Iraq's insurgents

Iraq's insurgents made all sorts of homemade weapons in theirseven-year tangle with the US military. Some enterprising militantshome-brewed their own rocket launchers -- and some even mountedthem on their heads.

That's what Matt Schroeder learned from a recent Freedom ofInformation Act request he filed. A weapons researcher with the Federation of AmericanScientists, Schroeder was at work on a joint project intoillicit weaponry with the Small ArmsSurvey when he heard rumours of Iraqi insurgents puttingtogether rocket launchers using spare parts. The last thing heexpected to see was a Russian air-to-ground rocket getting firedoff someone's head using "tape and a plexiglass visor," Schroedersays.

The previously unseen photo Schroeder received from the Army inJanuary isn't dated, but Schroeder believes it's from around 2009or maybe a little earlier. It came from a report on a capturedweapons cache that showed Iraqi insurgents using the Russian S-5k57-millimetre rocket, usually fired from an aircraft rocket pod onunfortunate people below. The Iraqis attempted to turn it into ashoulder-fired rocket, probably after looting it from thestockpiles of the Saddam-era army.

Improvised rocket launchers had already showed up in Chechenrebel attacks on Russian forces. But those showed a "welded designwith good durability," according to the Army report Schroederacquired and shared with Wired.com. The Iraqi designs weren't assophisticated: They would often be one to four metal barrels, aboutas long as an M4 rifle, strapped together with a metal band or aweld, powered by a 9-volt battery, and mounted on a couple ofpieces of spare plywood that provided a grip. One, er, uniquedesign, shows makeshift, shoulder-mounted harness that mounted fourrocket barrels above the artilleryman's head and protected his facewith a piece of plexiglass.

"We heard a lot about improvised rocket launchers, but we didn'thear about this," Schroeder said. "Maybe that's because it didn'thave a tactical impact."

Perhaps insurgents decided letting off a rocket above theirheads wasn't the smartest idea. They had more luck shooting offrockets from tubes  welded to the underside of a wheelbarrow. And the accuracy ofany such improvised rocket launcher is questionable at best.

But Iraq wouldn't be the last place improvised rocket launchershave showed up. Insurgents in Libya fighting Moammar Gadhafi lastyear welded together their own using  scrap metal, a bit of wood and a few wires, as C J Chivers hasreported for The New York Times, again for57-millimetre rockets. And the video above shows Syrian rebelsdoing much the same thing. Here's anothervideo showing them using a three-barrel variation.

"Insurgents will work with what they have, and often get quitecreative," Schroeder observes. "Creative" is certainly one way todescribe wearing a rocket launcher on your head.