CLUNKBUCKET

Crippling winter snow storms serve as a reminder that when the big snow or the Russians do show up, those all-season radials on that 1984 Plymouth Voyager in the driveway are not going to cut it. A snow shovel and some road salt might get the Voyager out of the driveway, but when you wake up to sub-zero weather and see Vladimir Putin doing shirtless chin ups on the kids swing set in your backyard, there had better be something heavy-duty out in the garage. The M-973 Cargo Carrier is equipped with not one but two sets of drive treads, a Mercedes five-cylinder turbodiesel, and can carry either 17 fully equipped troops or over two tons of supplies.

One driver and a co-pilot ride up front on either side of the five-cylinder turbodiesel engine and transmission. Everyone or everything else rides aft. An articulated steering-drive system runs between the fiberglass cabs so that both sets of treads work as one. Quad-treaded turbo power and integral bilge pump gives the Hagglunds amphibious capability and a top speed of over 30 miles per hour! The M-973 is a Hagglunds-built descendant of the Volvo-built Bandvagen 202. This one sits in front of the Vermont Army National Guard Museum, evidently retired from service after Brezhnev and company never came down through Quebec after all.

More: The M-973 Small Unit Support Vehicle