AZP S 60

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57 mm AZP S-60

S-60 in an Israeli museum

Type

Autocannon

Place of origin

Soviet Union

Service history
In service
Used by
Wars

1950present
See users
Vietnam War
Cambodian Civil War
CambodianVietnamese
War
IranIraq War
Gulf War
Iraq War
numerous others

Specifications
Weight

4,660 kg (10,273 lbs)

Length

8.5 m (27 ft 11 in)

Width

2.054 m (6 ft 9 in)

Height

2.37 m (7 ft 9 in)

Crew

Shell

57348 mm. SR

Calibre

57 mm (2.24 in)

Rate of fire

105-120 rpm (cyclic)

70 rpm (sustained)

Muzzle velocity
Effective firing rang
e

1,000 m/s (3,281 ft/s)

6,000 m (20,000 ft) (radar
guided)
4,000 m (13,000 ft)
(optically guided)

57 mm AZP S-60 (Russian: -60, abbrev.

(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.

Contents
[hide]

1 History

2 Operational history

3 Ammunition types

4 Versions

5 Operators

6 References

7 External links

History[edit]
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. G. Grabin. According to western intelligence sources, the German prototype gun

5,5 cm Gert 58 formed the basis for the design. The Soviets were also able to study
German 5 cm Flak 41 guns that had been captured following the Battle of Stalingrad.
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.
Grabin continued the development and fielded the SPAAG version ZSU-57-2 in 1955.
The fire direction device was developed from the German Lambda calculator
(Kommandogert 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.
However, they were used in many other countries. The performance of AAA in Vietnam
against low-flying aircraft led the Soviets to bring back many guns from storage to
supplement the Surface-to-Air Missiles, whose performance at low altitude was less
than satisfactory.

Operational history[edit]
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 (IranIraq 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.
Syrian S-60 guns were actively used during the Syrian Civil War by both the army and
different rebel groups. As many other guns originally designed for antiaircraft use, most
of the time they were used in shelling ground targets.[1]

Ammunition types[edit]
The S-60 fires ammunition in 57x348SR caliber, a cartridge noticeably weaker than the
57mm ammunition of either Bofors 57mm AA gun, or Soviet 57 anti-tank guns of
World War II. Modern anti-aircraft rounds have not been developed for the gun - the
main characteristics of the Soviet-era ammunition is listed in the table below. In

addition to these People's Republic of China manufactures ammunition in 57x348SR

caliber, designated Type 59 HE-T, Type 59 AP-T, and Type 76 HE-T.
Training rounds include a blank round MK-281 ("Manver-Kartusche", East German
designation), and training rounds with -IN suffix (UBR-281U-IN, UOR-281U-IN)
identifying the rounds as fuzeless versions of the APCBC and HE rounds with dummy
fuzes and inert filling replacing the explosive cavities.
Designation

Type

Projectile Bursting
Weight [g] charge [g]

Muzzle
Velocity
[m/s]

UBR-281/281U APCBC-HE-T 2820 [2]

13 [2]

1000 [2]

UOR-281

HE-T

2850 [2]

154 [2]

1000 [2]

UOR-281U

HE-T

2850 [2]

154 [2]
168 [3]

1000 [2]

Type 59 AP

AP-T

Type 59 HE

HE-T

Description

Anti-tank round with

sharp penetrator, blunt
cap and an
aerodynamic cover,
with tracer and a
delayed-action base
fuze.[2] Penetration
96 mm RHA at 1000
m range or 106mm at
500m.[3] UBR-281 and
-281U are loaded with
the same projectile and
differ only by details
in case mouth and
swage grooves.[2]
Impact-fuzed
fragmentation shell for
anti-aircraft use. Nose
fuze with self-destruct
function and a tracer.[2]
Similar to UOR-281;
some sources state the
shell is the same as in
UOR-281 and the
round differs from it
only in details of the
case mouth and swage
grooves (as with the
UBR round),[2] while
others claim a slightly
larger HE filling.[3]
Chinese anti-tank
round presumably
similar to UBR281/281U.
Chinese fragmentation
round for anti-aircraft
use, presumably
similar to UOR-

Type 76 HE

HE-T

281/281U.
Chinese fragmentation
round.

Versions[edit]

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.

Operators[edit]

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 Zakady Mechaniczne Tarnw in Tarnw (en.
Tarnw Mechanical Works), and in Hungary by DIMVAG in Miskolc-Disgyr, and
in China as the Type 59.

Afghanistan

Albania

Algeria: 70 units

Angola

Armenia

Bangladesh

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bulgaria

Belarus

Cambodia

People's Republic of China

Republic of the Congo

Cuba: 400 units

Czechoslovakia: 575 units. Passed on to successor states.

Czech Republic

Egypt: 600 units

Ethiopia

Finland: 12 units. Nicknamed Nikolai.

Georgia: 60 units

Guinea: 12 units

Guinea-Bissau: 10 units

Hungary: 186 units (43 in store)

India

Indonesia: 256 units

Iran

Iraq

Israel: Captured units

Kyrgyzstan: 24 units

Laos

Libya: 90 units

Mali: 6 units

Morocco

Mauritania: 2 units

Moldova: 12 units

Mozambique

Mongolia

Nicaragua

North Korea

Pakistan

Poland: 500 units

Romania: 250 units

Russia

Somalia

Soviet Union: Passed on to successor states

Sudan: Both S-60 and Type 59 versions

Slovakia

Syria: 675 units

Free Syrian Army: Used by Syrian Rebels on various trucks chassis

Thailand: 24 units

Turkmenistan: 22 units

Ukraine: 400 units

Vietnam

Yemen: 120 units

Yugoslavia: Passed on to successor states

Yugoslavia: retired

Zambia: ~30 units

References[edit]
1.
2.
3.

Jump up ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ovUCOzzAZg
^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j k l m "Russian Ammunition Page,
http://www.russianammo.org
^ Jump up to: a b c "Jane's Ammunition Handbook, 1994
Koll, Christian (2009). Soviet Cannon - A Comprehensive Study of Soviet Arms and
Ammunition in Calibres 12.7mm to 57mm. Austria: Koll. p. 467. ISBN 978-3-20001445-9.

External links[edit]

FAS page on the S-60

Full technical characteristics (Russian)

S-60 57mm AA Video