPIRE rocket system, video
Cheap munitions are useful but the ground matters, a lot. The Russian invasion force in the north of the Ukraine stuck to roads due to “razputznitsa (Sp?, knee deep mud). Israel has their tanks train on ground that would probably be too much for a mule. Our part of the Midwest is “paved” with limestone lumps in a layer of mud. The “bottoms” are nasty.
A Javelin and operator can ride around in a truck and then hoof it when the truck bottoms in the slop. There is a lot to be said for “man portable”. A truck on the roads is what is referred to as a target. “Technicals” did well in the hard stuff of Syria and northern Africa. They had real problems in eastern Europe, southern Asia, and central Africa. The hot engines attract unpleasant attention.
Sometimes the cheap provides solutions, sometimes it provides problems.
Wonder when this will make the F-150 option list?
Just a matter of time (probably in very short order) that these start turning up in the hands of unfriendlies. Our Stingers to Ukraine already show up on black markets all over the world, so these will follow suit, but since they are smaller and cheaper, will have very high diffusion coefficients.
Every weapon system we create will eventually get used against us. That’s one of the Iron Laws.
[…] the first: A commenter mentioned that Stingers sent to Ukraine had shown up on “black markets all over the world.” […]
Could be useful for border security down here in the Lone Star State.
@ruralcounsel, check the next post after this one for a debunking of the “Black market stingers everywhere” claim.
[…] gross failure of the entire system he directs Baldilocks: Not So Crazy After All BattleSwarm: VAMPIRE: America’s New Discount Technical Rocket System, also, Melitopol Strike, Black Market Stingers, And Gusts From The Fog of War Behind The Black: […]