Originally Posted by
skua
There is a fascinating article in the current edition of Aviation Historian about Rhodesia's use of civil aircraft for counter-insurgency back in the day. Their reservist police force used civil pilots and aircraft such as a Cessna 206, and a v-tailed Bonanza armed with machine guns in underwing pods (Bonanza), and out of the rear doorway (Cessna). The Bonanza additionally had a home-made grenade launcher through a hole in the floor. Amazing ingenuity (and balls). Clearly the threat environment is a little different in the present case!
True! The unit involved was called PRAW (Police Reserve Air Wing). I played a small part in it as I was ‘loaned’ to do tests on a Browning/172 combination for them as they didn’t have people trained on Browning.