Jeep 106mm Recoilless
Iran[edit]
Just after the Korean War, the M40 106mm heavy recoilless rifle was developed in the US as a replacement for towed heavy antitank guns. It was lightweight enough--by the standards of crew-served weapons, anyway--that it could be mounted on a jeep on a pintle mount, with a crew of four, driver, commander, gunner, and loader, and carry around fifteen rounds of what was for the time an extremely nasty, extremely lethal 106mm HEAT round, at the time capable of penetrating the armor of any tank on the planet from any angle, which was also very good at producing fragmentation for antipersonnel work. The nature of recoilless rifles means they aren't high-velocity or long-range weapons, but they could engage point targets with direct fire out to almost three quarters of a mile, though, obviously, they were much more accurate within about a third of that. For areas too rugged even for jeeps, the crew could break the gun down to carry it and ammunition for it up the steep hillsides and emplace it on a tripod. For more than two decades the little jeeps with the big recoilless rifles stuck on top of them were almost iconic emblems of US military power and were found everywhere from US Marine rifle battalion antitank platoons to Army armored cav troops. They were also extremely widely exported to US allies around the world, including the Shah of Iran, and are still in service worldwide today. They were only replaced in US service around 1980, with jeeps carrying TOW heavy antitank missile launchers, which were themselves replaced after just a few years with HMMWVs with TOW launchers.
When the Iran-Iraq war broke out in '81, the Iranians made very heavy use of these inexpensive toys the Shah had bought, to blow up invading Iraqi armour, and sufficient numbers were captured by the Iraqis that there were still lots of them in Iraqi service in both '91 and '03. These units can be taken as a group of 2, 4 or 6, for half a point each. They get brutal and accurate, but the recoilless rule means they cannot be concealed after firing. Pretty much the same as the Australian Land Rovers. A 4+ Vehicle save won't help much, but 2+ FP will hurt anything that isn't an MBT and 3 points for 6 is a bargin, especially when you lack Brutal on most of your tanks.
Maybe they can find a niche at digging infantry out of bulletproof cover at long range using accurate, Brutal and 2+ FP. They could be APC hunters, locking a flank down against lightly armoured vehicles. Or maybe they could just suicide rush up one side to get flanking shots using 48" road dash, your opponent won't be able to ignore that, saving your tanks from potentially a lot of fire for a turn.
Iranian Forces in Team Yankee | |
---|---|
Tanks: | T-55 - T-62 - M60 Patton - Chieftain |
Transports: | M113 Armored Personnel Carrier - BTR-60 - BMP-1 |
Troops: | Iranian Mechanized Platoon - Basij Infantry Company |
Artillery: | M109 Howitzer - BM-21 Hail - M125 81mm |
Anti-Aircraft: | ZSU 23-4 Shilka - ZSU-57-2 - SA-8 Gecko |
Tank Hunters: | Jeep TOW - Jeep 106mm Recoilless - M113 106mm Recoilless |
Recon: | Scorpion |
Aircraft: | AH-1 Cobra Attack Helicopter |
Soviet Support: | SU-25 Frogfoot |