In August 1930, at the exercises of the Red Army Air Force near Voronezh, for the first time in our country, a parachute drop of a landing unit of 12 people was carried out. The experience was recognized as successful, and in 1931, in the Leningrad Military District, on the basis of the 11th Infantry Division, the first motorized airborne airborne detachment of 164 people was created. Initially, the main tasks of paratroopers were sabotage and the capture of especially important objects in the rear of the enemy. However, military theorists predicted that airborne units, subject to an increase in numbers, could be used to encircle the enemy, create bridgeheads and quickly transfer them to a threatened direction. In this regard, at the beginning of the 30s, the formation of airborne battalions and brigades of up to 1,500 people began. The first such military unit in December 1932 was the 3rd Special Purpose Aviation Brigade. By January 1934, the Air Force already had 29 airborne units.
In September 1935, the first large-scale airborne exercises took place in the Kiev military district. During the maneuvers, an airborne operation was carried out to seize the airfield in the city of Brovary. At the same time, 1188 soldiers armed with carbines and light machine guns were parachuted. After the "capture" of the airfield, military transport aircraft landed on it, which delivered 1,765 Red Army soldiers with personal weapons, as well as 29 Maxim machine guns, 2 batteries of 37-mm anti-tank guns, a T-27 tankette and several cars.
The production of the T-27 tankette began in 1931. Thanks to a very simple, in some ways even primitive design, it was quickly mastered in production. Until 1934, the troops received more than 3,000 vehicles. The wedge was equipped with a 40 hp engine. and could reach speeds of up to 40 km / h on the highway.
However, the T-27 became obsolete very quickly. Weak armament, which consisted of one 7.62-mm machine gun mounted in the frontal plate, and 10-mm armor by the standards of the second half of the 30s, were considered insufficient. However, the low weight (2, 7 tons) and the widespread use of automotive units contributed to the fact that the T-27 was used for educational purposes and for various kinds of experiments. The T-27 was officially decommissioned on May 8, 1941. In the initial period of the war, tankettes were used as tractors for 45-mm anti-tank guns and airfield service vehicles.
In 1936, 3000 paratroopers were parachuted at the exercises held in the Belarusian Military District, and 8200 people were landed. Artillery, light pick-ups and a T-37A tank were delivered to the "captured" airfield of the mock enemy. The main means of delivery of troops and cargo were TB-3 and R-5 aircraft.
The carrying capacity of the TB-3 bomber made it possible to suspend a light amphibious tank T-37A weighing 3.2 tons under it. The tank was armed with a DT-29 rifle caliber machine gun mounted in a rotating turret. The side and frontal armor 8 mm thick provided protection against bullets and shrapnel. T-37A with a 40 hp four-cylinder petrol engine. accelerated on the highway to 40 km / h.
However, the tank suspended under the fuselage greatly increased the aerodynamic drag of the carrier aircraft and worsened its flight performance. In addition, during the landing of the tank, a high risk of chassis breakage was revealed, since the mass of the TB-3 with the tank significantly exceeded the permissible landing weight. In this regard, the dumping of tanks on the water surface was worked out. However, the experiment was unsuccessful, due to a water hammer during splashdown, the bottom cracked, the thickness of which was 4 mm. Therefore, before the discharge, an additional wooden pallet was installed, which did not allow the tank to immediately burrow into the water. The actual landing with a crew of two ended in serious injuries to the tankers. A more promising topic was considered the creation of special amphibious gliders of high carrying capacity, on which armored vehicles and other heavy loads could be delivered by air. However, large gliders capable of transporting armored vehicles were created in the USSR only in the post-war period.
In December 1941, aircraft designer O. K. Antonov began designing a glider tank. The light tank T-60 was taken as a basis, which was equipped with a glider in the form of a biplane box, with a double-girder vertical tail. The wingspan was 18 m and an area of 85.8 m². After landing, the glider was quickly dropped and the tank could go into battle. During the flight, the crew is inside the tank, and the pilot controls from the driver's seat. The takeoff and landing of the glider tank took place on a tracked chassis.
