GAZ

The Gaz 66 was produced at the Gorki Car plant that was setup as a cooperation between the Ford Motor Company and also the USSR in 1929.

After of WWII the American auto makers Ford and GM had furnished the Russian with trucks under a lend lease arrangement and the USA designs were changed and taken to create just Russian trucks like the Gaz 33 and Zil 157. From then in the USSR started to design their own vehicles based in the U.S.A. principals but created for the rigorous environments within their own continent. Toughness, offroad ability, simplicity, reliability and ease of care were all important design variables.

For example, the ZIL 131 was the chief 31/2 - ton 6 x 6 Russian military truck created also in a civilian 4 x and is used in Vietnam and Afghanistan 2 version as the ZIL 130. More Than 60 percent of the components in the ZIL 131 military truck are typical to the civilian truck.

All Russian truck technology and a big portion of Russian truck-production equipment has come in the West, chiefly in the Usa. Many leading American businesses have been dominant in building up the Russian truck industry.

The Ford Motor Co and the A.J. Brandt Company and the Austin Company, GE, Swindell-Dressier, and others furnished the technical assistance, design work, and gear of the initial giant plants.

This Russian militarycivilian truck business initially comprised two primary groups of plants, plus five newer giant plants.

The first group used versions, technical help, and elements and components from the Fordbuilt Gorki car plant (GAZ is the version designation). The 2nd team of production plants used versions, parts, and components from the A. J. Brandt-reconstructed ZIL plant in Moskva (Zavod imeni Likhachev, once the AMO and afterwards the Stalin plant).

There's a basic distinction between the Ford and Brandt companies. Brandt had just one contract within the USSR, to reconstruct the old AMO plant in 1929. Ford is still interested in company. Brandt is not interested and hasn't been since 1930.

This constitutes the whole Soviet vehicle production business - - all assembled with chiefly American, Western, technical support and technology. Military models are created in these plants using the same parts as the models. Both main vehicle production centres, ZIL and Gorki, make more than twothirds of all Soviet civilian vehicles (excluding the new plants) and nearly Kama Togliatti and all current military vehicles.

Moreover, U.S.A. equipment has been sent in considerable quantifies to Gorki and subsidiary plants since the 1930s -- really some shipments were produced from america in 1968 during the Vietnamese War.

The BA was accompanied by the BA10 -- the Ford Model-A truck chassis using a mount comprising either a 37millimeter firearm or a 12.7millimeter heavy machine gun. A Red Army staff car was likewise predicated on the Ford Model - An in the period.

Throughout World War II Gorki produced the GAZ-60 -- a hybrid vehicle halftrack personnel carrier that joined the GAZ-63 chassis. In the late 1940s the plant changed to creation of an amphibious carrier -- The GAZ-46. This is a conventional GAZ69 chassis with a US quarterton amphibious body.

In brief, the Ford - Gorki plant has a constant history of creation of armored cars and wheeled vehicles for Soviet military use: those used against america in Vietnam and Korea.

In addition to armored cars, the Ford-Gorki factory makes a variety of truckmounted arms. This collection started in early thirties with a 76.2millimeter field howitzer mounted in the Ford - GAZ Version-A truck. Two similar weapons from Gorki before WWII were a double 25millimeter antiaircraft machine gun and a quad 7.62millimeter Maxim antiaircraft machine gun -- also mounted in the Ford--GAZ truck chassis.

Throughout World War II Gorki created several rocketlaunchers mounted on trucks. Also during World War II Gorki produced the GAZ 203, 85hp engine for the SU76 selfpropelled firearm produced at Uralmashzavod.

After World War II Gorki creation of rocketlaunchers continued with the BM31, which had twelve 300millimeter tubes attached to a GAZ 63 truck chassis.