- was a Soviet self-propelled anti-aircraft gun armed with two 57 mm autocannons. ZSU stands for Zenitnaya Samokhodnaya Ustanovka - anti-aircraft self-propelled mount.

History

The experiences of bombing raids and strafing runs on tank columns made it clear that an AA vehicle that could provide the tank column with anti-aircraft protection will be necessary on a future battlefield. Such vehicles were used even in the late battles of World War I. The first known SPAAG was developed by Germans and was essentially an AA gun on a truck. Allies have captured at least one of those vehicles and supplied it to the Dutch. Such designs were later in mass use in USSR. The Soviets have developed at least three different SPAAGs of such kind. One of these was the 4M truck with four 7.62 mm M1910 Maxim machine guns, there was also a twin machine gun version. Other truck based SPAAGs developed by Soviets included the YaG-10 truck with 76.2 mm AA gun and the ZiS-42 half truck with 25 mm AA gun. Even though those vehicles could be used as SPAAGs they couldn't keep up in rough terrain with tank columns leaving them defenseless against German diving bombers. The first Soviet SPAAG that could keep up with tank columns was ZSU-37 based on SU-76 chassis and armed with 37 mm M1939 (61-K) AA gun. The vehicle entered production in mid 1944 and only 70 vehicles out of a total of 340 produced until 1948 were delivered to the front. Because the ZSU-37 was based on the SU-76 it also had all of it's drawbacks including the gun compartment which had no protection in the rear and no roof. This proved to be a very big drawback of both of these vehicles during their exploitation on the Eastern Front. The fact that the vehicle had no turret made it especially useless in fighting airplanes as due to maneuverability of aircraft in general made it almost impossible to hit the plane. To change the direction of fire the whole vehicle had to be turned and that many times proved troublesome. It could only be used to scare off the more unexperienced pilots.

For many years there wasn't any new project for a SPAAG in USSR. The need for such a vehicle was apparent after World War II since the new potential enemy - United States of America - had vast and well equipped air forces which gained lots of valuable experience in many battles against Luftwaffe, Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service and Imperial Japanese Army Air Service. The fact that flawed vehicle like ZSU-37 was the basic SPAAG of the Red Army made it apparent that in eventual confrontation unless Soviets would have the air superiority, Soviet tank columns would be decimated in the very early stages of war putting them in a very hard tactical position giving the number of investments the USSR gave to it's armoured forces. However after the new T-54 tank entered production and active service with the Red Army the ZSU-57-2 was designed.

Description

Basing on the past experiences with SPAAG designs Soviets designed a vehicle that used a modified T-54 chassis without one roadwheel and armed with a recoil-operated, air-cooled automatic S-68 AA canon (developed by V. G. Grabin's team in the NII-58, it consists of twin 57 mm L/69 S-60 AA guns) in a new large open-topped, box type turret. The guns elevated from -5° to +85° at 20° per second, and the turret could traverse 360 degrees, at 30° per second.

The cannon was capable of firing up to 120 FRAG-T (Fragmentation-Tracer), Frag-HE (Fragmentation-High Explosive), AP-T (Armour-Piercing-Tracer) or APC-T (Armour-Piercing Capped-Tracer) rounds per minute from each barrel, with a sustained rate of fire of around 70 rounds per minute per barrel. Each clip has 5 rounds. Maximum horizontal range reached 12,000 m (with maximum effective range is around 4 km / 2.5 mi) and maximum altitude 8,000 m (maximum effective altitude around 4250 m / 14,000 ft). 316 rounds of ammunition were carried in the vehicle. Empty shell casings and clips were emptied into a metal basket on the back of the turret via a conveyor.

Even though the vehicle doesn't have most of ZSU-37's flaws it does have few flaws of it's own. The most apparent one is the lack of the roof on the turret. This makes it almost defenseless against attacks from above. It also makes it hard to operate the gun while in difficult conditions like rain or snow. Also because the turret didn't have a roof, the vehicle could not be operated in NBC conditions. This flaw was later nullified by Serbians and Bosnians in their ZSU-57-2M which had improvised overhead armour protection. The vehicle had optical mechanical computing reflex sight as fire control system. It didn't have a radar therefore the vehicle could not be successfully used during night and only the driver had night vision equipment.

Service history

The ZSU-57-2 entered service with the Red Army in 1955 and remained in production until 1960. It was also exported to 5 other Warsaw Pact members, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania and East Germany. Czechoslovakia imported one ZSU-57-2 for testing but refused it. The vehicle was also sold to countries that were befriended with USSR, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, Iraq and Syria. North Vietnam and North Korea probably got them for free as military assistance. China did not import the system from the USSR in 1950s, but acquired it from Iraq in the early 1980s. To meet Iraq's production order, NORICO attempted to manufacture a copy with the improved amphibious chassis of Type 69-II main battle tank produced by IMFMW (Inner Mongoolia First Machinery Works, the only tank manufacturer in China). Several Type-80 SPAAGs were tested by the PLA. It saw action for the first time in the Vietnam War, in use by Vietnam People's Army. Iran used ZSU-57-2s in the Iran-Iraq War. Like many other self-propelled anti-aircraft guns, it was often used against ground targets. The anti-aircraft performance of the ZSU-57-2, however, was quickly found to be unsatisfactory. Its fire controls were not good enough, the rate of fire not high enough and the turret traverse not fast enough to effectively intercept jet aircraft at low altitudes (it must be noted that its Western counterpart, the M42 Duster armed with the famous Bofors 40 mm gun, had similar problems). Eventually the ZSU-57-2 was replaced with the ZSU-23-4 Shilka, which had a radar and was armed with smaller caliber and greater rate of fire 23 mm cannons.

