Can You Identify This Mystery Weapon Found in Iraq?

My only frame of reference for this weapon would be the M79 grenade launcher...haven't touched one since 1966. The scope kinda throws me?
/yp5qtz

Peace &
Good Fortune
OBE1

Not a real gun. Period.

Why would the stock behind the pistol grip be so short?

Why would the barrel extend past the stock?

Why would the stock be so low and the scope so high?

Why is the iron sight on the tip of the barrel so huge?

Why a scope on a short barrel large caliber gun?

This is a hoax, plain and simple.

Either that or this is the most inaccurate, horribly most painfully uncomfortable, impractical, ugly mutt of a gun, in the world.


[edit on 12-2-2007 by Connected]

Iranian Potato Gun .lol Looks fake (like others have said ) A prop .

well ?

these " mystery photos " are utter twaddle - the best person to identify them is the person @ the scene , end of story .

if they cannot - then they should send the entire object to some one who can - or prepare a ful report on it - and send that off

such " mystery photos " are regularly posted on the crypto zoo section too - and they annoy the crap out of me there too

why did the person there not do any sort of investigation / analysis ???

in this case - if a " new inidentified weapon " was found in iraq - it would have been collected , made safe and as many armourers / ordanance techs as required

instread of posting a single baddly focused / lit /obscured image - with no scale

thy do retards never include a scale in thier picture - it is the first rule of forensic photography

here is just a breif list of what should be checked / checked for - by some one who was there :

barrel caliber

chamber lengh

barrel thickness

barrel construction - metal or composite

rifled - yes or no

manner of loading - single shot disposable / muzzle loaded , breech loaded etc

if breech loaded - type of breech / lock / venturis [ if present ]

firing arrangment - trigger / saftey / interlock

firing mechanism - mechanical or electric

batteries

serial numbers / mffr stamps / part numbers

etc etc etc


one final point " jimmy " brought up the very good point that a breech / venturi may be missing

if it is recioless - then the stock is far to close to the rear of the weapon - unless there is a loarge part missing

if not recoiless - then having an offset stock - below the line of recoil - is going to make for a fun firing experience

if the stock was " in line " - a shoulder pad @ the rear - at least it would be " managable " -

PS jimmy - i do not think that it looks anything like a charlie-g


PPS - EDIT [ to add ] :

this rant is in no way an attack on ATS member " MECHENG " or others who post links of " mystery photo " web pages they come across . my ire is with the retards who make such pages

[edit on 13-2-2007 by ignorant_ape]

Originally posted by scooler1
My opinion:

Whatever it is, I'd be willing to bet that the US will use it as another reason to attack Iran.

Yeah!!

I heard that the agencies identified it as a Nuclear Pulse Disruptor able to shatter nuclear bonds and capable of destroying matter at ranges of 2 billion light years.

Apparently they are not too sure as to the whereabouts, quantity and existence of the weapon but they think it is too big a risk not to (over-)react. So they must invade, just in case, if they don't find any well that's life, at least they can "export" US democracy there too!!

Well I am sold, I know how good western Intel is

By the way is not the stock in an inappropriate place?

sodom

i got it- it`s a sniper railgun

iranian made !!

When i was in the service, they had in use at the time what they called a LAW (Light Antitank Weapon) the M-72:

www.fas.org...

The picture shown seems to have roughly similar dimensions, and composition as I recall.

They were lightweight (hence the name) I think they were made from fiberglass? but not really sure, it's been 22 years my memory is a little fuzzy.

Just my 2 cents

I think it looks more and more like a mock up.

The scope is the only bit that looks real.

The rest looks like its made from plastic pipe and sticky back plastic. I hope the designer gets his "Blue Peter" badge. "Here's one I made earlier!"

The colour way looks like a couple of cans of paint have been sprayed over it.

If you come accross something you were not sure of would you really take one photo and leave nothing in shot for scale reference? Christ when people find footprints of a "mystery" beast they take more than one photo and leave something in shot to give some idea of size.

Perhaps they could have left one of Actionman / GI Joe's boot in shot for reference You have no idea of scale other than the round in shot and thats half out of frame. This is a real classy bit of Intel

I dont think Michael Yon would post a toy. He seems to be the real deal. If you think otherwise, you need to take a moment to read his posts from Iraq IMO.

In the face of all this “new” controversy about “foreign” weapons in the battle space, I recalled some of the many photos I.ve taken of caches of weapons captured by Iraqi and American forces in Iraq.

