In the east of Ukraine, the city of Bakhmut, once populated by 70,000 people, has been fighting for many months. A significant number of soldiers die and a large amount of military equipment is destroyed in this meat grinder, including rare types that are otherwise rarely seen.
Ukrainian army at Bakhmut this year (2023) captured a remarkable Russian armored vehicle called the Aquarius. Images have appeared on social media that show this vehicle already with Ukrainian camouflage. It is the GAZ-3937 “Aquarius” armored car, which is a “heavy” variant of the GAZ-2330 “Tiger” military vehicle. The manufacturer of both these vehicles is the Russian GAZ in Nizhny Novgorod.
The Vodník vehicle is the Russian answer to the legendary Humvee, or HMMWV (High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle). Obviously, the Russian army does not have 280 thousand of them, which is the number of Humvees produced in the United States since 1984, but the Aquarius is still worth paying attention to.
Only 54 pieces?
As of 2005, the Russian army has only a small number of Aquarius. According to some sources, a total of 54 were to be delivered. As the name of the armored vehicle suggests, it is an amphibious vehicle. The water tank has a modular design.
Depending on the modules chosen, it can perform various functions, including the rapid transport of soldiers, technical equipment or even fuel, in the case of the armored tanker variant. The watercraft can also be equipped with an airborne module, a medical module with which it acts as a military ambulance, or a module with a 120 mm mortar for fire support tasks.
The boat has a crew of two. It can be equipped with the BTR-80 armored vehicle turret, either the older version of the BPU-1, which features a 14.5mm KPVT heavy machine gun and a 7.62mm PKT tandem machine gun, or the newer version of the BPPU with a 2A72 30-caliber autocannon mm and a PKT machine gun.
The design of Aquarius is quite unusual. The four-wheeled diesel-powered vehicle with a maximum weight of 7.5 tons and a length of 5.8 meters has a narrow shape, which is related to its intended use in airborne operations. The main advantage of Aquarius should be its speed, which is up to 120 kilometers per hour.
