top-quark.blog
Anything big starts small..
Sun, 02/29/2004, 22:03Now, I'm really, really confused. This morning, I'm reading a thread over on ar15.com, when I notice this little picture:
Originally from: http://www.optonline.net/media//image/XPA10802291525.jpg
I'm guessing it's a government soldier in the Haiti violence. People mockingly wanted to know how he was going to aim without a rear sight. I did a photoshop to show that it did actually have a rear sight. I thought initially that it was a back-up-iron sight, an pretty common accessory for flat topped rifles. Inside the discussion thread, though, someone mentioned it being a Taiwanese T68 rifle. I was under the impression that the T68 was pretty much a Steyr AUG, but it did set off a trigger in my head about other Taiwanese rifles; specifically the early T65s. As I understand it, the earlier T65s were rather close the the Armalite AR-18, and had a single integrated rear sight.
I fired up my browser, and tracked down a webpage I use a lot for Taiwanese arms.. one of those pages has at the top a large line drawing of generational T65s.. The T65 and T65K1 rifles are pretty similar, except the handguards; the original has the ribs spaced farther apart; a pretty good match for the pictured rifle. I opened the line drawing in Photoshop, inverted it, desaturated it, and eliminated whitespace, then rotated and scaled it to overlay the original picture, magnified a few times. The result is.. interesting:
Aside from the line drawing being of the other side of the rifle, the outline matches completely; the handguard ribs, the position of the rear sight, even the stock, which flares wider at the base, similar to the aftermarket "Sully Stock". This might also be a vestige of the rifle's AR-18 heritage. As an aside, it's interesting to note the lack of brass deflector and forward assist, as are found on the modern M16.
My dad had always mentioned that stealing arms and ammo from the Taiwan military was punishable by death, presumably to stem some sort of gang violence issue. Civilian ownership of arms isn't allowed in Taiwan, either. Together, these two bits somehow combined in my head to give the impression that Taiwan didn't really have much of an arms trade.. Apparently someone has a source, though.. Criminally obtained, or otherwise, it's interesting to see these rifles in service elsewhere..
It gets scary now, though. I remember a couple months ago an article I read.. a search of google yielded this gem. Note that in the article, Taiwan isn't noted once.. the weapons designations give it away, though. Somehow, an Islamic independance group in the Philippines is trying to purchase bulk quantities of Taiwanese T75 and T65-K2 arms from North Korea. Also included in the order are "M30 machineguns".. since Taiwan doesn't use the M designation (the T designation is actually a western convenience, as well), I guessed it was a western piece. The only M30 machinegun I can find is the Italian Breda M30, of WWII. At this point, I'm just trying my damn hardest to keep my geography straight... I'm sure more searching will get more info, but I'm not sure what to think right now.
If that article has any weight, and the North Koreans weren't pulling anything, then some questions have to be asked.. Taiwanese rifles are domestically produced, and stealing them in the ten thousands is quite the feat.
-Maybe a shipment to another organization was intercepted?
-Maybe another country's stash was stolen?
-...
There's a lot of funny business going on. The alternatives to my scenarios are just a little more interesting...
Hi, art of war.. if you could just link to the images, instead of [img] tagging them, it'd be much nicer.
Comments about "Anything big starts small.." :
Wonderful investigation! Your sight is very detailed as well. Thank you for this informations
-left by Jens g. ( )
Our government gave away weapons to Haitian government as a mean to keep Haiti diplomatically connected to Taiwan. I have sent email to Dugan Long to correct his work about the rifle in his book. That is Type 65 rifle, not Type 68. The layout of the rifle is AR-15 except the short stroke recoil system of AR-18. Taiwanese rifles can also be seen in some middle easter countries and lantino countries. They are not commercially available, only government-to-government deal can be established.
-left by Taiwanese ( )