Main characteristics

Briefly

Details

7.7 / 7.7 / 7.7 BR

6 people Crew

103% Visibility

forehead / side / stern Booking

13 / 15 / 10 housings

15 / 13 / 13 towers

Mobility

28.0 tons Weight

992 l/s 520 l/s Engine power

35 hp/t 19 hp/t specific

54 km/h forward
8 km/h back50 km/h forward
7 km/h back Speed

Armament

296 rounds of ammunition

2.0 / 2.6 sec recharge

4 shells clip size

120 shots/min rate of fire

5° / 85° UVN

Economy

Description

Write an introduction to the article in 2-3 short paragraphs. Briefly tell us about the history of creation and combat use machine, as well as about its striking features and application in the game. Insert screenshots of the car in different camouflages. If a novice player does not remember the names of the techniques well, he will immediately understand what we are talking about.

Main characteristics

Armor protection and survivability

Tell us about armor protection. Mark the most protected and most vulnerable areas. Assess the layout of components and assemblies, as well as the number and location of crew members. Is the level of armor protection adequate, does the layout contribute to survivability in battle?

If necessary, use a visual template to indicate the most protected and vulnerable areas of the armor.

Mobility

Armament

Main weapon

Give the reader information about the characteristics of the main weapon. Evaluate its effectiveness in battle based on its reload speed, ballistics, and damage potential. Don't forget about the rate of fire on distributed targets: how quickly the gun can lock onto one target, fire a shot at it, and lock on to the next target. Add a link to the main article on the weapon: ((main|Name of weapon))

Describe the ammunition available for the main gun. Give recommendations on their use and on filling the ammunition stowage.

Additional weapon

Some tanks are armed with multiple guns located in one or more turrets. Evaluate the auxiliary tool and give advice on its use. If there are no additional weapons, remove this subsection.

Describe the ammunition available for the secondary weapon. Give recommendations on their use and on filling the ammunition stowage.

Machine gun weapons

Directional and anti-aircraft machine guns not only allow you to fight aircraft, they are also effective against lightly armored vehicles. Evaluate machine gun weapons and give recommendations for their use.

Use in combat

Describe the techniques of playing on a car, features of use in a team and tips on tactics. Refrain from creating a “guide” - do not impose a single point of view, but give the reader food for thought. Tell us about the most dangerous opponents and give recommendations on how to fight them. If necessary, note the specifics of the game in different modes (AB, RB, SB).

Advantages and disadvantages

Advantages:

Flaws:

Historical reference

Tell us about the history of the creation and combat use of the vehicle. If the historical information turns out to be large, put it in a separate article and add a link to it here using the main template. Be sure to include links to sources at the end.

Media

An excellent addition to the article would be video guides, as well as screenshots from the game and photographs.

see also

• link to the family of equipment;
• links to approximate analogues in other nations and branches.

When did the Great End Patriotic War, the euphoria subsided a little, and workdays began. The analysis of the war began. Gaining 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 with our air defense was very bad, and smart people who had fought came to the conclusion that something had to be done in this situation.

Tankers especially asked for protection from aviation. A tank is a very tasty target both in those years and today, by the way. And his priority is precisely that of a tank. Quite big. And the tank brigade of the second half of the 40s relied on only an anti-aircraft machine-gun company.

This is 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). The separate tank brigade was not provided with anti-aircraft guns at all. An ugly arrangement, of course.

But even in the divisional structure there were negligible air defense assets. And they were equipped mainly with towed 37-mm 61-K or 25-mm 72-K anti-aircraft guns, which still had to be deployed and prepared for battle before repelling the raid.

Practice has shown that there was 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 enough a large number of self-propelled air defense systems, the main difference from towed ones was that they were ready to open fire without any additional training.

If you carefully study the issue, then the Red Army had mobile air defense systems. On trucks.

On the one hand, it’s cheap and cheerful, on the other, there is a complete lack of any protection from enemy aircraft. Not the best situation, given that the Germans have, albeit lightly, armored mobile air defense systems.

The current situation had to be corrected 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 have a sufficient caliber to effectively destroy enemy bombers and armored attack aircraft.

The first serial 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 vehicles produced in 1945, which on the scale of the Red Army was not even a drop in the bucket.

A more serious application was the 57-mm S-60 automatic cannon, developed in the design bureau of V. G. Grabin. The gun was a success, but in its 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 twin version began under the designation S-68, intended for arming a self-propelled gun.