The RPG in the foreground provides a reference for dimensions.

www.michaelyon-online.com...

Note in the picture above, that there is a trigger visible, and that the scope does not sit on top of the unit, but on the side of it. Also, the image shows a second RPG, it helps as a size reference.

To me, it looks like a new small RPG launcher, for use against light armor. I read somewhere that there is a new 44mm RPG out, and that it has a mount for a scope.

Note in the image below the similar configuration of the larger RPG. The shoulder butt is below the tube, as the one above. The butt of the tube is made to extend out beyond the shoulder, (and I assume the image above is a similar config), and the image below has a scope too.



Germany has a couple with a similar config.
world.guns.ru...
world.guns.ru...

As do the U.S. Marines.
www.fas.org...


I'm sure other countries do to. I don't know what country made it, but it looks like the real deal.


[edit on 2/13/07 by makeitso]

If it was a toy, I would expect to see mold lines, especially on the butt of the grips.

There are no visible mold lines.

It's impossible to make judgements on the scale of the photo without a marker of some kind, a coin or a yard stick or something.

When I first saw it, I thought it was a recoilless rifle. Those things always look unwieldy as Hell, and they're often scoped.

I still dont buy it, IMO no way that thing is a real weapon of any kind.

On so many levels the design just is not something you would see on either a launcher or recoiless rifle.

Good post guys.

I have looked all through my recognition slides at the RPG family and the closest I can come up with, is a modified RPG18.

If you look carefully at the picture, you can clearly see the forward pistol-grip and shoulder rest. It would appear to me, that the shoulder rest has been heavily modified. Also the weapon appears to be 'sleeved' in some way [to reduce heat signature and launch bloom?]

The telescopic sight appears to be similar to those used on Dragonuv sniper rifles and early RPG1s.

I will now search the web for more clues and possible answers.

Makeitso,

Thanks for posting a clearer picture, This weapon it very cleary something knocked up in a workshop by some bored engineers.

There is no weapon in the world that has this particular configuration. NOT ONE.

Anyone posted this yet? It may just be a hand made launcher though.

Both 21st Century Toys and Hot Toys have entire ranges of 'collectible figurines', diorama accessories and of course weapons.

www.fanasix.com...

www.goodstufftogo.net...

While I wouldn't guarantee that these are the basis of the photographed weapon; there are features in common which suggest that if it is real, it is based on what they are.

If you think 'Dremel Tool cutoff disk and CA' as a function of plugging pieces together back-as-front, things get even easier as the length of that tube suggests a Stinger or other MANPADS/Early LAW/RR design and the ergonomics of the scope, shoulder rest and the like all start to make more sense.

You Guys Just Don't Play With Enough Dollies...


KPl.

It is a "spud gun" nothing else. The biggest give away to me is the "trigger " looks an awful lot like a auto-spark starter from a standard gas grill. They probably spray hairspray or something in the back. Put some kinda projectile in the muzzle, then hit the grill starter sparker "trigger" to ignite the hairspray. The scope is just for looks.

[edit on 16-2-2007 by Apoc]

Steel pipe

model rocket launch controller (Or 9v)

estes igniter

Removable end plug

Rocket with warhead




= Home made Rocket launcher

What is peculiar are the two different sizes of tubes.

If it's a rocket launcher, why would the end barrel be of such a small diameter?

If the end barrel is actually a thick silencer or varmint barrel such as found on a sniper rifle, what the hell is the purpose of the tubular main body?

Also, why is the end barrel not lined up with the main body tube? It's off center.

HT,

Who says it's a 'barrel'? Why couldn't it be the weapon round itself? You tell what a projective arm does by it's ammo, not it's shape and in this it is suspicious that there was none captured with the launcher.

Or maybe there was.

Clearly they are screwing with the observer as the (possible) projectile is facing backards to the way it would launch but the illuminated line of shadow on the front of the larger tube doesn't seem to match the curve of the _rounded_ nose piece unless the former is really a muzzle opening and the latter is the projectile. The large 'iron sight' then becomes a simple rock on the ground and the only question is how they stabilize the projectile inside the tube (there seems to be a significant caliber difference) and in flight (no obvious springloaded wraparound or flipup fin lines).

If so, the unit makes a little more sense as some type of LAW/RR you would chop down to fit in a car trunk (helluva back blast penalty...) or a covert carrying case of some kind.


KPl.

[edit on 18-2-2007 by ch1466]

Michael Yon has posted more about the mystery weapon, and added another.

michaelyon-online.com...