A technical, in professional military parlance often called a non-standard tactical vehicle (NSTV), is a light improvised fighting vehicle, typically an open-backed civilian pickup truck or four-wheel drive vehicle, mounting a machine gun, anti-aircraft gun, rotary cannon, anti-tank weapon, anti-tank gun, ATGM, mortar, multiple rocket launcher, recoilless rifle or other support weapon (somewhat like a light military gun truck or potentially even a self-propelled gun). The neologism technical describing such a vehicle is believed to have originated in Somalia during the Somali Civil War in the early 1990s. Barred from bringing in private security, non-governmental organizations hired local gunmen to protect their personnel, using money defined as "technical assistance grants". Eventually the term broadened to include any vehicle carrying armed men. However, an alternative account is given by Michael Maren, who says the term was first used in Somalia in the 1980s, after engineers from Soviet arms manufacturer
Un vehículo táctico no estándar (NSTV) es un vehículo táctico ligero improvisado, típicamente un camión de carga civil abierto o vehículo de cuatro ruedas, montado con un arma mecánica, arma antiaérea, cañón rotativo, arma anti-tanque, arma anti-tanque, ATGM, mortero, lanzador de cohetes múltiples, rifle inalámbrico u otra arma de apoyo (algo como un camión de armas militares ligeras o potencialmente incluso un arma autopropulsada). Se cree que el neologismo técnico que describe tal vehículo se originó en Somalia durante la Guerra Civil Somalí a principios de la década de 1990.