The GAZ-46, army designation MAV (Russian, малый автомобиль водоплавающий, ''small floating car''), is a Soviet-made light

four-wheel drive Four-wheel drive, also called 4×4 ("four by four") or 4WD, refers to a two-axled vehicle drivetrain capable of providing torque to all of its wheels simultaneously. It may be full-time or on-demand, and is typically linked via a transfer case ...

amphibious Amphibious means able to use either land or water. In particular it may refer to: Animals * Amphibian, a vertebrate animal of the class Amphibia (many of which live on land and breed in water) * Amphibious caterpillar * Amphibious fish, a fish ...

military vehicle that entered service in the 1950s and has been used by many

Eastern Bloc The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc and the Soviet Bloc, was the group of socialist states of Central and Eastern Europe, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America under the influence of the Soviet Union that existed du ...

allied forces since. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Canada, Britain and the US forwarded large quantities of military materials to Russia. Among those were

jeeps Jeep is an American automobile marque, now owned by multi-national corporation Stellantis. Jeep has been part of Chrysler since 1987, when Chrysler acquired the Jeep brand, along with remaining assets, from its previous owner American Moto ...

, trucks, and amphibious vehicles like the 6×6

DUKW The DUKW (colloquially known as Duck) is a six-wheel-drive amphibious modification of the -ton CCKW trucks used by the U.S. military during World War II and the Korean War. Designed by a partnership under military auspices of Sparkman & Step ...

and the 4×4

Ford GPA The Ford GPA "Seep" (Government 'P' Amphibious, where 'P' stood for its 80-inch wheelbase), with supply catalog number G504, was an amphibious version of the World War II Ford GPW jeep. Design features of the much larger and successful DUKW amp ...

. 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 Lend-Lease, formally the Lend-Lease Act and introduced as An Act to Promote the Defense of the United States (), was a policy under which the United States supplied the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and other Allied nations with food, oil, ...

program, before production was halted prematurely in 1943. The research institute NAMI developed a prototype NAMI-011, basing on

GAZ-67 The GAZ-67 and the GAZ-67B (from January 1944) were general-purpose four-wheel drive Soviet military vehicles built by GAZ starting in 1943. By the end of the war, it was the Soviet equivalent of the World War II jeep. The GAZ-67 was a further d ...

B 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 The GAZ-69 is a four-wheel drive off-road vehicle produced by GAZ (ГАЗ, or ''Gorkovsky Avtomobilnyi Zavod'', Gorky Automobile Factory) between 1953 and 1956 and then by UAZ, in 1956–1972, though all of these light truck class vehicles were k ...

. As a result, an improved model GAZ-46 was built using the frame and parts of the

4×4 half-ton light truck, of which production started with the Gorky factory in 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 mechanics of existing Russian GAZ 4×4 "jeeps" as well as being created somewhat bigger for better

buoyancy Buoyancy (), or upthrust, is an upward force exerted by a fluid that opposes the weight of a partially or fully immersed object. In a column of fluid, pressure increases with depth as a result of the weight of the overlying fluid. Thus the p ...

, and its design is heavily inspired by that of the wartime Ford GPA. Just like the 'Seep', its hull is entirely out of steel, welded to a steel chassis. The layout is the same: engine compartment in the front, crew compartment in the center, and the spare wheel horizontally mounted on the rear deck. The driver and the commander of the vehicle have individual seats in the front with a three-seat bench behind them. The windshield can be folded down, and if necessary, a cover can be installed to close the cockpit. The engine is coupled to a manual three-speed gearbox and a two-speed transfer-case. Also, there is a screw-propeller for in the water propulsion, driven by a

power take-off A power take-off or power takeoff (PTO) is one of several methods for taking power from a power source, such as a running engine, and transmitting it to an application such as an attached implement or separate machine. Most commonly, it is a sp ...

, and a proper rudder provides good maneuverability. Front and rear suspension is in the form of leaf-sprung rigid live axles. Thanks to its steeply raked front and rear and four-wheel drive, the GAZ can manage reasonably steep river banks before swimming across.

Popular culture

GAZ-46s of the Soviet armed forces were depicted in the 2007 action-thriller ''

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull ''Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull'' is a 2008 American action-adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg and the fourth installment in the ''Indiana Jones'' series. Released and taking place 19 years after the previous ...

''. Replicas with fiberglass hulls were utilized for filming.

Notes

References

* René Pohl: ''Mit dem Auto baden gehen.'' HEEL Verlag, Gut-Pottscheidt Konigswinter 1998, {{DEFAULTSORT:Gaz 46 Amphibious military vehicles Military vehicles of the Soviet Union GAZ Group military vehicles Military vehicles introduced in the 1950s

Popular culture

See also

Notes

References