Russian Soldiers Firing AZP S-60 57mm Anti-aircraft Gun from the back of a truck towards Ukrainian Positions, video is from February

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Loitering14@reddit

Drones brought back something we thought belonged to past SPAAGs, and with some Middle Eastern fashion anything with four wheels and enough room for an anti aircraft gun on the back could become a SPAAG

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_Erilaz@reddit

Especially if you can make a laser proximity fuze sensitive enough to trigger on a drone. I bet it would be much cheaper with a 40-57mm shell as opposed to 20 or 30mm.

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aeroxan@reddit

Wouldn't timed fuzes work as well if you could determine the range on the drone? Not sure which is cheaper but I imagine a timer is.

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m1013828@reddit

so long as they can be electronically programed when loaded.... otherwise they are too cumbersome vs changing range as being loaded if timer is set the old fashioned way.

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Ok_Sea_6214@reddit

WW2 Pacific battles flashback.

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_Erilaz@reddit

Wasn't the smallest VT fuze 76mm back in the day? I always thought anything smaller wasn't possible at the time

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sorry-I-cleaved-ye@reddit

40mm was the smallest if memory serves

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Glockamoli@reddit

I believe the fuse originally was for the 5 inch guns but was scaled down as time went on

I'm sure they have smaller proxy fuses now but 40mm is probably the smallest commonly used round, past that it's mainly programmable fuses

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Plump_Apparatus@reddit

It's being used as indirect fire artillery, nothing to do with drones or anti-aircraft work.

Medium caliber anti-aircraft artillery is useless unless configured as a battery guns with a centralized director, preferably a radar directed one. It's useless against FPV drones regardless.

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Disastrous_Ad_1859@reddit

Manually guided systems like this aren't for anti-drone use.

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Loitering14@reddit

What they are for?

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Disastrous_Ad_1859@reddit

Area suppression

I made a comment elsewhere on this video with more detail.

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Gorning8cz@reddit

Hi, does anybody know where you can that ammo clip? I can't find it anywhere. All I'm seeing is russians using it on ukrainians. I'm looking for buying one for a recration of Viet war but can't see it anywhere for sale. I would be happy if anyone knew where to buy or look for them. Thanks forward

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Just-Sale-7015@reddit

Looks similar to the AMN-590911 "Spartak" but the truck chassis is different.

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the_greatest_auk@reddit

Why are they using such a small caliber weapon as an indirect gun?

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AraedTheSecond@reddit

Because you piss with the dick you've got.

Also, it's far easier for a motorised company to "obtain" AAA than it is for them to "obtain" actual artillery. As proven by the US logistics gun trucks in Afghan who nicked an awful lot of reasonably high-calibre small arms and bolted them on to trucks, or the US tanks in Vietnam where they nicked various chain guns and welded them on to the outside. Because "reasons"

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IronWarhorses@reddit

The reasons was convoy protection. Don't know why your acting like that's not a known thing. Soviets did the same in Afghanistan. Putting guns and armour on transports likely to be attacked literally started with armoured trains, the OG Guntrucks.

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AraedTheSecond@reddit

Of course it was convoy protection, but it essentially boils down to "this isn't nailed down and nobody is around, I can weld it to this truck LOL"

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IronWarhorses@reddit

Lol see my two latest posts

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wikingwarrior@reddit

I mean- an 82mm Mortar is much smaller and has about five times (700ish grams versus 150ish grams based on cursory googling) the explosives inside and they made a ludicrous amount of them. Unless they're firing past a mile or so (and therefore likely hitting nothing) they're not going to do much at all.

The fact that they bothered doing a multi-angle film of this makes me feel like it's mostly performative. A big semi-auto gun firing at an unseen enemy looks impressive after all.

Big angry technical looks angry

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AraedTheSecond@reddit

That as well. It looks strong to the type of idiot who likes Big Guns On Trucks, but in reality, it's a barely useful piece of shit that is either a desperate example of how little actual artillery the Russian forces have available, or a blatant propaganda piece.

But hey, I can see the justification. If I'm in the field and there's a gun like this that ain't being used, I'm gonna strap that bitch to a truck and blast away at the guys trying to kill me. If nothing else, I'm gonna feel better for it

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Limekill@reddit

Are you trying to hit a village (or say an apartment building)?
The soviets are used to Area suppression (less good at individual targets).
This is acceptable for whats its job is.

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AraedTheSecond@reddit

I'd be happy to hit a grid square

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Plump_Apparatus@reddit

Unless they're firing past a mile or so

Eh? Seriously?

The projectiles has traveled over two miles within the first second of flight. They leave the barrel at three times the speed of sound. From the angle they're firing they're likely around maximum distance, 14km or so.

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damdalf_cz@reddit

I'd assume it has advantage over mortars in certain situations since its direct fire. If you have enemies in commie bloc this will probalty work better than mortar since you can hit floors you need. There were also armour piercing high explosive shells made for this so shooting through walls is also posibility.

