GAZ-69
Encyclopedia
GAZ-69 is a four wheel drive
Four Wheel Drive
The Four Wheel Drive Auto Company, more often known as Four Wheel Drive or just FWD, was founded in 1909 in Clintonville, Wisconsin, as the Badger Four-Wheel Drive Auto Company by Otto Zachow and William Besserdich.-History:...

 light truck, produced by GAZ
GAZ
GAZ or Gorkovsky Avtomobilny Zavod , translated as Gorky Automobile Plant , started in 1932 as NAZ, a cooperation between Ford and the Soviet Union. It is one of the largest companies in the Russian automotive industry....

 (ГАЗ, or Gorkovskij Awtomobilnyj Zavod) between 1953 and 1955. From 1954 until 1972 it was produced by UAZ
UAZ
UAZ , Ulyanovsky Avtomobilny Zavod is an automobile manufacturer based in Ulyanovsk, Russia which manufactures off-road vehicles, buses and trucks. It is best known for its Model 469 jeep, which has seen wide use as a military vehicle in Russia and around the world...

, as UAZ-69, though they were commonly known as GAZ-69s as well. It was also produced under licence by ARO
ARO
ARO was a Romanian off-road vehicle manufacturer located in Câmpulung-Muscel. The first ARO vehicles were produced in 1957, and the last in 2003. For a short while, Daihatsu-powered AROs were produced in Spain and Portugal under the brands Hisparo and Portaro, respectively...

 in Romania, first as IMS-57, then as Muscel M59, later modernized as the Muscel M461.

Basic variant GAZ-69 has a pair of doors only and most often appears with standard canvas top and upper sides. Further variant GAZ-69A (UAZ-69A) has two pair of doors. From the UAZ-69 there were developed off-road van and light truck UAZ-450 and newer jeep UAZ-469
UAZ-469
The UAZ-469 is an all-terrain vehicle manufactured by UAZ. It was used by the Red Army and other Warsaw Pact forces, as well as paramilitary units in Eastern Bloc countries. In the Soviet Union, it also saw widespread service in all state organizations that needed a robust off-road vehicle.The...

.

Military use

The GAZ-69 was the basic light off-road vehicle of the Soviet Army, replacing GAZ-67
GAZ-67
The GAZ-67 and the subsequent GAZ-67B 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 Willy's Jeep...

s and Willys Jeep
Willys MB
The Willys MB US Army Jeep and the Ford GPW, were manufactured from 1941 to 1945. These small four-wheel drive utility vehicles are considered the iconic World War II Jeep, and inspired many similar light utility vehicles. Over the years, the World War II Jeep later evolved into the "CJ" civilian...

s. The GAZ-69 was itself replaced with the UAZ-469
UAZ-469
The UAZ-469 is an all-terrain vehicle manufactured by UAZ. It was used by the Red Army and other Warsaw Pact forces, as well as paramilitary units in Eastern Bloc countries. In the Soviet Union, it also saw widespread service in all state organizations that needed a robust off-road vehicle.The...

.

It was also used as the basis for the 2P26 tank destroyer - see AT-1 Snapper
AT-1 Snapper
The 3M6 Shmel is the MCLOS wire-guided Anti-tank missile of the Soviet Union. "3M6" is its GRAU designation. Its NATO reporting name is AT-1 Snapper.Too large to be manportable, it was typically deployed from specialised vehicles or helicopters...

 - as well as for the GAZ 46 MAV
GAZ 46
The GAZ-46, army designation MAV , 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...

, a light 4x4 amphibious vehicle
Amphibious vehicle
An amphibious vehicle , is a vehicle or craft, that is a means of transport, viable on land as well as on water – just like an amphibian....

, whose design was largely copied from the World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 Ford GPA 'Seep'
Ford GPA
The Ford GPA 'Seep , was an amphibious version of the WWII Ford GPW Jeep. Unlike the jeep, the seep was not a successful design being too slow and heavy on land and lacking sufficient seagoing abilities in open water...

.
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