57 mm AZP S-60

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This article is about the anti-aircraft gun. For the Sikorsky S-60 helicopter, see CH-37 Mojave.

57 mm AZP S-60
S-60 in an Israeli museum
Type	Autocannon
Place of origin	Soviet Union
Service history
Used by	Soviet Union and others
Wars	Vietnam War Iran-Iraq War Gulf War Iraq War
Specifications
Weight	4,660 kg
Length	8.5 m
Crew	7

Shell	57 x 348SR
Caliber	57 mm
Rate of fire	105-120 rounds/min (cyclic) 70 rounds/min (sustained)
Muzzle velocity	1,000 m/s
Effective range	6 km (radar guided) 4 km (optically guided)

57 mm AZP S-60 (Russian: Автоматическая зенитная пушка С-60, abbrev. АЗП (AZP); literally: Automatic anti-aircraft gun S-60) is a Soviet towed, road-transportable, short- to medium-range, single-barrel anti-aircraft gun from the 1950s. The gun was extensively used in Warsaw Pact, Middle Eastern and South-East Asian countries.

1 History
2 Operational history
3 Ammunition types
4 Versions
5 Operators
6 External links

[edit] History

In the late 1940s, the Soviets started to develop a 57 mm anti-aircraft gun, to replace its 37 mm guns. Three different models were presented, and the winning design was made by V. I. Grabinin. According to western intelligence sources, the German prototype gun 5,5 cm Gerät 58 formed the basis for the design. The Soviet had also captured German 5 cm Flak 41 guns from the Stalingrad pocket.

The prototype passed the field tests in 1946 and was accepted into service in 1950, after some minor modifications. The anti-aircraft gun was given the name 57 mm AZP S-60. Grabinin continued the development and fielded the SPAAG version ZSU-57-2 in 1955.

The fire direction device was developed from the German Lambda calculator (Kommandogerät 40, 40A, and 40B) and was called PUAZO-5A. It had also a distance measuring device called D-49. The fire direction was also made more effective by including Grom-2 (10 cm wavelength) radars to the AA-batteries. The whole system was called SON-9. Later on, the calculators would be changed into the more modern RPK-1 Vaza, which had been designed by M. M. Kositskin. The calculator and the radars were transported by Ural 375 trucks.

The 57 mm gun replaced the 37 mm divisional guns in Soviet service in the 1950s. A divisional anti-aircraft regiment consisted of two AA-batteries with six 57 mm guns each. The PVO air-defence troops AA-regiments consisted of four 57 mm AA-batteries (24 guns).

In the mid-1960s, the Soviet divisional anti-aircraft units began replacing their AA-guns with missiles and by the end of the 1970s, the AA-guns had almost disappeared. They were however used in many other countries.

[edit] Operational history

The S-60 and its Chinese copy (the Type 59) have seen combat in several wars all over the World, e.g. the Six-Day War and the Yom Kippur War in the Middle East and the Soviet war in Afghanistan. During the Vietnam War, the S-60 was the keystone of North Vietnamese low-altitude air defense and was most effective between 460 meters and 1,500 meters.

In Iraq (Iran-Iraq War, Gulf War and Iraq War), the S-60, normally deployed in battalions of 36 guns, served consistently in defense of divisional headquarters and field artillery assets.

[edit] Ammunition types

Blank: MK-281 (Soviet designation)
APHE-T: UBR-281, UBR-281U (Soviet designation)
API-T:
HEI-T:
HE-T: UOR-281, UOR-281U (Soviet designation)
TP-T: UOR-281U-IN, UBR-281U-IN (Soviet designation)

[edit] Versions

AK-725: Naval version of the S-60 gun. Introduced in 1958. Mounted in single, double and quadruple mounts (designated ZIF-31) on many early Soviet destroyers.
ZIF-72: Naval version which is enclosed in a metal housing and fully automatic. Also exported to India. Introduced in the mid-1970s.
ZSU-57-2: Self-propelled version with two 57 mm S-60 guns (designated S-68)
Type-80: Chinese version of the ZSU-57-2.

[edit] Operators

Current and past operators of the S-60 in red.

The S-60 was sold to at least 37 different countries during the Soviet era. The gun was also license manufactured in Poland by Tarnów Metal Works in Tarnów (pl. Zakłady Metalowe Tarnów w Tarnowie) and in China as the Type 59.