For the new ZSU, a chassis was created based on the T-54 medium tank. The new self-propelled gun 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-sight installer;
- loading the right and left guns (2 people);
- installation commander.

The place of the mechanical driver in the ZSU

Apart from the driver, all crew members were housed in an open turret.

The body of the ZSU-57-2 is welded, made of armor plates 8-13 mm thick. The turret was rotating, welded, and 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 crew positions were located like this: in front on the left - the left gun loader, behind him in the center of the turret - the gunner, to the right of the gunner there was a sight installer, in front on the right - the loader of the right gun, behind in the center of the turret - workplace ZSU commander.

A sleeve collector was attached to the rear plate of the turret.

The automatic operation of the 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 knurl and was equipped with a muzzle brake.

Vertical (−5...+85°) and horizontal guidance were carried out using electro-hydraulic drives powered by an electric motor.

The horizontal guidance speed was 30°, vertical guidance - 20° per second.

In the event of a failure of the electric drive, the possibility of manual aiming remained: the vehicle commander was responsible for horizontal guidance, and the gunner was responsible for vertical guidance. This was a very problematic action, since in this case the commander and gunner must have physical fitness significantly above average.

The guns are fed by clips, from box magazines for 4 rounds. 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 shots, after which the barrels needed to be cooled.

The ammunition load of the ZSU-57-2 was 300 unitary rounds, of which 176 in 44 magazines were placed in stowage in the turret, 72 in 18 magazines were located in the bow of the hull, and another 52 rounds not loaded into clips were placed under the floor of the turret.

In general, the combat effectiveness of the ZSU-57-2 depended on the qualifications of the crew and the training of the platoon commander and was not too high. This was primarily due to the lack of radar in the guidance system. Effective lethal fire could only be carried out while stopping; firing “on the move” at air targets was not provided for at all.

The comparative firing efficiency of the ZSU-57-2 was significantly lower than that of a battery of S-60 guns of similar design, since the latter had PUAZO-6 with SON-9, and later the RPK-1 “Vaza” radar instrument system.

However strong point The use of the ZSU-57-2 was constant readiness to open fire, lack of dependence on the tug, and the presence of armor protection for the crew.

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 lack of automated radar guidance devices, this vehicle was not very effective.

In April 2014, video footage of the use of 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 weakness. However, when accompanying tanks, the ZSU-57 could take on more than just the role of an air defense system.

It is also worth considering the fact that the ZSU was not the only means of air defense 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 covered by DShK/DShKM anti-aircraft machine guns, of which the tank regiment had as many as armored vehicles. The effectiveness is not very high, but, nevertheless, a certain resistance to enemy aircraft could be provided.

On the other hand, in conflicts where the ZSU-57 took part, the armies that used the installation were well aware of the low effectiveness of the ZSU as an air defense weapon.

But the installation performed well in the role of self-propelled guns accompanying tanks, or, in modern terms, BMPT. And in this regard, the ZSU-57-2 was, perhaps, more effective than an air defense weapon. At least on the battlefields there were very few armored targets capable of withstanding a hit from 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 penetrated up to 100 mm of armor.

ZSU-57-2 still left a certain mark on our military history as a test platform. Which was followed by both “Shilka”, “Tunguska” and “Pantsir”, as well as the BMPT and BMOP projects currently being implemented.

When the Great Patriotic War ended, the euphoria subsided a little, and workdays began. The analysis of the war began. Gaining 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 with our air defense was very bad, and smart people who had fought came to the conclusion that something had to be done in this situation.

Tankers especially asked for protection from aviation. A tank is a very tasty target both in those years and today, by the way. And his priority is precisely that of a tank. Quite big. And the tank brigade of the second half of the 40s relied on only an anti-aircraft machine-gun company.

This is 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). The separate tank brigade was not provided with anti-aircraft guns at all. An ugly arrangement, of course.

But even in the divisional structure there were negligible air defense assets. And they were equipped mainly with towed 37-mm 61-K or 25-mm 72-K anti-aircraft guns, which still had to be deployed and prepared for battle before repelling the raid.

Practice has shown that there was 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 systems; the main difference from 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. On trucks.

On the one hand, it’s cheap and cheerful, on the other, there is a complete lack of any protection from enemy aircraft. Not the best situation, given that the Germans have, albeit lightly, armored mobile air defense systems.

The current situation had to be corrected 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 have a sufficient caliber to effectively destroy enemy bombers and armored attack aircraft.

