Super Bazooka, M79 "Blooper", XM-148 and M203 single-shot grenade launchers, and the expendable anti-tank, one-shot M72 LAW 66mm. Captured infantry weapons of Soviet and Chinese origin, such as PPSh-41 submachine guns, SKS semi-automatic rifles, AK-47 assault rifles, RPD light machine guns, SG-43/SGM Goryunov medium machine guns, DShKM heavy machine guns and RPG-2 and RPG-7 anti-tank rocket launchers were also employed by elite commando units and the irregular SGUs while on special operations in the enemy-held areas of north-eastern and south-eastern Laos. Armoured vehicles By the mid-1950s, the ANL armoured corps inventory consisted of fifteen M24 Chaffee light tanks whilst the reconnaissance armoured squadron was provided with twenty M8 Greyhound and M20 Armoured Utility Cars. Mechanized infantry battalions were issued with M3 half-tracks and fifteen M3A1 Scout Cars. These obsolete armored vehicles were used mainly for convoy escort duty and static defense of local provincial capitals, being rarely engaged in more offensive operations against the Pathet Lao or the NVA. The Neutralists received in December 1961 forty-five PT-76 Model 1951 amphibious light tanks from the Soviet Union, with the vehicles being subsequently taken into RLA service in 1963 and employed on offensive operations, only to be withdrawn from frontline service in November of the following year due to shortages of spare parts and ammunition. In August 1969, during the Operation About Face to recapture the Plain of Jars, the irregular Hmong SGU guerrilla forces managed to capture from the NVA some twenty-five PT-76B tanks and immediately pressed them into service, being subsequently engaged in the 1970 wet season offensive in the Plain of Jars, but once again maintenance problems soon rendered the vehicles inoperable. The FAR General Staff then requested the delivery of modern M41 Walker Bulldog light tanks to the RLA armoured corps in order to provide better armor support to the Hmong SGU guerrillas, but the request was declined by Washington, who provided instead in 1970-71 some second-hand fifteen M-706 armoured cars and twenty tracked M113 armored personnel carriers. Artillery Initially equipped with ten ex-French US M116 75mm pack howitzers and some M8 HMC 75mm self-propelled howitzers, the artillery corps fielded since 1963 twenty-five US-supplied M101A1 105mm towed field howitzers and ten M114A1 155mm towed field howitzers received in 1969. The RLA suffered from a serious fire-support shortfall throughout the War, since its small artillery corps was incapable to counter effectively the threat posed by the Soviet 122mm and