Minsk Automobile Plant gets rid of non-core equipment
The first part of the material dealt with the Minsk SKB-1, which was engaged in the development of heavy equipment in the interests of the USSR Ministry of Defense. It was here that the main character of our story, MAZ-535, was developed. However, the firstborn of the design bureau was not a four-axle ballast tractor at all, but the MAZ-528 (4x4) vehicle, designed for towing trailers and working with bulldozer dumps. The tractor appeared in 1955, was very similar to a large tractor and was equipped with a YaAZ-206 diesel engine with a capacity of 206 liters. with. Later, this prototype evolved into a medium-sized engineering wheeled tractor IKT-S, or MAZ-538, with a 375 hp engine. with. In 1963, due to the fact that Minsk residents could not cope with the growing demands of the military, the production of the car was transferred to Kurgan, to the plant of wheeled tractors named after D. M. Karbyshev (KZKT). Until that time, the company specialized in agricultural machinery and spare parts for tractor motors.
In 1965, the MAZ-535 with all modifications also left Minsk forever. From that moment, in the heavy military automotive industry, KZKT was responsible for the production of tank and ballast tractors, and MAZ remained more prestigious equipment for the missile forces - already in the early 60s, SKB-1 was in full swing on the two-cab MAZ-534. And KZKT actually finished producing variations on the theme of the 535th car only in the early 90s.
In 1960, MAZ got rid of the production of 25-ton dump trucks - they transferred production to the Zhodino Machine-Building Plant, which later became the Belarusian Automobile Plant, the birthplace of the world-famous BelAZ trucks. I will allow myself a slight digression from the main topic and I will mention that in Soviet times, export options for equipment were often simply renamed BelAZ, so high was the image of cars from Zhodino abroad. In particular, KrAZ trucks intended for Europe were subjected to “rebranding”.
Single-axle tractors MAZ-529B, together with the design headquarters, were transferred from Minsk in 1960 to the Mogilev plant of handling equipment, which we remember as MoAZ. Now it is the Mogilev Automobile Plant named after S. M. Kirov, a branch of BelAZ. All this suggests that it is difficult to overestimate the importance of the engineers and designers of the Minsk Automobile Plant for the technical development of transport throughout the Soviet Union. And the topic also evokes sad thoughts: in Belarus they were able to preserve all the mentioned enterprises, and the domestic KZKT no longer exists.
The armed forces demand heroes
Let's go back to the eight-wheeled MAZs. The firstborn were the 535, dated 1956, and the 535A with a reinforced frame, which was produced from 1957 to 1969. The 535V truck tractor differed from the artillery ballast tractors by the balanced suspension of the rear pair of axles without elastic elements, the absence of a winch and a tire inflation system, which were additionally reinforced for large loads. On the towed MAZ-535V two-axle semitrailer, a launch pad was placed to launch the Tu-213 reconnaissance aircraft of the Yastreb complex. The launch was carried out from the STA-30 launcher. For the first time, the engine compartment and the cockpit received partial booking, which protects from the streams of hot gases from the taking off reconnaissance aircraft. In 1960, experiments were carried out to mount an experimental D-110K launcher on the 535B of the Onega tactical complex with a 3M1 missile weighing up to 3 tons. In 1961, the truck was carrying on its "back" a tactical complex "Ladoga" with a 3M2 missile, the mass of which exceeded 3 tons. The first launches from the wheeled chassis were unsuccessful, and instead of the complex, the famous 2P16 "Luna" installation on the PT-76 tracked chassis was adopted. Naturally, the resource of the tracked vehicles was relatively small, for long distances the complex had to be loaded onto wheeled semi-trailers MAZ-535B. The main semi-trailer of a semitrailer tractor was then a 25-ton MAZ-5248 with four single wheels.
