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The Luchs is an 8x8 armoured reconnaissance vehicle of the German army. Prototypes of the Luchs were built in the late 1960s / early 1970s, and production ran from 1975 - 1977. The vehicle is powered by a Daimler Benz multi-fuel engine. It is fully amphibious with two propellers at the rear. There are four crew: commander, gunner, front driver and radio operator / rear driver. When called upon, the rear driver takes control and the vehicle can proceed at full speed in the reverse direction.
From `Otten' by email [8/99]: The Luchs (Polecat?) is an amphibious 8-wheeler for reconnaissance, armed with a 20mm gun - crewed by four men: a gunner, a commander, and two drivers, one for each direction! This 15 to 20 ton armoured vehicle is used to probe enemy location in central European NATO countryside by sneaking around silently, so silently in fact that as long as the driver keeps his feet away from the brakes (which squeal like hell) one can hardly hear it from ten metres away. Upon contact with the enemy the commander yells, the gunner sprays the area with 20mm rounds and the driver in front pushes a lever which gives total control to the guy in the back, who is now in front, to make a hasty retreat. This only works if the 2nd driver hasn't fallen asleep, of course. During my 15 months I have known of drivers having spent weeks being driven about backwards, only to be semi-comatose when the crunch comes during training exercises. The only problem is that uprading has made the Luchs so heavy that in peace-time very little training is done in water, and then only with minimal kit on-board because they are prone to turn belly up and sink.
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