LuAZ-967

The LuAZ-967 is a compact 0.4-tonne, four-wheel-drive amphibious carrier built by the Lutsk Automobile Plant (LuAZ) in Ukraine for the Soviet armed forces. A Greek military-vehicle site dates the 967M version's introduction to 1976 and describes it as a vehicle for recovering wounded personnel in the field. It carried a driver and two casualties on stretchers.

Specifications

The 967M is 3.68 m long, 1.71 m wide and 1.55 m high on a 1.8 m wheelbase. It weighs 930 kg empty and 1,350 kg fully laden. Power comes from a MeMZ-967A four-cylinder air-cooled boxer petrol engine of 37 bhp, driving through a five-speed gearbox and a two-speed transfer case with selectable front drive. On the road it reaches 75 km/h. Afloat it is much slower, at about 4 to 6 km/h.

Service

After German reunification, surplus East German army (NVA) equipment was sold abroad, and LuAZ-967Ms reached the Hellenic Army. One served with an engineer battalion in northern Greece, where for more than a year it was used without number plates or national markings. The archive also holds photographs of privately owned examples in the Netherlands and Germany. One of these appears in a photo gallery of the August 2002 Elbe flood in Dresden, captioned 'amphibious vehicle in front of the Schauspielhaus'. Further pictures show the related LuAZ-1901 and LuAZ-970.