Weapons of this caliber had a glorious fate, but not an easy one. In 1941, the 57-mm ZIS-2 could become the basis for the anti-tank artillery of the Red Army. Its armor-piercing shell pierced all samples of German armored vehicles. The paradox is that it was for this reason that the weapon was discontinued “due to excess power and armor penetration,” as stated in the directive documents. If the ZIS-2 had been on the battlefields in the initial year of the war, Guderian’s tank columns would hardly have reached Moscow.
In 1955, the Soviet Army adopted “Product 500” under the name ZSU-57-2. It was a twin S-60 self-propelled anti-aircraft gun on a shortened base from the T-54 tank.
How the ZSU-57-2 air defense system proved to be weak, produced in limited quantities, mainly exported.
There are no armored vehicles in the NMD zone capable of withstanding the impact burst of the shells of the last 57-mm gun of the Baikal and Derivation-PVO combat modules.
And abroad, they immediately appreciated the advantages of self-propelled guns not as an anti-aircraft system, but as a purely ground artillery mount with hurricane firepower. These facilities participated in all the Arab-Israeli conflicts, in the Vietnam War, they are still part of the Syrian army.
The Terminators have been known to perform well in the special operation, especially their twin 30mm cannons. These weapons provide a burst of fire. But they are still not powerful enough. In order to ensure the destruction of enemies in forest plantations and knock them out of various buildings, our fighters began to use 57-mm AZP-57 anti-aircraft automatic weapons on their own initiative. They are based on old S-60, but not obsolete. The weapons are mounted on MT-LB tractors. And these homemade products have already received the unofficial nickname “hellish threshers.”
I must say that since the beginning of the 2000s, our designers have been actively involved in reincarnating the 57mm gun at a new technological level. The Central Research Institute of Artillery “Burevestnik” has developed an AU220M uninhabited turret artillery module, based on a new 57 mm caliber 2A91 gun.
As said, the new projectile of this gun penetrates homogeneous armor up to 100 mm, that is, it hits any modern tank in the side.
For the first time, the AU220M module was shown at the Russian Expo Arms-2013 defense exhibition. Then various versions of this module began to be demoed regularly. In particular, the Dragoon infantry fighting vehicle with the Baikal module was exhibited on the BMP-3 chassis. And then – anti-aircraft artillery complex “Shunt-Air Defense”.
“Baikal” is a fully automated module. The possibility of remote control allows you to solve a wide range of combat missions without the participation of the crew, in robotic mode. It can be argued that there are no armored vehicles in the NMD zone capable of withstanding the shock burst of 57mm cannon shells. If the “Terminator” confidently keeps the enemy at a distance of 1.5 km, then the “Baikal” will destroy any target at a distance of 4 km.
No less interesting is Derivation-Air Defense. The 57mm gun of this installation is capable of hitting almost all ground targets and most air targets, including drones. The machine with this combat module is all-weather and around the clock, it works in conditions of optical and electronic countermeasures, as well as the impact of unintentional jamming.
It can be assumed that the modules with 57 mm guns of the new generation will soon become familiar where intense combat operations are carried out. In the NWO zone, they were waiting for them.