The choice of the T-60 light tank was largely a forced measure. This vehicle, with a maximum armor thickness of 35 mm, was a wartime ersatz. In the production of the tank, automotive units were used, which made it possible to reduce the production cost. The tank weighing about 6 tons was armed with a 20 mm TNSh-1 automatic cannon (tank version of the ShVAK) and a DT-29 machine gun. Car with a 70 hp carburetor engine. could move on a good road at speeds up to 42 km / h.
Tests of the "winged tank", designated A-40, began in August 1942. Since the total mass of the structure with the airframe reached 7800 kg, the turret was dismantled from the tank to reduce the weight during testing. The TB-3 bomber with AM-34RN engines, the power of which was increased to 970 hp, acted as a towing vehicle. with. Although the tank was lifted into the air on September 2, 1942, the tests were generally considered unsuccessful. Due to its heavy weight and poor aerodynamics, the A-40 barely stayed in the air. The flight almost ended in disaster, since due to overheating of the engines, the TB-3 commander P. A. Eremeev was forced to unhook the tank. Only thanks to the high professionalism of test pilot S. N. Anokhin, who had extensive experience in flying gliders, the landing was successful.
The baptism of fire of Soviet paratroopers took place in 1939 on the Sino-Mongolian border near the Khalkhin-Gol River. In the fighting, the fighters of the 212th Airborne Brigade distinguished themselves. The first drop of the "combat landing" took place on June 29, 1940 during the operation to annex Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina to the USSR. To deliver the landing, TB-3 bombers made 143 sorties, during which 2,118 fighters were landed. The paratroopers captured strategically important objects and took control of the state border.
By the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the airborne brigades were transformed into corps. However, the relatively large Soviet parachute landings carried out during the war years can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Paratroopers were more often thrown in to conduct reconnaissance and sabotage behind enemy lines. The airborne units did not have armored vehicles that could be delivered by air. In 1942, the airborne corps were reorganized into guards rifle divisions, and the paratroopers were used at the front as elite infantry. In the post-war period, the Airborne Forces became directly subordinate to the Minister of Defense and were considered as a reserve of the Supreme High Command. Since 1946, an increase in the number of airborne divisions began.
In the post-war period, the Airborne Forces had special light 37-mm anti-tank guns ChK-M1 and 57-mm ZiS-2 cannons to combat tanks. The ChK-M1 airborne gun, which had ballistics and armor penetration of the 37-mm 61-K anti-aircraft gun, could be disassembled into three parts and carried in packs. There was also a "self-propelled" version installed on an all-wheel drive vehicle GAZ-64 or "Willis". During the exercises, such "self-propelled guns" were repeatedly dropped on parachute landing platforms from a Tu-4 bomber.
However, in the second half of the 40s, the 37-mm cannon could no longer be considered an effective anti-tank weapon. The 57 mm ZiS-2 had much better armor penetration characteristics. Its firepower in the first post-war decade made it possible to successfully fight all medium and heavy tanks of a potential enemy, but a separate tractor was required to transport it. Therefore, soon after the end of the war, the military authorized the development of airborne self-propelled guns.
To strengthen the anti-tank capabilities of the paratroopers after the landing, in 1948, under the leadership of N. A. Astrov, a light SPG ASU-76 was created. The self-propelled gun was armed with a 76, 2-mm LB-76S gun with a slotted muzzle brake and a wedge gate and had a mass in a combat position of 5.8 tons. A 7, 62-mm RP-46 machine gun was intended for self-defense against enemy manpower. Crew - 3 people. The thickness of the upper part of the frontal armor was 13 mm, the bottom of the frontal part of the hull was 8 mm, and the sides were 6 mm. The self-propelled gun was open from above. Gasoline engine with 78 hp accelerated the self-propelled gun on the highway to 45 km / h.
