Homemade Tank Sham II: Syrian Rebels Battle With Playstation Controller

A homemade tank created by Syrian rebels was not exactly a DIY project intended for fun. In the fight against the regime of President Bashar Assad necessity is the mother of invention once again. The Sham II, as they call their custom homemade tank, features five cameras, several TVs and a 7.62 mm machine gun aimed by a PlayStation controller. Oh, and it’s 100 percent made in Syria.

According to The Blaze, Mahmud Abud of the Al-Ansar rebel brigade says it took him a month and $10,000 to design and assemble the vehicle he’s calling the Sham II. The homemade tank was constructed with a car chassis as its base, measuring about four meters long and two meters across.

The vehicle is fully enclosed by light steel, giving relatively decent protection against moderate weapons fire. Designer Abud believes the tank can withstand up to 23mm cannon fire, but not rocket-propelled grenades or Syrian military tank fire.

The Syrian rebels don’t have to poke their heads out to drive or fire this DIY tank. The 7.62 mm machine-gun is mounted on top, but is controlled from inside. The vehicle has five cameras: three at the front, one in the back and another attached to the gun. The driver maneuvers the custom military vehicle by watching a screen which displays video from the cameras. His instrumentation is the standard steering wheel borrowed from the car.

The gunner, seated next to the driver, can activate the machine-gun by watching another screen and using a Playstation controller. What results on screen looks to be an “incredibly realistic” version of Call of Duty, since the camera is aiming down the gun sight like many popular First Person Shooter video games.

What, no analog sticks? Head shots are going to be hard with mere button presses.

Unfortunately, the Sham II is no game and the fight between President Assad and the Syrian rebels is increasingly bitter. As previously reported by The Inquisitr, Obama has warned President Assad to not use chemical weapons. The government even shut down Syria’s internet. Worse, some of the Syrian rebel factions have begun targeting civilians unrelated to the Syrian military and some experts fear that some of the rebels are Muslim terrorists affiliated with known groups like al-Qaeda.

What do you think about the Syrian rebels and their Sham II homemade military tank?