Ratmobile


 * ''Not to be confused with batmobile.

A Ratmobile, also Technical is the favorite means of transportation for Islamist fighters, spotted en masse at least since the 2011 western-supported campaign to get rid of Libya's independent government. Recently they have been introduced to Ukraine by the pro-Maidan forces.

Ratmobiles consist of a light flatbed truck, often Toyota, with mounted more or less heavy weapons -  the 12.7mm Soviet-era heavy machine gun nicknamed Dushka ("Sweetie" in Russian) being the most common choice. Typically manned by 6-8 young men in black clothes longing for the 7th century and engaging in feverish allahuakbarking.

The modern ratmobile has its origins in the tachanka, a horse-drawn platform mounting a heavy machine gun, invented by Ukrainian revolutionary Nestor Makhno, who gave his name to Makhnovshchina – a state of violent anarchistic chaos.

The first vehicle carrying weapons, the Ur-mobile, was manufactured in Ur, south of Baghdad, Iraq, around 2500 b.c. Around 1884 c.e., Sir Hiram Stevens Maxim invented the machine gun. The ratmobile combines the two into a highly mobile platform of terror.

According to recent leaks, the Russian military-industrial complex is working on Nanoratmobiles. An armored ratmobile is called a shushpantser.