GAZ-46
Channel: all the knowledge of the universe PRINCIPIA
Date: 2022-01-20

GAZ-46, by Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10102860 / CC BY SA 3.0

#Amphibious_military_vehicles
#Military_vehicles_of_the_Soviet_Union
#GAZ_Group_military_vehicles
#Military_vehicles_introduced_in_the_1950s
The GAZ-46, army designation MAV （Russian, малый автомобиль водоплавающий, small floating car）, is a Russian-made light four-wheel
drive amphibious military vehicle that entered service in the 1950s and has been used by many Eastern Bloc allied forces since.
During the Second World War Canada, Britain and the US forwarded large quantities of military materials to Russia.
Among those were jeeps, trucks, and amphibious vehicles like the 6×6 DUKW and the 4×4 Ford GPA. The latter were used to help men and equipment get across the many rivers of Eastern Europe and combat the Germans.
Seeing merits of such vehicles, after the war, Russia decided to develop two similar vehicles, using domestic automotive parts, the BAV,
an equivalent of the DUKW, and the MAV, an equivalent of the Ford GPA. Due to bad reception of the Ford GPA 'Seep' by Allied soldiers,
most of them were routed to Russia under the US Lend-Lease program, before production was halted prematurely in 1943.
The research institute NAMI developed a prototype NAMI-011, basing on GAZ-67B parts, in 1949.
The authorities decided, that it should be manufactured in GAZ works, as GAZ-011, but the factory was reluctant, because a design needed much perfecting, while the GAZ-67B was obsolete and due to be replaced with GAZ-69.
As a result, an improved model GAZ-46 was built using the frame and parts of the GAZ-69 4×4 half-ton light truck, of which production started with the Gorki factory of 1952.
The principal functions of the GAZ-46 MAV were to make light work of crossing lakes and rivers for men and materials, as well as performing river reconnaissance.
As of the end of the fifties the latter role became reserved for the BRDM-1, a much more powerful 4×4 amphibious vehicle.
The GAZ-46 MAV used the mech...