In a militia-controlled garage in Misrata, Libya, workers service and refurbish weapons for fighters from different Misrata brigades. Free services provided range from fixing and servicing small arms and light weapons (SALW) to mounting multiple-launch rocket systems (MLRS), anti-aircraft guns, and various machine guns on militia vehicles.

A woodworking area within the garage produces furniture for various SALW. For PKT and PKMT machine guns, for example, wooden butt-stocks, grips, fore ends, and makeshift triggers are produced. These weapons, removed from tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles, are typically solenoid-operated, and lack a hand-held firing mechanism.

With damaged weapons provided to the workshop by the Misrata fighters, a variety of craft-produced components are made, enabling weapons to be reissued. The PKMT has been particularly prolific recently due to clashes with rival Zintan militias in Tripoli, resulting in many such recovered items. An estimated 600 PKT and PKMT machine guns have been converted by the workshop. Belt-fed machine guns are favoured amongst the Libyan fighters, and their relative scarcity makes this recovery and conversion attractive.

Hassan Morajea (Armament Research Services)

Other weapons, such as the AKM type rifle pictured above, also receive newly produced stocks and fore ends, have spares taken from unserviceable rifles, or are repaired. The example above had been recovered from a burnt out weapons storage facility. The FN Herstal FAL seen below received a similar treatment, being fitted with a new pistol grip and butt-stock after recovery from the same facility.

This process of repairing and re-purposing available arms is essential to these fighters, and significantly increases the militias’ stockpiles of serviceable arms. According to one of the workers at the garage: “you can never have enough weapons”. Given the fractious nature of the ongoing conflict in Libya, there remains the distinct possibility that these weapons could proliferate within the broader sub-region, and an understanding of these makeshift factories may prove valuable to future identification and tracing efforts.

It should be noted that weapons recovered from badly damaged buildings or vehicles, especially those exposed to significant thermal or mechanical stresses or very high pressure, may not be safe to operate.

This article is courtesy of Armament Research Services (ARES) –
www.armamentresearch.com

Hassan Morajea (Armament Research Services)

The owner, ‘U‘, says he purchased the pistol a few months ago from a contact within the Supreme Security Committee (SSC), a branch of the Libyan Ministry of Interior tasked with providing security within Tripoli following the 2011 revolution. U believes that the pistol was bought and issued to the SSC by the Libyan government before it was sold to him by an SSC officer. While the supply of arms to Libyan security forces is permissible under certain circumstances outlined in the UN arms embargo, this case highlights the challenges of controlling these weapons once they arrive in Libya.

Pistols are a rare commodity in Libya, and command a significantly higher price than long arms. U paid LYD 5,000.00 for his Caracal F (over USD $4,000.00), a price he says was actually about 1,000 LYD below the going rate. This Caracal F is chambered for 9 x 19 mm ammunition; U had loaded his magazine with cartridges produced in 1978 by FN Herstal, in Belgium. As well as being scarce, the 9 x 19 mm ammunition is also expensive in Libya. ARES Director N.R. Jenzen-Jones has previously documented the prices of small calibre ammunition in Libya; in February 2012, 9 x 19 mm ammunition cost around LYD 8.00 (more than USD $6.00 per cartridge). In 2014, U has been paying around LYD 5.00 (more than USD $4.00) per round – but U and fellow shopkeepers are happy with the economic trade-off of these weapons; whilst rifles are much more commonly available and relatively inexpensive, he says they “opt not to go for heavier weaponry, to avoid attention.”

Interestingly, certain production batches of the Caracal F were recalled in October 2012, with the manufacturer citing a potential problem with the trigger assembly. The recall included all Model F handguns bearing serial numbers beginning with “L”, like this example. It is unknown if this Caracal F has been returned or repaired since the recall.

The Caracal F, and the rest of the original line, was replaced by the CP660, CP661, and CP662 models which feature redesigned slide assemblies. The Caracal F (full-size model) has the following selected technical characteristics:

Slide length: 178 mm
Barrel length: 105 mm
Height: 137 mm
Width: 30 mm
Weight: 750 g
Calibre: 9 x 19 or 9 x 21
Magazine capacity: 18
Trigger system: ‘Short Double Action’
Trigger weight: ~2.3 kg

This article is reproduced courtesy of Armament Research Services (ARES) – www.armamentresearch.com