In 1944, the Red Army began development of a new generation anti-aircraft gun system which for the first time used radar for fire control. In 1950, the Soviet Ground Forces began to field new air defence regiments with the tank, mechanized and rifle divisions, equipped with the new S-60 57mm air defence gun and its associated SON-9 (Fire Can) radar fire controls. This was the first divisional level, radar-directed air defence gun in Soviet service, and considerably enhanced the anti-aircraft fire power of the divisions receiving it. The main drawback of the S-60 system was that it took considerable time (25-30 minutes) to fully deploy the guns, PUAZO-6/60 predictors, generators, cables, and their associated fire control radars. In this configuration, it was useful to protect relatively static sites such as command centres or major communication and transport lines such as bridges. It was not very practical to protect fast-moving armoured columns. As a result, in 1947, work began on a self-propelled version using a new twin-barrelled derivative of the S-60, the S-68 Model 1952, 57mm gun. This vehicle was manufactured at Factory No.174 in Omsk in 1955-1960 as the ZSU-57-2. By Soviet standards, it was not built in large numbers, though precise figures are lacking.
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