The first serial 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 vehicles produced in 1945, which on the scale of the Red Army was not even a drop in the bucket.

A more serious application was the 57-mm S-60 automatic cannon, developed in the design bureau of V. G. Grabin. The gun was a success, but in its 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 twin version began under the designation S-68, intended for arming a self-propelled gun.

For the new ZSU, a chassis was created based on the T-54 medium tank. The new self-propelled gun 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-sight installer;
- loading the right and left guns (2 people);
- installation commander.

The place of the mechanical driver in the ZSU

Apart from the driver, all crew members were housed in an open turret.

The body of the ZSU-57-2 is welded, made of armor plates 8-13 mm thick. The turret was rotating, welded, and 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 crew members' workplaces were located like this: in front on the left - the left gun loader, behind him in the center of the turret - the gunner, to the right of the gunner was the sight installer, in front on the right - the right gun loader, behind in the center of the turret - the workstation of the ZSU commander.

Sight installer's location 13

Top view from the gunner's position.

View from the loader's position.

Manual aiming mechanism. Not for the weak!

A sleeve collector was attached to the rear plate of the turret.

The automatic operation of the 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 knurl and was equipped with a muzzle brake.

Vertical (−5...+85°) and horizontal guidance were carried out using electro-hydraulic drives powered by an electric motor.

The horizontal guidance speed was 30°, vertical guidance - 20° per second.

In the event of a failure of the electric drive, the possibility of manual aiming remained: the vehicle commander was responsible for horizontal guidance, and the gunner was responsible for vertical guidance. This was a very problematic action, since in this case the commander and gunner must have physical fitness significantly above average.

The guns are fed by clips, from box magazines for 4 rounds. 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 shots, after which the barrels needed to be cooled.

The ammunition load of the ZSU-57-2 was 300 unitary rounds, of which 176 in 44 magazines were placed in stowage in the turret, 72 in 18 magazines were located in the bow of the hull, and another 52 rounds not loaded into clips were placed under the floor of the turret.

In general, the combat effectiveness of the ZSU-57-2 depended on the qualifications of the crew and the training of the platoon commander and was not too high. This was primarily due to the lack of radar in the guidance system. Effective lethal fire could only be carried out while stopping; firing “on the move” at air targets was not provided for at all.

The comparative firing efficiency of the ZSU-57-2 was significantly lower than that of a battery of S-60 guns of similar design, since the latter had PUAZO-6 with SON-9, and later the RPK-1 “Vaza” radar instrument system.

However, the strong point of using the ZSU-57-2 was its constant readiness to open fire, lack of dependence on the tug, and the presence of armor protection for the crew.

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 lack of automated radar guidance devices, this vehicle was not very effective.

In April 2014, video footage of the use of 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 weakness. However, when accompanying tanks, the ZSU-57 could take on more than just the role of an air defense system.

It is also worth considering the fact that the ZSU was not the only means of air defense 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 covered by DShK/DShKM anti-aircraft machine guns, of which the tank regiment had as many as armored vehicles. The effectiveness is not very high, but, nevertheless, a certain resistance to enemy aircraft could be provided.

On the other hand, in conflicts where the ZSU-57 took part, the armies that used the installation were well aware of the low effectiveness of the ZSU as an air defense weapon.

But the installation performed well in the role of self-propelled guns accompanying tanks, or, in modern terms, BMPT. And in this regard, the ZSU-57-2 was, perhaps, more effective than an air defense weapon. At least on the battlefields there were very few armored targets capable of withstanding a hit from 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 penetrated up to 100 mm of armor.

ZSU-57-2 still left a certain mark on our military history as a test platform. Which was followed by both “Shilka”, “Tunguska” and “Pantsir”, as well as the BMPT and BMOP projects currently being implemented.

Actually, I’m not that keen on artillery, but everyone who is interested in the use of ground-based aircraft from time to time comes up with the topic of air defense systems, and I was no exception. A solid selection has accumulated on this product of Soviet design thought on my computer, and I decided to make another article dedicated to the ZSU-57-2 self-propelled anti-aircraft gun mount. The material is mostly a compilation of stolen material, but I’m not the only one who does this...:)

In 1947, at NII-58 under the leadership of V.G. Grabina began designing a twin 57-mm automatic anti-aircraft gun S-68 based on the S-60, intended for installation on both a tracked chassis and a wheeled vehicle. Its prototype with electric drive ESP-76 was installed on the S-79A cart and passed tests, but did not go into production. The tracked chassis was created on the basis of units of the T-54 medium tank, but it cannot be said that “one turret was removed and another was installed” (the T-54 still had, as far as I remember, five road wheels). In the self-propelled version, the vehicle received the factory name - "Product 500", and the army name - ZSU-57-2.

