Michael Yon, embed reporter par excellance, takes pictures of all the weapons caches he runs across. He's run across a mystery weapon lately, and he's wondering if anyone can identify it.
Check it out here, at http://www.drudgereport.com/flash2.htm. It's also on Michael Yon's site (www.michaelyon-online.com), but apparently interest in this picture has bogged down his server. Drudge's infrastructure is more robust.
It's apparently a puzzler ...
I saw that thread... if it wasn't Mister Yon, I'd say it was some kind of gag. But he lends a certain credibility to the question. I don't recognize it, but I'm not an expert on weapons-round-the-world, either.
There had better be an extendable tube that comes out the back of that thing, or that shoulder stock placement doesn't make any sense. Whoever fired it would be jumping in the nearest lake to put out the fire on their back. In fact, a shoulder stock doesn't make a great deal of sense anyway, given that over-the-shoulder launchers are generally recoiless anyway and often don't have any stock at all.
The presence of a shoulder stock implies that there is recoil and that fire does not shoot out the back. The scope implies some precision, and that the weapon is line-of-sight. I'd be tempted to think of some kind of grenade launcher than anything else. Not rockets... no blast shield in front.
It would be a distictly unpleasant way to lauch mortars.
So... Beats me. Mister Mag? Any help here?