For the end of the 40s, the characteristics of the LB-76S gun were not impressive. The combat rate of fire was 7 rds / min. With a mass of an armor-piercing projectile of 6, 5 kg, it accelerated in a barrel with a length of 3510 mm (with a muzzle brake) to a speed of 680 m / s. At a distance of 500 m, this projectile could penetrate 75 mm armor along the normal. To defeat armored vehicles, sub-caliber rounds BR-354P with armor penetration up to 90 mm from 500 m could be used. That is, in terms of the level of armor penetration, the LB-76S gun was at the level of the "divisional" ZiS-3 and the 76-mm F-34 tank gun. The destruction of openly located enemy manpower and unarmored targets was carried out by fragmentation shells with a mass of 6, 2 kg and an initial speed of 655 m / s. It is no secret that 76-mm tank and divisional guns already in 1943 could not penetrate the frontal armor of heavy German tanks, and therefore the military met the ASU-76 without much enthusiasm.
Although the self-propelled gun turned out to be quite light and compact, at that time in the USSR there were not only transport aircraft of suitable carrying capacity, but also landing gliders. Although in 1949 the ASU-76 was officially adopted, it was not mass-produced and, in fact, remained an experimental one. For military trials and trial operation, 7 self-propelled guns were produced.
In 1949, tests of the ASU-57 self-propelled unit began. The machine, created under the leadership of N. A. Astrov and D. I. Sazonov, was armed with a 57-mm Ch-51 semi-automatic cannon. The gun had a barrel length 74, 16 caliber / 4227 mm (rifled length - 3244 mm) and was equipped with a muzzle brake. The vertical guidance angles of the gun ranged from −5 ° to + 12 °, horizontal guidance - ± 8 °. The sight was designed for firing armor-piercing projectiles at a distance of up to 2000 meters, fragmentation shells - up to 3400 meters.
Armor-piercing tracer projectile BR-271 weighing 3, 19 kg, leaving the barrel with an initial speed of 975 m / s, at a distance of 500 m along the normal could penetrate 100 mm armor. The BR-271N sub-caliber projectile weighing 2.4 kg, at an initial speed of 1125 m / s, pierced 150 mm armor along the normal from half a kilometer. Also, the ammunition included shots with a UO-271U fragmentation grenade weighing 3, 75 kg, which contained 220 g of TNT. The practical rate of fire of the Ch-51 when firing with the aiming correction was 8-10 rds / min. Rapid fire - up to 15 rounds / min. Ammunition - 30 unitary rounds with armor-piercing and fragmentation shells, unified with the ZiS-2 anti-tank gun.
Thus, the ASU-57 could not only fight medium tanks, but also destroy manpower and suppress enemy firing points. For lack of a better, poorly protected self-propelled guns were also considered as an armored means of reinforcing the airborne forces in the offensive. ASU-57 for a long period of time remained the only model of airborne armored vehicles that could be airlifted to provide fire support to the landing force.
According to the layout, the ASU-57 resembled the ASU-76, but weighed only 3.35 tons. The lighter weight (which was very important for the airborne installation) was achieved through the use of armor plates no more than 6 mm thick. The armor protected only from light fragments and rifle bullets fired from a distance of 400 m. The self-propelled gun was equipped with a carburetor engine from a GAZ-M-20 Pobeda passenger car with a power of 55 hp. The maximum speed on the highway is 45 km / h.