Complex tests of the ZSU-57-2 were carried out in 1950. In 1955, the USSR Council of Ministers issued a resolution No. 216-131ss dated 14.2.1955 “On the adoption of the ZSU-57-2 anti-aircraft self-propelled artillery unit into service by the Soviet Army.”
Serial production was carried out, according to some sources, at plant No. 174 in Omsk from 1955 to 1960; according to other sources, only the chassis for this gun mount was produced in Omsk, and the mounts themselves were assembled at plant No. 946.
The ZSU-57-2 was a lightly armored tracked vehicle with a rotating turret that provided all-round anti-aircraft fire from automatic cannons. Main parts of the vehicle: armored hull, turret, weapons, power point, power transmission, chassis, electrical, communications and fire-fighting equipment.
The armored corps was divided into three sections: control, combat and power. The first was located on the left in the bow of the hull, it contained the driver’s seat; the second - in the middle part of the hull and in the turret; the third was in the rear of the vehicle and was separated from the fighting compartment by a partition. The body was welded from armor plates 8-13 mm thick.
The turret of a welded structure, open at the top, was located on a ball support above the cutout of the turret sheet of the hull roof. The diameter of the tower ring was 1800 mm. To install the cannon, there was an embrasure in the front part. The rear wall of the turret with a window for exiting cartridges was made removable, which made it easier to install the gun. In the stowed position, the upper cutout of the tower was covered with a folding canvas awning with 13 plexiglass viewing windows. To open the awning, it was enough to unfasten the straps and throw it back. To collect spent cartridges and clips fed by the gun conveyor through a window in the rear wall, a cartridge collector was installed outside the rear of the turret.


There were 5 seats in the turret: in front - the left loading machine gun; behind him (in the middle) is the gunner; behind, to the right of the gunner's seat - the sight installer; to the right of the gun in front is the loading right machine gun; at the rear, symmetrically with the seat of the gunner - the commander of the vehicle. When firing, the loaders' seats were removed, placed on a suspended floor and secured with clips.
The S-68 twin automatic cannon consisted of two S-60 type assault rifles that had the same design, with the parts of the right machine gun being a mirror image of the parts of the left one. The principle of operation of the automation is the use of recoil energy during a short recoil of the barrel. The barrels were cooled by air.
The barrel of the machine gun consisted of a pipe, a copier and a muzzle brake. The pipe was a monoblock, made integral with the breech. On the outer surface of the breech of the pipe there was a longitudinal ridge for attaching a copier. On the sides of the breech there were cutouts in the shape of a projectile. Barrel length with muzzle brake - 4365 mm; length of the threaded part - 3560 mm; the steepness of the rifling is constant - 35 calibers, a total of rifling - 24. The assembled barrel with the knurling was inserted into the neck of the cradle and, using two sector protrusions on its breech, was connected to the barrel clip.
The piston longitudinally sliding valve was located in the cradle. The shutter was opened during firing using an accelerator mechanism during recoil. The shutter was moved to the front position and closed using the springs of the forward mechanism located on the hydraulic buffer and in the bolt frame. The knurl is spring. The recoil brake is a hydraulic spindle type. The recoil brake cylinder remained stationary during firing. Rollback length 325 - 370 mm.
The swinging part of the gun consisted of two parallel machine guns, connected to each other into a single block by cradles. It was balanced by weights attached to the cradles, and was secured in the machine using two trunnions, which were a large ball bearing. Vertical and horizontal guidance of the S-68 gun was carried out by an electro-hydraulic drive, powered by a DC electric motor through hydraulic universal speed controllers. The parts on the right machine gun were a mirror image of the parts on the left.
The gun mount was installed on the bottom of the turret. It consisted of a body with a bracket, a mechanism for mounting the gun in a traveling manner and a conveyor. The lifting mechanism was located on the left side of the machine and had two drives: electro-hydraulic (with continuously adjustable guidance speed) and manual. The electrohydraulic drive guidance was carried out from a DC electric motor through universal hydraulic speed controllers. The mass of the twin S-68 cannon was 4500 kg.
The gun sight is automatic, anti-aircraft, construction type; was intended to solve the problem of determining the meeting point of a projectile with a target when firing. To do this, the following initial (input) data were previously determined and installed on the sight: target speed, heading angle and slant range. The speed of the target was determined by the type of aircraft, the heading angle - by the apparent direction of movement of the target, the range to the target - by eye or using a range finder.
When using the electric-hydraulic drive, two crew members worked with the sight: the gunner aimed the gun in the azimuth and elevation of the target; The sight installer set the initial data of the sight - speed, heading angle and range, and, if necessary, the dive or pitching angle. When using a manual guidance drive, three crew members worked with the sight: the vehicle commander aimed the gun in azimuth, the gunner aimed at the target elevation, and the sight installer set the initial sight data.
The ZSU-57-2 ammunition consisted of 300 unitary cannon rounds located in special ammunition racks in the turret and hull. The main part of the ammunition (248 rounds) was loaded into clips before being loaded into the vehicle and placed in the turret (176 rounds) and the bow of the hull (72 rounds). Part of the ammunition (52 rounds) was not loaded into clips and was placed in special compartments under the rotating floor. Shots with armor-piercing shells loaded into clips were placed in the rear of the turret to the right and left of the gun mounting. The supply of clips was carried out by the loader manually. The ammunition consisted of fragmentation-tracer grenades and armor-piercing tracer shells. The locking mechanism made it possible to fire in two ways: with the last shot in the clip blocked and without blocking.
The charge for all shells is the same - 1.18 kg of pyroxylin powder, shot weight 6.6 kg, case length 348 mm. The initial projectile speed is 1000 m/s. The ballistic firing range is 12 km, fragmentation shells are equipped with a self-destructor with a response time of 12 - 16 s, which ensures a slant range of 6.5 - 7 km. One of the European manufacturers of 57-mm shells is now producing high-explosive fragmentation, high-explosive incendiary, high-explosive incendiary tracer, armor-piercing tracer and practical rounds. The tracer burn time is 10 seconds. High-explosive fragmentation “models” provide for equipping the projectile with 153 grams of explosives. RDX and metallized RDX (mixed with aluminum powder) are used as equipment.
According to the calculations of the Defense Research Institute-2 Air Defense, the average number of hits of 57-mm shells required to destroy the Canberra twin-engine front-line bomber was 1.7, and 1 hit was enough for a fighter.

