BAZ-5937

The BAZ-5937 is a Soviet 6x6 amphibious special chassis built by the Bryansk Automobile Plant (BAZ). It belongs to a family of floating wheeled carriers that a Soviet design bureau began developing at the end of the 1960s under a state order for vehicles to carry the Tochka tactical missile and the Osa anti-aircraft missile system. The 5937 and the closely related 5939 served the Osa; the 5921 and 5922 carried Tochka.

Design

The vehicle has a watertight welded steel hull with its three axles evenly spaced along the body for good weight distribution and cross-country ability. All wheels are independently sprung on torsion bars, and a central tyre-pressure system feeds the large 1200 x 500-508 tyres. Drive is taken from the gearbox to the wheels on each side separately, so that the vehicle can still move if one side fails. In the 5937 and 5939 the engine sits at the rear; later family members moved it behind the cab.

According to an East German vehicle data sheet for the BAZ-5939 (1987), it is about 9.1 m long, 2.78 m wide and 1.93 m high, weighs 13 tonnes empty with a payload of about 5.7 tonnes, and is powered by a 15.9-litre 5D20B-300 diesel of 300 hp, giving up to 95 km/h on the road and a range of about 400 km. It climbs 58 % gradients, crosses 2 m trenches, floats and seats three in the cab.

Use

In the 9K33M2 Osa-AK system (NATO SA-8 Gecko) the BAZ-5937 carries the combat vehicle with its radar and six 9M33M2 missiles, while a separate control unit rides on a ZIL truck. A correspondent of the archive owner noted that Osa vehicles in Polish, East German, Czechoslovak and Hungarian service used a D20B-200 engine rated at 240 hp instead of the original 300 hp, and gave a 350-litre fuel tank and a range of 500 km.