Unlike a self-propelled gun with a 76-mm gun, the SAU-57 was not only put into service, but also mass-produced. From 1950 to 1962, the Mytishchi Machine-Building Plant (MMZ) supplied about 500 amphibious assault guns. In 1959, seven airborne divisions had about 250 self-propelled guns. In addition to the USSR, cars were supplied to Poland and the DPRK. During serial production, improvements were made to the design of the SAU-57. This primarily concerned weapons. After 1954, the ASU-57 was armed with a modernized Ch-51M gun, which was distinguished by a more compact active-type muzzle brake, modified recoil devices and a bolt. For self-defense, in addition to personal weapons, the crew had an SGMT machine gun, which was attached to the front of the turret. However, later, the relatively bulky and heavy machine gun was replaced with a hand-held RPD-44 with an intermediate cartridge. In the 60s, the installation of the machine gun was abandoned altogether.
At first, the only delivery vehicle for the ASU-57 was the Yak-14M airborne glider, the design of which, compared to the earlier version of the Yak-14, was specially strengthened for the transport of armored vehicles weighing up to 3600 kg. The self-propelled gun independently entered the glider and left it under its own power through the hinged nose.
The Yak-14 was serially built from 1949 to 1952. In three years, 413 units were built. Il-12D military transport aircraft were used as towing aircraft for landing gliders. However, in the era of jet aircraft, airborne gliders are already obsolete. For takeoff and landing of gliders, prepared unpaved strips were required. Moreover, the length of the runway during takeoff had to be at least 2500 m. During the towing of the glider, the aircraft engines worked at speeds close to the maximum, and the towing speed did not exceed 300 km / h. The flight took place at a relatively low altitude - 2000-2500 m. The ability to tow and land gliders directly depended on meteorological conditions and visibility. Flights at night and in poor visibility conditions were very risky, and the formation of a formation of towing aircraft took a lot of time and required highly qualified pilots. In addition, the coupling in the form of a towing aircraft, due to its low flight speed and extreme constraint in the maneuver, was very vulnerable to anti-aircraft fire and fighter attacks.
The situation changed after the adoption of the An-8 and An-12 turboprop military transport aircraft. These machines, with dramatically increased capabilities, became the workhorses of the Soviet military transport aviation for a long time, and made the Airborne Forces a truly mobile combat arm. The landing of the ASU-57 from these aircraft was provided by both landing and parachute methods.
For the ASU-57 parachute landing, the P-127 universal parachute platform, used with the MKS-4-127 parachute system, was intended. The platform is designed for the landing of loads weighing up to 3.5 tons, from an altitude of 800 to 8000 m, at a drop speed of 250-350 km / h.
The crew landed separately from the gun mount, and after landing freed the equipment from the landing equipment. Such a scheme is not very convenient, since the spread of paratroopers and cargo platforms on the terrain can reach several kilometers. More operational and comfortable for the crew was the airlift with the help of a heavy transport helicopter Mi-6. At the close of their career, ASU-57 was parachuted from heavy military transport An-22 and Il-76.
In terms of destruction capabilities, the ASU-57 armored vehicles were at the level of the 57-mm ZiS-2 anti-tank gun. In some cases, self-propelled guns were also used as tractors for 85-mm guns D-44, D-48 and 120-mm mortars. Before entering service with the BMD-1 and BTR-D, in cases where a quick transfer of forces was required, self-propelled transport weapons on armor of up to four paratroopers.
Despite the fact that by the beginning of the 70s the frontal armor of most Western tanks had become "too tough" for 57-mm guns, the operation of the ASU-57 continued until the first half of the 80s and the Soviet Airborne Forces were in no hurry to part with the light and very compact self-propelled. Initially, the ASU-57 was a divisional anti-tank weapon. Subsequently, as a result of the reorganization of the Airborne Forces and the adoption of the ACS-85 self-propelled guns, armed with 57-mm cannons, were transferred from the divisional to the regimental.
There is no evidence of 57 mm SPGs participating in combat. But it is reliably known that these machines were used in the water of the troops of the Warsaw Pact countries in Czechoslovakia in 1968.
