When the Great Patriotic War ended, the euphoria subsided a little, and everyday work began. The analysis of the war began. Getting military experience and understanding it.
So, it was precisely the comprehension of the experience gained during the war that showed the complete inconsistency of the military air defense available in the Red Army. In general, everything was very bad with our air defense, and people who were not stupid and who fought came to the conclusion that something must be done in this situation.
Tankers especially asked for protection from aviation. The tank is a very tasty target both in those years and today, by the way. And his priority is just the tank and it turns out. Quite large. And the tank brigade of the second half of the 40s relied only on an anti-aircraft machine-gun company.
These are 48 personnel and 9 DShK machine guns. For 65 tanks and 146 trucks, I note. According to states No. 010/500 - 010/506 (November 1943). Anti-aircraft guns were not required for a separate tank brigade at all. Ugly alignment, of course.
But even in the divisional structure, air defense systems were negligible. Yes, and they were mainly equipped with towed 37-mm anti-aircraft guns 61-K or 25-mm 72-K, which, before repelling the raid, still had to be deployed and made for battle.
Practice has shown that there was not and could not have been a more tasty morsel for German aviation in the Great Patriotic War than a unit on the march.
At the same time, the enemy was armed with a fairly large number of self-propelled air defense weapons, the main difference from the towed ones was that they were ready to open fire without any additional preparation.
If you carefully study the issue, then the Red Army had mobile air defense systems. By trucks.
On the one hand, it is cheap and cheerful, on the other, there is a complete absence of any protection against enemy aviation. Not the best deal, given that the Germans have armored mobile air defense systems, albeit easily, but.
The current situation had to be rectified by adopting an anti-aircraft self-propelled gun capable of firing on the move, keeping up with tanks on the march. And the installation would have to be of sufficient caliber to effectively defeat enemy bombers and armored attack aircraft.
The first mass-produced ZSU created in the USSR was the ZSU-37, armed with a 37-mm 61-K cannon. Conditionally serial, since its production was limited to 75 cars produced in 1945, which was not even a drop in the bucket on the scale of the Red Army.
A more serious application was the 57-mm S-60 automatic cannon, developed by V. G. Grabin's design bureau. The gun was a success, but in the original version it still had the same drawback - low mobility. Therefore, already in 1947, even before the S-60 was put into service, the development of its paired version under the designation S-68, intended for arming a self-propelled unit, began.
For the new ZSU, a chassis was created based on the T-54 medium tank. The new self-propelled unit received the factory designation "product 500" and the army ZSU-57-2 and was put into service after comprehensive tests carried out in 1950.
The ZSU was produced at plant No. 174 in Omsk from 1955 to 1960, a total of 857 units were produced.
The ZSU crew consisted of six people:
- driver-mechanic. Placed in the frontal part of the hull on the left;
- gunner;
- gunner-installer of the sight;
- loaders of the right and left guns (2 persons);
- the commander of the installation.
The place of the mechanical drive in the SPAAG
In addition to the driver, all crew members were housed in an open turret.
The body of the ZSU-57-2 is welded, made of armor plates with a thickness of 8-13 mm. A rotating, welded turret was located in the central part of the hull on a ball bearing. The rear armor plate was removable.
In the stowed position, the tower could be covered with a tarpaulin awning.
The workplaces of the crew members were located as follows: in front of the left - the loading left gun, behind him in the center of the tower - the gunner, to the right of the gunner was the sight installer, in front of the right - the loader of the right gun, in the back in the center of the tower - the workplace of the ZSU commander.
Sight installer location
Top view from the gunner's seat
View from the loader's seat
Manual aiming mechanism. Not for weaklings!
A sleeve collector was attached to the stern sheet of the tower.
The work of the automatic gun was based on the principle of using recoil energy with a short barrel stroke. The gun had a monoblock barrel, a piston sliding bolt, a hydraulic recoil brake, a spring knurler and was equipped with a muzzle brake.
Vertical (−5 … + 85 °) and horizontal guidance was carried out using electro-hydraulic drives powered by an electric motor.
The horizontal guidance speed was 30 °, vertical - 20 ° per second.
In the event of a failure of the electric drive, the possibility of manual guidance remained: the vehicle commander was responsible for horizontal guidance, and the gunner - for vertical guidance. This was a very problematic action, since in this case the commander and gunner must have a physical training well above average.
The weapons are supplied with ammunition, from box magazines for 4 shots. The practical rate of fire was 100-120 rounds per minute per barrel, but the maximum duration of continuous firing was no more than 40-50 rounds, after which the barrels had to be cooled.
The ammunition load of the ZSU-57-2 was 300 unitary rounds, of which 176 in 44 stores were placed in stacks in the turret, 72 in 18 stores were in the bow of the hull, and another 52 shots in an unloaded form were placed under the tower floor.
In general, the combat effectiveness of the ZSU-57-2 depended on the qualifications of the crew, the training of the platoon commander, and was not too high. This was primarily due to the lack of a radar in the guidance system. Effective fire to kill could only be fired while stopping, shooting "on the move" at air targets was not provided at all.
The relative firing efficiency of the ZSU-57-2 was significantly lower than that of the battery of the S-60 guns of similar design, since the latter had PUAZO-6 with SON-9, and later - the RPK-1 Vaza radar instrument complex.
However, the strong point of using the ZSU-57-2 was the constant readiness to open fire, the absence of dependence on the tug, and the presence of crew armor.
ZSU-57-2 were used in the Vietnam War, in the conflicts between Israel and Syria and Egypt in 1967 and 1973, as well as in the Iran-Iraq War. Due to the relatively low rate of fire and the absence of automated radar guidance devices, this machine did not differ in high efficiency.
In April 2014, video footage of the use of the ZSU-57-2 by the Syrian army in battles in the vicinity of Damascus appeared.
However, when assessing the effectiveness of the ZSU-57-2, it is worth mentioning not only the disadvantages. Yes, the low rate of fire and the lack of automated radar guidance and tracking devices are undoubtedly a weak point. However, when escorting tanks, the ZSU-57 could take on not only the role of an air defense system.
It is also worth considering the fact that the ZSU was not the only air defense means of a tank regiment, for example, but a means of collective air defense against aircraft flying at altitudes up to 4000 m, since altitudes up to 1000 m were blocked by the DShK / DShKM anti-aircraft machine guns, which were in the tank regiment as many as armored vehicles. The effectiveness is not very high, but, nevertheless, a certain rebuff of the enemy aviation could be provided.
On the other hand, in the conflicts where the ZSU-57 took part, the armies that used the installation were well aware of the low efficiency of the ZSU as an air defense system.
But the installation showed itself well in the role of self-propelled guns for escorting tanks, or, in modern terms, BMPT. And in this regard, the ZSU-57-2 was, perhaps, more effective than the air defense system. At least on the battlefields, there were very few armored targets capable of withstanding the hit of the BR-281U armor-piercing projectile, which from a distance of 1000 m, flying out of the barrels at a speed of 1000 m / s, confidently pierced up to 100 mm of armor.
ZSU-57-2 still left a certain mark in our military history as a test platform. This was followed by both "Shilka", "Tunguska" and "Pantsir", as well as the ongoing projects BMPT and BMOP.
