A technical is an Anglicism indicating an impromptu and typical fighting vehicle of a local irregular military force.

Some regard it as the modern successor of the Tachanka.

Usually, a technical is conceived on the basis of civil vehicle like a cross-country Véhicule or a modified Camion on which a heavy Mitrailleuse is assembled, a mortar or a Lance-roquettes. This type of vehicle is very often used by the irregular armed forces and the militia of the whole world in the urban and civil wars. A technical is seldom armoured.

The term technical indicating this type of vehicle seems to come from Mogadiscio in Somalia where these machines are common but it could also be derived from a technical term used by the Croix-Rouge and the governmental organizations in the Developing country where they were often forced to pay the local militia with the risk to be victims of flights and armed attacks. The money of these backhanders was registered with the accounts as “a technical expenditure” ( technical expenses ).

technicals are for visible examples in the film the Fall of the black falcon of Ridley Scott.

External bond

• Somali Technicals and AFV Photographs