More than 30 years ago, an attempt was made to create a ZA-35 anti-aircraft self-propelled gun on the basis of the Soviet T-72 tank. It is interesting that such work was carried out by specialists of the Republic of South Africa.
Mockup ZA-35 on T-72 chassis during one of the DEXSAs. Wonder if it was aimed at the IA at some point. Perhaps working with the Poles for their Loara. pic.twitter.com/QcKFLC1aHP
— Saumya Supratik (@SupratikSaumya) March 13, 2021
A special module that had a circular rotation and weighed 11,000 kg was installed on the combat vehicle, from which the tower with a 125-mm gun was dismantled.
As the main armament, it used two 35-mm automatic guns with a rate of fire of 550 rounds per minute. They could hit air targets of various types at a distance of 3500-4000 meters. The ammunition, however, was not too large, only 230 shells. For example, the domestic 2S6 "Tunguska" has 1,936 ammunition.
There was a radar station on the ZSU, which allowed detecting aircraft at a distance of up to 12,000 meters. Its peculiarity was the possibility of lifting with the help of a special mechanism to a height of up to 6 meters, which made it possible to better see objects located near the surface of the earth. The crew consisted of three servicemen.
The self-propelled gun was successfully tested, but no one was interested in it. It was suggested that one of the likely buyers could be Iraq, with which South Africa maintained contacts in the military field, but after the aggression against Kuwait, the Baghdad regime fell under strict sanctions.
It is interesting that later specialists from South Africa tried to create a 155-mm self-propelled gun for India on the basis of the "seventy-second".
Alexey Moiseev
