Image Source: Photo: twitter.com/Mukhtarr_MD
The Azerbaijani army has adopted the Yugoslav triple-barreled 20-mm M55 Zastava cannons captured from the Armenian troops in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Such guns were installed on Soviet lightly armored tracked MT-LB transporters. As the name implies, the guns were developed back in the mid-50s.
In the armed forces of the SFRY, both towed variants and self-propelled ones mounted on BOV-3 armored personnel carriers were used.
The M55 has a practical rate of fire of up to 700 rounds per minute. The effective firing range for aerial targets is 4000 m and up to 5500 m for ground targets. Shells are fed from three drum magazines (each holds 60 rounds of ammunition).
These weapons were actively used by the warring parties during the hostilities in Croatia, Bosnia, Kosovo and Macedonia.
Last year, such guns were unexpectedly used for many in Nagorno-Karabakh. During the fighting, according to the well-known blog "Oryx", a total of 35 such self-propelled units were lost, and 24 were captured in good condition.
It is not surprising that some of them ended up in the Azerbaijani army. For example, the fifth corps stationed in Nakhichevan is in service. Recently, one of the cars lit up during the "Indestructible Brotherhood-2021" joint exercises with Turkey.
