Place of origin Finland Length 7.67 m (302 in) Height 2.38 m (94 in) | Weight 5,250 kg (11,574 lb) Width 1.91 m (75 in) | |
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Type All-terrain transport vehicle | ||
The Nasu (acronym for Nauha-Sisu English: Track Sisu, also meaning "Piglet" in Finnish) is a tracked articulated, all-terrain transport vehicle developed by Sisu Auto for the Finnish Army. It consists of two units, with all four tracks powered. It can carry up to 17 people, although the trailer unit can be adapted for different applications (see Variants section). There are two main versions, the NA-140 BT and the NA-110.
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The Nasu was tested in 1985, and the next year 11 pre-production units were ordered. Since then, more than five hundred have been manufactured to equip the armies of China, Turkey and Finland.
Although it looks externally like the Bandvagn 206, which also is in Finnish Army use, it is an entirely new design, and almost 1 meter longer and 1,000 kg (2,205 lb) heavier. It has better payload-carrying capability than the Bv 206. The Nasu is designed to carry troops and equipment through snow and bog-lands in northern Finland. For this, it is equipped with four wide (62 cm) powered rubber tracks. The low ground pressure enables the Nasu to cope with a wide range of difficult conditions. It is also fully amphibious, with a speed in water of up to 6 km/h (4 mph) when driven by its tracks.
The total load capacity is 1,950 kg (4,299 lb) and a trailer with a weight of up to 2,500 kg (5,512 lb) can also be towed behind the second compartment.
More than 500 vehicles of this type have been manufactured and it is used as a personnel carrier and a weapons platform (for BGM-71 TOW anti-tank guided missiles, 120 mm mortars). In basic infantry versions, a roof-mounted 12.7 mm NSV anti-aircraft machine gun is used for close-range antiaircraft protection. There are also command, signals and ambulance variants of the vehicle.
Variants
It steers by the use of a hydraulic ram mounted on the point of articulation. The ram is operated by a steering wheel in the same way as driving a regular car. It is the only type of tracked vehicle that can be driven on (UK) public roads without a category H track license as it does not need the use of steering levers as in a regular tank.