Common weapons in Sierra Leone
The G3: The G3 is a select fire Battle rifle. It shot 7.62x51mm rounds and was developed by Heckler & Kock manufacturing, a german arms company. The G3 was developed in the early to mid 1950s when germany found that the G3's predecessor, the G1, wasn't capable of keeping up with the rest of the worlds weaponry. Maxim Popenker from firearms.net wrote; "The key reason of high popularity of the G3 is that it is much simpler and cheaper to manufacture" (Popenker). The G3 is still manufactured today and is used in many smaller country's to wage war. This is why we saw the use of this weapon in Sierra Leone, its a cheap and simple gun for small revolutions.
The AK47: The AK47 is one of, if not the most used assault rifle in the world. The AK47's official name is the Kalashnikov Model 1947, the AK47 got this name after its designer and its first year of manufacturing. Mikhail Kalashnikov designed and started the production process of the AK47 in 1947 for the Soviet military. The AK47 also fires a 7.62mm round. The common magazine holds 30 rounds. Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica wrote; "...they have long been the favoured weapon for many guerrilla and nationalist movements throughout the world" (Encyclopedia Britannica). This shows how AK47's are a favorite for guerrilla movements like the one shown in Sierra Leone.
The RPG: Better known as The Rocket Propelled Grenade. The RPG is a soviet weapon introduced into service in 1962, and later into north Vietnam in 1966. It has been hailed as a “hand-held anti-tank grenade launcher” (Carl O. Schuster). The RPG fires a 4.4lb projectile a maximum of 962m, but good luck with that because you only have a 10% chance of hitting something 5 feet in front of you because of the weapons design. The RPG is cheap and easy to produce which may be a leading cause of it horrendous accuracy. Its cheap design may also be why it is commonly seen in the hands of gurrilla forces like the ones in 3rd world countries including Sierra Leone.
I like how you put the pictures down to let us know what each weapon looks like. I also think it is crazy that the RPG is one of the cheaper weapons because of all the damage it can do.
ReplyDeleteI like all the specific info you gave about each weapon but one thing I did wish you went over was how this country got a hold of this weaponry. Like who sold it to them? or How much money the government had spent on this weaponry instead of putting it to use in better areas to help the country.
ReplyDeleteHi Jacob! I learned a lot about the most commonly used weapons in Sierra Leone. I enjoyed reading through the descriptions of the weapons and how you included pictures for each weapon you talked about. Something that drew my interest was the RPG of how you only have a 10% chance of hitting something 5 feet in front of you.
ReplyDelete