Thread by @BoarBruton

Long thread so apologies - in all of the noise and armchair experts passing judgment on the Afghan situation I keep coming across references to this #KabulCar however slightly odd looking 4x4s in the worlds trouble spots are actually something I know rather a lot about. cont.

So fairly obviously we have a Toyota Landcruiser - since the utter failure of Landrover the Landcruiser is now the king of 4x4s in situations where your life may well depend on it as opposed to merely navigating Waitrose carpark.

But this airlifted Landcruiser is obviously a bit different and we can divine a great deal even from a single fuzzy photograph - firstly have a quick look at the rear window and compare with a standard model - note the totally flat glass, not curved - definitely ballistic glass.

Next, what else can we see here - a towing pintle, directly bolted to the chassis - this allows a stricken vehicle to be towed at speed and recovered to place of safety or merely cleared of blocking a route - it’s not for towing a horsebox.

So it’s an armoured Landcruiser but that’s not exactly unusual on the streets of Kabul - vehicles protected against small arms fire and frag are commercially and internationally although higher levels of blast protection are often more sensitive that isn’t the full story here.

The real story is the odd looking, small metal roofrack. It’s not actually a roorfack, it doesn’t even run the full length of the roof, it’s a counterpoise or groundplane for an antenna system.

Looking closely a series of mounting points and cables can be clearly seen and witness marks in the fine dust where kit has been mounted on the metal plate.

I’m not going to identify the systems fitted here but reference to photographs in the public domain show great similarities to RCIED (Radio Controlled Improvised Explosive Device) countermeasures (jamming) arrays.

There is another element in the original photograph that I’m not going to identify that additionally indicates a military satellite coms capability - which would allow secure voice and data communications on a world wide basis even when the vehicle was moving at speed.

There’s probably around 350-500kg of additional kit required here and a Landcruiser offers the ideal mobility platform to protect and power this kit as part of a convoy.

So the question “why was a car on the plane ?” is answered “why would you allow a heavily armoured vehicle packed to the rafters full of highly sensitive jamming kit, military sat coms and most likely Five Eyes crypto devices to be auctioned to Russia or China by the Taliban ?”