The B-54 engine was a 12-cylinder, V-shaped, four-stroke, high-speed, compressorless liquid-cooled diesel engine with a power of 520 hp. It was installed perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the machine on a pedestal welded to the bottom of the hull. Engine displacement is 38.88 liters, weight is 895 kg. This engine provided the car with a maximum speed of 48-50 km/h.
Three fuel tanks with a total capacity of 640 liters were located in the ZSU body. External tanks were installed on the right side of the vehicle, on the fender. Each capacity is 95 liters.
The range on a dirt road was 300-320 km, on the highway - 400-420 km.
A mechanical power transmission with stepwise changes in gear ratios was located in the rear part of the hull. It consisted of a guitar, a main dry friction clutch, a five-speed gearbox, two planetary rotation mechanisms, two final drives, a fan drive and a compressor drive.
The tracked propulsion unit consisted of two tracks 580 mm wide, two drive wheels, two guide wheels with track tensioning mechanisms and eight road wheels. Cast drive wheels with removable ring gears were located at the rear. The chassis had four hydraulic shock absorbers connected to the balancers of the front and rear road wheels. The weight of the ZSU was 28 tons. The length with the gun was 8460 mm, the body length was 6220 mm, the width was 3270 mm, the height (over the awning) was 2750 mm, and the ground clearance was 425 mm.
The main source of energy was the G-74 direct current generator with a power of 3 kW (108 A at 27-29 V) at a rotation speed of over 2100 rpm. To start the engine and to power the on-board network when the generator is not working, six 6MST-140 or 6SGEN-140M 12 V batteries were installed on the vehicle.
External communication of the ZSU-57-2 was provided by a portable radio station 10RT-26E, and internal communication by a TPU-47 tank intercom. The radio station provided reliable telephone communication when driving at a distance of 7 to 15 km, and when stopping - from 9 to 20 km.
The vertical aiming angle ranged from -5 to 85°, the vertical aiming speed was 20°/sec, and the horizontal aiming speed was 30°/sec.
The operating limits of the automatic sight were as follows: target speed - up to 350 m/sec, slant range - 5500 m, dive angle - from 0 to 90 °, pitching angle - from 0 to 70 °
To overcome water obstacles, the ZSU-57-2 gun mount could have used the PST watercraft. I don’t know who created it, but I assume that designer Anatoly Fedorovich Kravtsev had a hand in this. In the shushpanzer community there was once an article about Soviet mounted watercraft for armored vehicles. in the comments to this article there were countless hootings of irony and sarcasm, but either one or two people condescended to speculate on the topic of an alternative solution. Overcoming water obstacles with the mentioned “accessory” could be carried out with waves up to 5 points. Firing from a cannon - up to 1.5 points (for ZSU-57-2 - shooting at anti-aircraft targets with waves up to 2 points). Together with the ZSU-57-2, it was allowed to transport troops with personal weapons of up to 40 people; when the troops were on the deck of the craft, firing from a cannon was prohibited. The mounting of the ZSU-57-2 watercraft was carried out by the crew in 35 minutes; the release was carried out instantly, without the crew leaving the vehicle. The PST-54 watercraft was transported on four ZIS-151 type vehicles. ZSU-57-2 with a watercraft looked like this:

