I’m thinking about this because of Russia’s attack on Ukraine. If a military conscript, possibly still in his home country, wanted to vandalize a vehicle, such as a transport truck, what would be some discreet and effective methods to do so?
Funnel and sand. Remove spark plugs, install sand, replace spark plugs.
Or drain the oil.
It’s really going to depend on access and available tools/materials.
How discreet do you need to be? For a vehicle under guard there’s not much you can do except try to contaminate the fuel store or disable the driver. I recall reading of research into germ warfare that would give the enemy a three-day case of something similar to bad intestinal flu. One general was recorded as reacting in horror at the inhumanity of it.
If you can have access while compatriots are creating a distraction, consider that an engine needs air, fuel, (spark for gasoline vehicles) and a means of getting rid of the products of combustion. There’s the old potato up the tail pipe trick - but by that point you might as well go all in and place a thermite bomb on the engine.
If you want to be really imaginative, place a beehive in the driver’s compartment.
I would imagine it would be problematic obtaining, transporting and concealing a beehive.
Or did you mean the hairdo?
Find some piece of scrap metal, and flatten the tires. If you look at the photos from Ukraine, it doesn’t take very long for streets to be covered in crap like that once battle commences, and so it’s very plausible that a lot of tires will end up getting punctured. The plausibility in this case is only enhanced by the apparently low quality of both the Russians’ tires and their maintenance.
Won’t take out any one truck for too long, but lose enough tires, and the supply of tires becomes a limiting factor along with all the others like fuel.
Dump sugar in the gas tank. The Marines did this to our truck in Vietnam.
There’s nothing special about sugar. You might as well pour sand in there.
If you get enough in there, sure, you’ll clog filters, but you won’t destroy the engine.
I thought some of the sugar would dissolve in the fuel and leave carbon deposits in the cylinders.
A popular urban legend, but as the article points out, sugar is not soluble in gasoline.
It’s like the theory of “kill a soldier, and you’ve killed one soldier, but injure one, and you tie up dozens: corpsmen, doctors, nurses, hospital beds, transports, plus morale.”
Along with the tires, remove or brake something that is necessary. Fuel line, fuel pump, shift lever. Someone will have to run for spare parts, someone else will have to repair it, and meanwhile those are people that aren’t fighting.
If one would have the time and access, break the same part on every vehicle. There likely aren’t that many in spares inventory to fix everybody right away.
OP here with follow-up: Will the most common large middle-Asian vehicles use gasoline and have spark plugs?
How about a liquid sugar like molasses, corn syrup, or honey? They could be thinned easily enough with water so they’d still sink in the fuel tank and get through filters & such (while gumming them up). But still, might be easier to just pop the oil cap off and throw a fistful of sand and/or gravel into the engine.
I like the idea of puncturing lots of tires to create a supply problem. However I reckon most tires destined for combat zones will have run flat kits in them. Ours would, anyway. Not sure what the Russkies are up to these days.
The nice thing about tires though is the plausible deniability. Sabotage in the face of the enemy is likely to get you shot, after all, if detected. The whole point of sabotaging your own vehicles is so as to avoid having to be where people are likely to be shot. Screw up a fuel pump, and there’s going to be questions about how the enemy got close enough to mess with your fuel pump - especially if a lot of them get broken in a short time span.
But tires? “Sarge, we’ve been driving over scrap metal for days now, I’m surprised they lasted this long without a flat!”
That’s likely what happened. All I know for sure is that our truck died along a particularly dangerous stretch of road known as “Dogpatch”. We were finally able to limp into the next military base, and when the mechanic was finished he told us there was sugar in the tank.
Allegedly a lot of these are antiques, since this level of mobilization is rare, so they scrape the bottom of the barrel for equipment; and not a lot has been spent on the simple equipment- fancy fighters and hypersonic missiles are more sexy.
I don’t think Soviet-era trucks would have run-flats. One of their issues would be logistics, too, so spare parts are limited. However, plenty of water in the fuel tank would eventually do the trick, I assume. (If they are diesel, I recall a news item about someone suing a gas station because their fuel had water in it and the engine was effectively ruined after one tankful.) Ditto for something abrasive in the oil like sand although that would take longer. Scoring the fan belts so they eventually snap would work, but odds are 30yo fan belts are so cracked they are ready to break by themselves. If you are adventurous and have a wrench, things like loosening the oil drain (or oil filter) on the engine, transmission, or differential - just enough for a slow leak - would eventually cripple the vehicle while not being obvious. Or loosen the battery connections for intermittent current, cut the alternator wire so the battery doesn’t charge, etc.
One article I read said reluctant Russian conscripts were being far less subtle, puncturing the gas tank so the vehicle was useless for any range. If you can make it look like enemy fire, bonus.
Sure, just tell the enemy that the hairdo has hidden spiders…don’t tell them it’s an urban legend.
Actually I was thinking of the beginning of the John Wayne film Rio Lobo. (Civil War - There’s a scene where the Confederates empty a Union Army baggage car by throwing in a bee’s nest.)
They are military vehicles. They will break on their own. All the conscript needs to do is be less proactive with preventative maintenance. Skip a morning PMCS and that truck should be non mission-capable by the afternoon.
Just so we’re clear : this was a U.S. vehicle, presumably sabotaged by U.S. Marines ? If so, what do you think was their intent ?
I was thinking about this: At least it was not posted as “need answer fast.”
Drunken prank, I’m assuming. We were lucky that we were able to get it running well enough to vacate the Dogpatch area, as we had no means of communication and limited ammo (one mag each).