But the Ministry of Defense's appetites grew, as did the masses of cargo transported. That is why the most common model in the first wave of Mazovian heavy vehicles appeared - MAZ-537. This vehicle was mainly intended for transporting tanks and other armored vehicles and still serves in this role. The power of the Barnaul engine was increased to 525 hp. with., that this seriously improved the traction capabilities of the machine. Now a four-axle tractor could transport 50 tons on a low-loader ChMZAP-5247 semi-trailer, as well as up to 75 tons as part of road trains with strategic weapons. It was MAZ-537 that frightened foreign attaches at parades with the R-9A intercontinental ballistic missile. The MAZ-535A ballast tractor carried out a similar trick with the R-36 missile. Now the 537th serves in the army not only the classic role of a tank carrier, but also serves in the Strategic Missile Forces - it transports amyl and heptyl rocket fuel components. For this, two filling tanks ZATs-1 and ZATs-2 are mounted on the semitrailer. Among the few modifications of the 537th vehicle there was a version with the letter G, equipped with a 15-ton winch located behind the engine compartment. Also in Minsk, they developed MAZ-537D with an alternating current generator station and version 537E also with a generator that powered the hub motors of an active semitrailer with a total weight of up to 65 tons. One of the few options for using machines of the E series was a unified transport and reloading unit of a transport and launch container for the Strategic Missile Forces. This 41-meter giant consists of a tractor and an active three-axle semi-trailer with all steerable wheels. The main task of this machine is the transportation and crane-free reloading of the transport and launch container. There is a version for a similar purpose with a five-axle fully controlled semitrailer - the curb weight of such a road train exceeds 125 tons. Even giant carriers with a wheel arrangement of 48x48 have been developed and assembled!
The production range also included the onboard MAZ-537A, which can still be found at military airfields in the post-Soviet space. In the back of this tractor, it was possible to place up to 15 tons of cargo. If we compare the machine 535A and 537A, then the latter will be longer (increased from 8780 mm to 9130 mm), wider (from 2805 mm to 2885 mm), lower (from 2915 mm to 2880 mm) and with a grown base from 5750 mm to 6050 mm … In general, in the course of modernization, the Belarusian giant has grown a little in almost all directions. And the appetite of the 537 version grew to 125 l / 100 km, which forced the designers to increase the capacity of the fuel tanks to 840 liters. The latest version was MAZ-537K, on which the crane was mounted.
In 1962, the Ministry of Defense insisted on a kind of recall campaign, when all MAZ-535A and MAZ-537 produced by that time were modernized. Among other things, the frame was reinforced, the engine heating system was re-equipped, the stamped engine exhaust manifolds were replaced with cooled cast ones, additional oil filters were installed in the hydromechanical transmission, and they were also replaced with more advanced bearings in the torque converter. In addition, the driveshafts from the transfer case to the axles were replaced and the attachment of the rear flange of the intermediate shaft to the same box was changed.
There was a short chapter in the history of MAZ-537 with the installation of missile systems for various purposes, and this took place in comparison with the newest MAZ-543 at that time. In 1962-1963, the 537G tractor became a carrier of a semi-trailer with the installation of an R-16 intercontinental ballistic missile, the weight of which was approaching 147 tons. The entire load was taken by the 8T139 biaxial transport trolley, and the task of the tractor was to deliver the rocket to the launch pad. They tried to install the Temp operational-tactical complex (later Temp-S) with a nuclear warhead on the MAZ-537, and even conducted comparative tests in 1963. They compared it with the long MAZ-543, which was better suited for transporting missiles, which in the end won.
Since the late 50s and early 60s, the Minsk Automobile Plant gradually increased the production of technically sophisticated vehicles, which, with their extraordinary capabilities, won respect among the troops and received the resounding name "Hurricane". Now cars of different generations and from different manufacturers can be found not only on the roads and off-road of the post-Soviet space, but also in Europe - in particular, cars are very fond of in Germany and they continue military service in Finland.
The end of the cycle will be devoted to the ups and downs of putting the first eight-wheeled MAZs into mass production and subsequent transfer to Kurgan.
The end follows …