On one of the Western sites I was able to rip out several photos taken during a photo tour of the installation. They allow you to see some parts of the ZSU-57-2 “up close”.


















Relatively few ZSU-57-2 self-propelled anti-aircraft guns were produced. They entered service with a number of tank regiments, where they were required to have one ZSU battery of 4 units. Where there was a shortage of ZSU-57-2, 14.5-mm twin ZTPU-2 anti-aircraft machine gun mounts were used on the BTR-40 and BTR-152 chassis.

The effectiveness of the ZSU-57-2 battery when firing at air targets was lower than the batteries of S-60 guns controlled by the PUAZO-6 device from radar station SON-9. In addition, she could not operate in contaminated areas and fire while moving. Helicopters equipped with aviation unguided and anti-tank guided missiles were just being designed at that time, and, therefore, aircraft, the only threats to our tank and motorized rifle units were aircraft, new types of which were increasingly equipped with turbojet engines. The rate of fire of this installation was considered insufficient to counter jet aviation. And the very method of establishing the target’s speed “by aircraft type” already initially assumed the presence of an error. For example, in the early 50s, the American Navy aircraft were armed with jet planes F-2H2 and F-9F, which from afar were easy to confuse, and their speeds when flying with suspensions for working on ground targets differed by 90 km/h. In addition, determining the dive and pitch angles of the aircraft using the eye method required a certain amount of skill in the calculations. Gradually it became clear that the ZSU needed guns that were at least an order of magnitude faster, the angular guidance speed was not 20-30 °/s, but 50-100 °/s, and a fully automated radar fire control system.
However, even in foreign armies, not all self-propelled anti-aircraft gun mounts had such a system. For example, the double-barreled 40-mm American M42, which entered service with the US Army in 1954, began to be equipped with it only in 1956.
The ZSU-57-2 received its baptism of fire during the Vietnam War. The Vietnamese used these installations both to counter aviation and to destroy ground targets, and their effectiveness when working “on the ground” was noted by Western military experts.
For example, these installations accompany a Vietnamese tank column:

and here an anti-aircraft battery is moving into the area of ​​the “demilitarized zone”, clearly planning to “militarize” it:

Vietnamese ZSU-57-2 operate for American aviation:

Severe Vietnamese anti-aircraft gunners:

Loading ammunition into ZSU-57-2:

Americans regularly publish photos of one of the destroyed ZSU-57-2s in various sources, presenting it either as destroyed by B-52 bombers, or as destroyed by A-37 attack aircraft, or as destroyed by God knows who else.

This “echo of the echo of war,” as I understand it, is located in the area of ​​​​a village called An-Lok.
After the Vietnam War, the installations were in service with the armies of Poland, Hungary, Vietnam, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, Syria, Finland and Yugoslavia and were regularly used in various military conflicts.

Polish ZSU-57-2:

ZSU-57-2, used during the fighting in the territory of the former Yugoslavia. I'm not sure, but in my opinion, this unit was used by the Bosnian Serbs.
And this one, which became a museum exhibit, worked for the Croats:

In China, it was created and launched in mass production anti-aircraft self-propelled gun, which was an artillery unit of the ZSU-57-2, mounted on the chassis of the Chinese tank "59"; and not so long ago, in the magazine