MLVM (Masina de Lupta a Vanatorilor de Munte)

History of MLVM (Masina de Lupta a Vanatorilor de Munte)

The modern Romanian Army has access to relatively deep armored tracked wheeled vehicles. One of the former is the MLVM ("Masina de Lupta a Vanatorilor de Munte"), which is similar in characteristics to an armored personnel carrier (APC) but is locally classified as an infantry fighting vehicle (IFV). The vehicle's design includes a diesel-powered engine, a traditional tracked arrangement, can carry a crew of two, and provides seating for seven combat-ready troops.

It has been in service since the late 1980s and has been modernized to NATO operational standards.

The vehicle weighs 9 tons and measures 19.1 feet long, 8.10 feet wide and 6.4 feet high. Armor protects against small arms fire up to 7.62mm caliber, making the vehicle lightweight but providing little useful protection against more common lethal battlefield threats such as large-caliber rifles and machine guns, mines and improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

Power comes from a Saviem 798-05M2 154 hp 4-stroke turbo diesel engine. Coupled with a manual transmission and torsion bar suspension, the vehicle can achieve a road speed of 30 mph in a range of 430 miles. The landing gear consists of six road wheels on one side of the fuselage, the drive sprocket is located in the front, the track idler is located in the rear, and the three track return rollers are usually directly above the road wheels.

Built-in amphibious capabilities allow the boat to reach water speeds as low as 9.3 miles per hour.

The initial armament was rudimentary, led by a 1 x 14.7mm heavy KPVT machine gun, supported by a 1 x 7.62mm PKT machine gun. The former received 600 rounds of ammunition, while the latter received a stockpile of 2,500 rounds. Weapons are housed in manned, powered, trainable and fully enclosed turrets above the top center of the fuselage. The driver is forward left, the engine is forward right, the turret is in the center, and the rear of the hull is reserved for combat infantry, who board the rear hull of the vehicle through a single rectangular hinged door.

Muzzles were provided along the sides of the hull to allow passengers to participate under protection.

A modernized form is the "MLVM-M" which, like the MLI-84 IFV (detailed elsewhere on this page), replaces the original Soviet-style turret with an Israeli weapons station. The weapon station is equipped with a 25mm Oerlikon cannon, a 7.62mm machine gun and two anti-tank missile (ATGM) launchers, greatly extending the lethality of the vehicle.

The Romanian Army maintains an inventory of 76 MLVM tracked infantry carriers, which are typically used for operations in the countrys rougher mountainous regions. Using a common chassis approach, the MLVM also constitutes a 120mm mortar carrier (standardized "M1989"), a turretless ammunition carrier ("MLVM ABAL"), and a turretless variant of a battlefield ambulance ("MLVM MEDEVAC") The basis of) each design has been appropriately changed to better fulfill its given role on the battlefield.

MLVM Specification (Masina de Lupta a Vanatorilor de Munte)

Basic

Roles

Dimensions

Performance

Performance

for everyone else in our database)

Armor

600x14.5mm ammo.

2,500x7.62mm ammo.

Changes