57 mm AZP S - 60 57 mm AZP S - 60 ( , abbrev . АЗП ( 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 Asia n countries . History . 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 Gerät 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 ( " Kommandogerät 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 . Operational history . 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 ( Iran – Iraq 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 . Ammunition types . 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 ( " Manöver - 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 . Operators . The S - 60 was sold to at least 37 different countries during the Soviet era . The gun was also license manufactured in Poland by Tarnów Metal Works in Tarnów ( pl . " Zakłady Metalowe Tarnów w Tarnowie " ) and in China as the Type 59 .