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Plump_Apparatus@reddit

There were also armour piercing high explosive shells made for this so shooting through walls is also posibility.

Eh, it's a 57mm anti-aircraft autocannon. The normal high explosive UOR-281 ammunition will happily knock holes through reinforced concrete. This is what a 30x165mm high explosive shell for a BMP-2 does to a 4" concrete wall. The UOR-281 HE ammunition for the S-60 has three times the explosive filling.

The AP round for the S-60, the UBR-281, will frontally penetrate almost any IFV/APC made. It'll penetrate the sides of rears of most tanks at reasonable ranges as well.

It's a high velocity anti-aircraft autocannon that weighs some 5 tons. Walls are not at all a issue.

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AraedTheSecond@reddit

That as well. It looks strong to the type of idiot who likes Big Guns On Trucks, but in reality, it's a barely useful piece of shit that is either a desperate example of how little actual artillery the Russian forces have available, or a blatant propaganda piece.

But hey, I can see the justification. If I'm in the field and there's a gun like this that ain't being used, I'm gonna strap that bitch to a truck and blast away at the guys trying to kill me. If nothing else, I'm gonna feel better for it

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AraedTheSecond@reddit

That as well. It looks strong to the type of idiot who likes Big Guns On Trucks, but in reality, it's a barely useful piece of shit that is either a desperate example of how little actual artillery the Russian forces have available, or a blatant propaganda piece.

But hey, I can see the justification. If I'm in the field and there's a gun like this that ain't being used, I'm gonna strap that bitch to a truck and blast away at the guys trying to kill me. If nothing else, I'm gonna feel better for it

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trackerbuddy@reddit

It’s direct fire. The high velocity and flat trajectory of a 57mm (6 pounder) makes it good for less hardened targets like dirt, trenches and rubble fortifications. Also good for anti material things like trucks, Humvees and light armor. Think of it as a .50 cal on steroids. Of course it shoot and scoot

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the_greatest_auk@reddit

They're firing up over the cab, and since they're not tracking anything so they aren't using it as AAA. Another poster further down mentioned what was likely happening was, as Wagner did in Syria, they are using it as an indirect fire weapon in a suppression role with fire control coming via drone. They're using the rounds to keep heads down not necessarily to kill with the effect of the shells.

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trackerbuddy@reddit

That’s why they were popular with Wagner. They couldn’t get real artillery . Thanks

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CaptainRex2000@reddit

Small?

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Timithios@reddit

Compared to actual artillery, yes.

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CaptainRex2000@reddit

But this anti aircraft/drones not artillery

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whomstvde@reddit

You don't shoot at aerial targets with that elevation.

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CaptainRex2000@reddit

I’m going off the title of the video.

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Plump_Apparatus@reddit

No, it's being used as indirect fire artillery. Always has been a secondary role for the S-60, and both Ukraine and Russia have been using them as such since the 2014 annexation.

The S-60 is useless as a anti-aircraft gun without a director controlling a battery of guns.

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the_greatest_auk@reddit

That 57mm is about 2in in 'Murican, typical artillery in the modern day and age are in the 152-155mm, about 6in. Each of those rounds is like 3ish kilos, or about 6 pounds, a typical 155mm round is about 45-50 kilos, or about 100 pounds.

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Disastrous_Ad_1859@reddit

iirc - these became pretty common when Wagner started getting heavily involved, likely drawing on experience from Syria where using such weapons in indirect fire is a bit of a norm. (at least, to my understanding)

Used to see a bit of footage of drones watching the impact area's - large area suppression which seems like it would do a pretty good job of preventing the other side from actively repositioning as even though they arent really hitting anything nobody is gonna want to be walking about when there is a non-zero chance that a 57mm round hits them, nor will you want to be driving around in such conditions.

Would link to some footage but the sub that used to have it got brigaded and taken down - so only real chance is finding someone that has it saved or scrolling though telegram posts from a couple years back. As its not as common as it once was.

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the_greatest_auk@reddit

Honestly, this or the vid being a fluff piece is the best explanation I've seen yet. It's suppression not effect they're wanting with a drone to give a live view would be a reasonably useful role.

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Ok_Sea_6214@reddit

Rate of fire optimal for air defense?

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the_greatest_auk@reddit

True, it is a piece of AAA, but they're not tracking anything, the gun isn't moving in traverse or elevation

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Ok_Sea_6214@reddit

Yes I mean it's an AAA gun that can double as direct fire support and artillery. Not optimal, but very multifunctional.

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the_greatest_auk@reddit

For sure, it's one of the reasons the 57mm has remained around so long. My confusion stems from the use as an indirect fire support weapon, which is what it looks like they are doing with it here. Although I'm guessing this video could be just as much a fluff piece as anything else

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