Improvised vehicle weapon mounts, such as gun-armed jeeps, have been used on vehicles since automobiles entered the battlefield in large numbers. The technical appeared in local conflicts throughout the 20th Century surely, but were made famous first by what Time called the "Toyota War" and by Aidid's militias in Somalia. The Toyota War was so nicknamed because Chad's armed forces mostly used Toyota pickup trucks, which were cheap and plentiful and could drive offroad, to transport their troops, and won a decisive victory over Libyan troops. But the Toyota War wasn't exactly well-known even at the time, and armed technicals first got major exposure during the Somali Civil War, particularly during the events surrounding the Battle of Mogadishu. It's during this conflict that armed or military pickups became first known as technicals, supposedly from the term "technical assistance grant" used by organizations in Somalia to hire local militiamen as guards