Simultaneously with the design of new generation turboprop military transport aircraft in the early 50s at the Mytishchensky machine-building plant, where the ASU-57 was assembled, under the leadership of N. A. Astrov began the creation of an airborne self-propelled gun, armed with an 85-mm gun. Unlike ASU-76 and ASU-57, the driver's seat was located in front, further went the fighting compartment with the gunner's workplaces (to the left of the gun), the commander and loader were located on the right. The engine compartment is in the rear of the combat vehicle. Frontal armor 45 mm thick, installed at an angle of 45 °, provided protection against small-caliber armor-piercing shells. The frontal projection of the SPG was at the level of the T-34 medium tank. The side armor with a thickness of 13-15 mm resisted shell fragments and rifle armor-piercing bullets fired at close range, as well as 12.7 mm bullets at a distance of more than 400 m.
An 85-mm D-70 cannon with a vertical wedge breech, which has a semiautomatic copy type, is installed in the frontal sheet with a slight offset to the left. The gun is equipped with a two-chamber muzzle brake and an ejector for removing powder gases after firing.
It is worth telling in more detail about the characteristics of the D-70 gun. This artillery system used ammunition from an 85-mm anti-tank gun with increased ballistics D-48. In turn, the D-48 was created by F. F. Petrov in the early 50s on the basis of the anti-tank D-44. But in the 85-mm projectile of the new gun, a sleeve from a 100-mm round was used. In this regard, the recoil devices, the bolt and the barrel of the gun were reinforced. Due to the significantly increased muzzle velocity of the projectile, the armor penetration increased significantly. But at the same time, the resource of the barrel was noticeably reduced and the mass of the gun increased. Due to the limitations on the dimensions of the machine, when placed inside a military transport aircraft, the barrel of the D-70 became shorter than the barrel of the D-48 by 6 calibers and, accordingly, the initial velocity of the projectile dropped by 35 m / s. But, nevertheless, the characteristics of the gun remained quite high.
The BR-372 armor-piercing projectile weighing 9, 3 kg, leaving the barrel with an initial speed of 1005 m / s, at a distance of 500 m, could normally penetrate a 190 mm armor plate. The Br-367P sabot-tracer projectile weighing 4, 99 kg with an initial speed of 1150 m / s possessed even greater armor penetration. For firing at armored vehicles, 3BK7 cumulative projectiles weighing 7, 22 kg and 150 mm armor penetration were also used. The thickness of the penetrated armor for a cumulative projectile does not depend on the range.
It was believed that the 85-mm D-70 cannon could hit armored targets at a range of up to 2500 m. In reality, the effective fire distance against tanks did not exceed 1600 m. The composition of the ammunition consisted of shots with a high-explosive fragmentation grenade UO-365K weighing 9, 54 kg. High-explosive fragmentation shells could be successfully used to destroy manpower and destroy field fortifications. The maximum firing range of high-explosive fragmentation projectiles was 13,400 m. The combat rate of fire of the towed D-85 anti-tank gun reached 12 rds / min, but due to the constrained working conditions of the loader and the need to extract artillery shots from the ammunition rack, on the ASU-85 this indicator in practice did not exceed 6 -8 rounds / min.
Direct fire was conducted using a telescopic articulated sight TShK-2-79-11. When firing from closed firing positions, the S-71-79 panoramic sight was used. For firing at night, there was a TPN-1-79-11 night tank sight and a night vision device with infrared illumination. Paired with the gun is a 7.62 mm SGMT machine gun. The gun has an elevation angle ranging from -5 to +15 °. Horizontal guidance - ± 15 °. Ammunition is 45 unitary artillery rounds and 2,000 rifle caliber rounds.
The self-propelled gun received a very perfect undercarriage for that time, consisting of six single-row rubberized road wheels, a rear drive and a front guide, with a track tension mechanism, wheels on each side of the machine. Suspension - individual, torsion bar. Smooth running was ensured by piston-type hydraulic shock absorbers. Diesel two-stroke automobile engine YaAZ-206V with a capacity of 210 hp. accelerated 15 tons of the car on the highway to 45 km / h. Due to the relatively small mass, the self-propelled unit had good mobility on rough terrain and cross-country ability on soft soils. The fuel range is 360 km.