The vehicle is probably still in service with Cuba and North Korea as those countries are using a lot of mostly obsolete equipment as almost no country wants to sell weapons to them aside from Russia.

Variants

     ZSU-57-2 - Original soviet air-defense vehicle based on T-54.
     ZSU-57-2 based on the Chinese Type 59 (copy of T-54A) tank chassis. Used by North Korea.
     ZSU-57-2M - ZSU-57-2 with an improved ammunition handling system and the turret antennae relocated to the center top of the right-hand-side of the turret.[2]
     ZSU-57-2M with a machine gun mounted to the front of the turret. Used by Finland. [2]
     ZSU-57-2M with hanging flap type fronts to catwalks. Used by Cuba. [2]
     ZSU-57-2M with improvised overhead armour protection to protect the gun compartment from attacks from above, rain and snow. It also has an ammo crate serving as additional passive armour. Used by Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
     Type 80 - It has the same turret as the ZSU-57-2 mounted on an improved amphibious chassis of Type 69-II main battle tank.

Specifications

Crew    6
Armamament    2x 57mm cannon
Ammunition    316 x 57mm
Length    6.22 m
Width    3.27m
Height    2.75 m
Weight    28,100 kg
Engine    Model V-54, V-12 water cooled diesel developing 520hp at 2,000rpm
Max Road Speed    50 kmh
Gradient    60%
Side Slope    30%
Fuel Capacity    812 lit
Max Range    420 km
Fording    1.4 m
Verticle Obstacle    0.8 m
Trench    2.7 m
Armor    Steel (15 mm - max)
NBC System    No
Night Vision Equipment    Yes(driver only)

Ne mogu jos uvek da nadjem di sam zaturio svescicu iz vojske sa svim podacima o ovoj sklameriji  .Valjda cu uspeti da je iskopam u sto skorije vreme.Inace, u mojoj tadasnjoj kasarni (sad vec rasformiranoj kasarni u Subotici) postojale su dve "baterije" sa ukupno 14 ovih "ekspres lonaca".A od tog broja samo dve 57ice su bile u voznom stanju al ni jedna nije mogla da se upotrebi za gadjanje, tako da na moju zalost nisam osetio moc ovog orudja.Zaglavljivali su se u cevima cak i skolski meci tako da o bojevim nije bilo ni pomisli.A inace PS za ovo orudje kaze da ako se bojevi metak zaglavi u cevi posada mora da pod hitno napusti vozilo i da posle isteka 30 minuta (i da metak u cevi nije jos ekspoldirao) vraca se nazad i pristupa izvvlacenju zaostalog metka iz cevi. Ja sam bio na polozaju desnog punioca i da bi stavili okvir tezak 20 kg u leziste morate da imate dobro razvijene misice ruku pa cak i nogu.Kad nekako i ubacite okvir u leziste onda na snagu stupaju dve rucice (motalice) sa kojima dovodite okvir u prostor za ispaljivanje i namotavate udarnu iglu.A naravno, kocnice na motalicama i nisu bas funkcionisale pa se desavalo i to da neko od posluzioca zamalo ostane bez ruke.Na svu srecu, desilo se to da je stradao samo jedan opasac i jedan rucni sat.A cela obuka nam se zasnivala na tome da izvezemo jednu od te dve pokretne 57ice (pod uslovom da upale) na livadu  i nisanimo u neko drvo ili pitaj Boga sta i vrtimo se u krug sa kupolom ko u luna parku.Kad sam napustao vojsku receno nam je da ce sve te 57ice (inace rec je o 2004. godini) otici "uskoro" u Smederevo na secenje i topljenje jer vojska planira da uzme Tunguske.Sta se zaista desilo sa tim 57icama i da li su stvarno zavrsile u peci nije mi poznato.

Ja sam prvi put saznao da mi imamo ZSU 57/2 u naoruzanju preko RTS-a gledajuci povlacenje nase vojske sa Kosova, ranije ih nisam vidjao , i jako me iznenadilo kada sam ih video u koloni medju ostalom tehnikom. Do tada sam o njoj samo citao nesto u vojnoj enciklopediji.

bolje da su shilke kupovali...

@ Dead Eye......pa 57ice su u svoje vreme bile jako ubojite masine, samo sto su kod nas izgleda bile jako zapostavljene

Secam se price od starijih ljudi da kad je nasa vojska isla u Hrvatsku '91. godine da su se tada ovde u vrsackoj kasarni nalazile par komada  57ice i da je posto su isli "peske" prva vec pokvarila posle negde 2km predjenog puta.A ni ostale nisu daleko stigle.Kasnije 57ice vise nikad nisu vracene u kasarnu

ZSU57/2 je naravno ubojit ukoliko te pogodi, problem je pogoditi. Nase su se pocetkom novog milenijuma nalazile u Somboru, jedan deo je cekao secenje a drugi je koriscen za obuku. Moguce je opasno se povrediti na zatvarac cevi a nisan je toliko propao da bi cak i precizno dejstvo po Utvi bilo pod znakom pitanja.

ne stoji  li ova 57ica na slici malo ukrivo

malo

A jes malo nakrivo....

Bogami taj ZSU-57/2 su lepo izbacili iz stroja.