List of weapons of the Rhodesian Bush War

[2] While South Africa and Portugal (until 1974) gave economic, military and limited political support to the post-UDI government,[31][32] Rhodesia was also heavily reliant on international smuggling operations, commonly referred to as "sanction-busting", in which other armaments and non-lethal military supplies were secretly purchased (often with a third country acting as broker) from West Germany, Austria, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, Israel, Brazil, Iran (until 1979), the Philippines, South Vietnam (until 1975), Taiwan, Japan, Bermuda and Grenada,[33][34] and smuggled to Rhodesia via clandestine air freighting through Oman, Iran, Gabon and the Comoros.

[35][36] Such illegally-purchased weaponry was complemented by the use of captured enemy arms and munitions late in the war, seized in the course of the Rhodesian Security Forces' own cross-border covert raids ("externals") against ZIPRA and ZANLA guerrilla bases in the neighbouring countries.

With South African technical assistance, the Rhodesians developed in coordination with the private sector their own military manufacturing capacity and began producing substitutes for items which could not be easily imported or were unaffordable in the international Black market.

By the late 1970s, Rhodesia was producing an impressive array of military hardware, including automatic firearms, anti-personnel and anti-vehicle mines, bombs, mortars and a wide range of unique Mine and Ambush Protected (MAP) vehicles, which used commercial running gear to meet the specific requirements of the warfare being waged.

The African host countries that provided sanctuary to ZIPRA and ZANLA, mainly Tanzania, Zambia, Angola and Mozambique, served as conduits for arms shipments coming from the sponsor countries, although the guerrillas themselves made use of captured enemy stocks (which included small-arms and land mines) and they were able to manufacture some of their own anti-personnel mines, anti-vehicle roadside bombs and other home-made explosive devices.

Two black soldiers of the Rhodesian African Rifles (RAR) manning a FN MAG General-purpose machine gun (GPMG) aboard a patrol boat on Lake Kariba , December 1976.
Enfield No. 2 Mk I Revolver.
Smith & Wesson Model 49 Bodyguard .38 Special.
Browning Hi-Power.
An unloaded Star Model BM.
Walther P1.
Sten Mk II.
Uzi with a folding stock.
American-180.
Ruger Mini-14.
L1A1 Self-Loading Rifle.
FN FAL assault rifle (50.00 model).
FN FAL 50.61 variant.
Heckler & Koch G3A3 rifle.
M16A1 assault rifle.
Browning Auto-5
Remington Model 870
Browning .303 Mk 2 medium machine gun.
Browning M2HB .50 Cal heavy machine gun.
M72 LAW
BSAP Marmon-Herrington MkIII armoured cars in the Zimbabwe Military Museum, Gweru .
Eland-90 Mk 6 armoured cars of the Rhodesian Armoured Corps parked at the Inkomo weapons range, 1979.
Rhodesian T-55LD tank of the Rhodesian Armoured Corps parked at the Inkomo weapons range, 1979.
A Leopard APC , mine-protected vehicle, designed and built in Rhodesia during the late 1970s and based on a Volkswagen Kombi engine. This example is displayed in the Imperial War Museum North , Manchester, UK.
A Rhodesian Pookie mine detecting vehicle deployed in 1979.
A Rhodesian Air Force SE 3160 Alouette III helicopter lifting a short wheelbase Mini Moke , August 1962. The Rhodesian Light Infantry (RLI) later used these helicopters for its Fireforce operations.
ex- Rhodesian Air Force De Havilland Vampire T.11 (DH.115) fighter jet at the Zimbabwe Military Museum, Gweru .
ex- Rhodesian Air Force English Electric Canberra B.2 at the Datangshan Aviation Museum , Beijing , 2012.
Tokarev TT-33 pistol
Makarov PM pistol
MP 40 Submachine gun
PPSh-41 Submachine gun
PPS-43 Submachine gun
Sa vz. 23/25 Submachine gun
Škorpion vz. 61 Submachine gun
Steyr Mannlicher M95/30 rifle.
Chinese Type 53 carbine.
SKS semi-automatic rifles were used by the guerrillas before the full introduction of AK-47 and AKM assault rifles.
Type 63 assault rifle
AK-47 assault rifle, widely used by the African guerrilla movements.
Hungarian M/52 rifle with PU 3.5× optics
Dragunov SVD-63 sniper rifle
ex-ZIPRA T-34/85 medium tank at the Zimbabwe Military Museum, Gweru .