Rīgas Autobusu Fabrika

Latvian Rīgas Autobusu Fabrika, (Russian: Рижская Автомобильная Фабрика) (abbreviated RAF) was a factory in Jelgava, Latvia, making vans under the brand name Latvija.

During the Soviet period, RAF and UAZ were the only producers of the vans in Soviet Union. The RAF vans were used only by state enterprises, most often as ambulances and for public transit. Private persons were not allowed to own them, the only exception being for families with at least five children.

The factory started in 1949 on the site of the Rīga auto repair factory №2 and originally produced only van bodies. In 1955, it was renamed the Riga Experimental Bus Factory (Russian: Рижский Опытный Автобусный Завод), and the products started to be abbreviated to RAF.

RAF’s first product was the RAF 251, a 22-seat local bus, based on a GAZ-51 chassis. From 1958 the factory started to produce RAF 977 microbuses, based on GAZ-21 Volga assemblies. It was planned to produce passenger, freight and specialized versions of the vehicle. The first batch of 1-ton vans was produced in 1962 and was based on modernized 977D chassis. However, the factory size was not large enough to put this model into mass production, and therefore it was moved to ErAZ (Yerevan, Armenia).