Initially, the airborne self-propelled guns received the designation SU-85, but to prevent confusion with the self-propelled gun used during the war years, in most documents it is referred to as the ASU-85, although in the Airborne Forces it was often referred to as before.
The first serial modification of the ASU-85 did not have a roof, and in the stowed position the wheelhouse was covered from above with a tarpaulin. Subsequently, the fighting compartment was closed on top with a 6 mm thick armored roof with four hatches. In the 1960s and 1980s, the likelihood of a global or limited conflict with the use of nuclear and chemical weapons was considered quite high. In the context of the use of weapons of mass destruction, the capabilities of the ASU-85 were quite modest. The fighting compartment of the self-propelled gun was not sealed, and there was no filtration unit and a device for creating overpressure inside the vehicle. Therefore, on an area exposed to chemical or radiation contamination, the crew was forced to work not only in gas masks, but also in isolating OZK.
The experience of the combat use of the ASU-85 in the Arab-Israeli war revealed the need to install a 12.7-mm DShKM anti-aircraft machine gun. A commander's cupola appeared on late-production vehicles.
Initially, ASU-85s could only be landed from the An-12 and An-22 military transport aircraft. But after the 4P134 (P-16) platform was put into service in 1972, it became possible to drop it by parachute.
The vehicle was mounted on a platform with a multi-ball parachute system. Immediately before landing, special braking rocket engines were triggered, extinguishing vertical speed. After landing, the self-propelled unit could be brought into a combat position within 5 minutes, but the crew was parachuted separately.
Serial production lasted from 1959 to 1966. For 7 years, it was possible to build about 500 cars. In the Airborne Forces, ASU-85 were used in separate self-propelled artillery divisions (30 vehicles), which were the anti-tank reserve of the division commander.
The armor penetration characteristics of the 85-mm D-70 guns in the 60s and 70s made it possible to successfully fight medium tanks in service with NATO countries. In addition, the ASU-85 was seen as a means of supporting the winged infantry in the offensive. The adoption of the ASU-85 into service significantly increased the combat potential of the Soviet airborne troops.
In the mid-60s, fifty ASU-85s were transferred to Egypt, 31 vehicles to Poland and 20 GDR. In the late 70s, about 250 self-propelled guns were in operation in the Soviet Union. In 1979, after the outbreak of the Vietnam-China conflict, ASU-85 reinforced the anti-tank units of the Vietnam People's Army. Both in the Middle East and in the jungles of Southeast Asia, light SPGs, which successfully counted their low weight, good mobility and firepower, proved to be good with proper use.
The first combat operation in which the Soviet ASU-85 was used was the entry of the troops of the Warsaw Pact countries into Czechoslovakia in 1969. After that, the army wits called the self-propelled gun "Prague crocodile". ASU-85 also participated in the initial stage of the "Afghan epic" as part of the artillery division of the 103rd airborne division.
In the first half of the 80s, self-propelled guns began to be removed from the artillery units of the airborne divisions and put into storage. Officially, the ASU-85 was decommissioned only in 1993, although by that time there were no more self-propelled guns in the combat units.
But the story of the ASU-85 did not end there. In 2015, information appeared that self-propelled guns were removed from storage in Vietnam, and after repairs, they were introduced into the combat strength of the 168th artillery brigade of the VNA. The Vietnamese command considered that these vehicles are very well suited for operations on terrain, hard-to-reach heavy armored vehicles. Taking into account the fact that China, which is the main potential enemy of Vietnam, still has a lot of tanks built on the basis of the Soviet T-55, a light and squat self-propelled gun, armed with a weapon powerful enough to defeat them, can be very useful. Modern tanks with multi-layer frontal armor are vulnerable when 85 mm armor-piercing shells hit the side.
