The first self-propelled anti-aircraft guns (ZSU) appeared before the outbreak of the First World War, in particular, in 1906 in Germany, the Erhard company built an armored car with a high elevation angle of the gun. During the First World War, a large number of ZSUs based on ordinary commercial trucks were produced in different countries. But such SPAAGs based on unarmored vehicles were very vulnerable, they could be hit even with small arms fire. Therefore, already during the Second World War, a tank base began to be used as a chassis for self-propelled anti-aircraft guns. The most famous ZSU of this class are the German ZSU "Ostwind" and "Wirbelwind".
After the end of World War II, this direction of development of military equipment received a logical continuation. At the same time, the post-war development of the ZSU was also characterized by an increase in the rate of fire and the number of barreled weapons. A characteristic product of the development of this concept and the enhancement of firepower was the Soviet ZSU-23-4 "Shilka", the rate of fire of which reached 3400 rounds per minute.
Possible type of ZSU "Matador" based on the MBT-70 tank
At the same time, their developments in the field of creating such combat vehicles, designed to provide air defense of troops (including on the march) and rear facilities from attacks by enemy aircraft and helicopters, continued in Germany. In the late 1960s, an experimental self-propelled anti-aircraft gun called "Matador" was created in Germany. This combat vehicle was created as part of the ambitious US-German program MBT-70 (Main Battle Tank [for the] 1970s, the main battle tank for the 1970s). The tank created under this program was supposed to enter service with the armies of the United States and the Federal Republic of Germany. Work on the project was actively carried out in the second half of the 1960s. The main goal of the project was to replace the M60 tank with a more modern analogue, which could surpass the promising main battle tank of the Soviet Union, which later turned out to be the T-64.
As part of the ambitious US-German project MVT-70, it was envisaged to create a variety of auxiliary combat vehicles on the same tracked base. One of these machines was supposed to be the ZSU, intended for direct fire cover of ground forces from enemy aircraft. The base for the ZSU was supposed to be the chassis of the MVT-70 tank, the design of which was not planned to make any changes. The tower and armament complex for this ZSU was developed by the famous German company Rheinmetall. By 1968, the draft design of the anti-aircraft tower was completely ready, which received the designation "Matador", which gave the name to the experimental SPAAG.
ZSU "Matador" based on the Leopard 1 tank
The tower received two radars - target tracking or gun aiming "Albis" (located in front of the tower) and target detection MPDR-12 with circular rotation (located at the rear on the roof of the tower). In the future, such a placement of the radar has become traditional for a huge number of ZSUs. The main armament of the experimental SPAAG "Matador" were two 30-mm automatic cannons Rheinmetall, which have a rate of fire at the level of 700-800 rounds per minute and 400 rounds of ammunition. Both cannons, notably, were located inside the turret armor, most likely for maintenance reasons. The turret rotation speed was approximately 100 degrees per second. By the time all the design work was completed, cooperation between the United States and Germany had already been stopped, the program for creating the MVT-70 turned out to be very costly.
Despite the fact that the joint project to create a main battle tank was covered up, the developments that had already been obtained by that time did not disappear anywhere. The Matador anti-aircraft turret designed for the MVT-70, after a series of design changes, migrated to the chassis of the Leopard 1 tank. It was this vehicle that ultimately entered trials, losing, however, to another German ZSU "Gepard". At the same time, many developments and all the electronic stuffing of the Matador migrated to the Gepard in one form or another.
The design of the experimental SPAAG "Matador" had both its advantages and disadvantages. An undoubted advantage was the placement of the target tracking radar in the front part of the turret between two 30-mm automatic guns - this made the aiming calculation "natural", there was no need to recalculate the angles. At the same time, rationalism prevailed in the Germans, having weighed all the arguments for and against, they decided that 4 guns with such a provision of fire would be too much, and two guns would cope with the defeat of targets, however, larger than the Soviet "Shilka" caliber. The disadvantages of the experimental combat vehicle included the fact that, having installed the guns in the classical way, the designers of the ZSU were forced to make huge holes in the sides of the tower, designed to eject spent cartridges at all positions of the automatic guns. And with the removal of the powder gases from the fighting compartment, everything did not work out quite right.
But even in this form, the "Matador" could have been put into service if the Germans had not analyzed the possible prospects and trends in the development of this class of technology. The FRG military considered that in the future they would need an increase in the height reach of guns, which automatically required the designers to install more powerful guns, large calibers. But in the existing layout, building up the caliber of automatic cannons was simply impossible: the existing turret simply did not fit large guns, and it seemed unrealistic to radically increase its size. The designers had to find another way and they found it. It was he who was implemented in the layout of the ZSU "Gepard", adopted by the Bundeswehr. This SPG received 35mm automatic guns, which were removed from the armored turret.
ZSU "Gepard"
ZSU "Gepard" with 35-mm automatic cannons located on the sides of the turret was also based on the Leopard 1 tank, and it was she who was eventually put into service. In fact, somewhat inferior to the Soviet ZSU Shilka, widely known in the West and making a splash in the rate of fire of the guns, the German ZSU was significantly superior to its Soviet counterpart in terms of radar. It had separate radar for detecting and tracking targets, which made it possible to conduct a normal search for air targets, and accompany already detected enemy aircraft and helicopters.
