The Soviet S-60 anti-aircraft artillery system is a versatile, highly efficient artillery system capable of performing a wide range of tactical tasks. The main purpose of the complex is to counter the attacks of the enemy’s front aviation in the zone of action of rifle regiments and divisions, to protect the most important tactical and strategic military and civilian infrastructure. Powerful caliber and good design allows you to use a weapon as an effective anti-tank weapons.
Tool development and serial production
In the Soviet Army at the end of the 1940s, the main fleet of the army air defense system was 37 mm and 85 mm anti-aircraft guns from the Second World War. Against the background of the intensification of actions by front-line aviation, represented by jet vehicles, it was necessary to create a completely new effective anti-aircraft defense system capable of defending troops, military depots and important strategic facilities from air strikes.
For these purposes, the Soviet designers tried to use the excellent ballistic characteristics of the 57-mm anti-aircraft gun, designed in 1944 in the Tsrabb Grabin. The main design work was carried out at NII-58 under the direction of L. Loktev, where by the end of 1946 a fundamentally new artillery system was created. After conducting ground tests and the elimination of deficiencies, a new weapon under the brand name АЗП-57 was adopted in 1950.
Created on the basis of a new gun, the C-60 anti-aircraft artillery complex completely replaced the old domestic artillery anti-aircraft systems in the air defense forces.
The complex was mass-produced for seven years, from 1950 to 1957, at the plant number 4 in the city of Krasnoyarsk. Soviet industry gave the armed forces 5,725 copies of ZAK S-60.
Tactical and technical characteristics ZAK S-60
- Calculation - 8 people.
- Combat weight - 4.8 tons.
- Unitary loading.
- The initial velocity of the fragmentation projectile is 1000 m / s.
- Rate of fire - 70 shots / min.
- The affected area: in height - 4 km, in range - 6 km.
- The angle of vertical guidance: from -2 to +87 degrees, the angle of horizontal guidance - 360 degrees.
- The main types of ammunition: anti-aircraft fragmentation, armor-piercing, sub-caliber projectiles.
- The weight of the fragmentation projectile is 6.6 kg.
- Transfer time from traveling to combat: 60 sec.
- Mode of transportation: transported by ATP truck, ZiS-151 truck.
The combat use of the 57-mm anti-aircraft artillery complex C-60 was noted in a number of armed conflicts of the second half of the 20th century. In the mid-1980s, the S-60 Soviet anti-aircraft complexes were part of the 990th anti-aircraft artillery regiment providing security for airfields in the Republic of Afghanistan.
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