The ZSU-57-2 is an Soviet SPAA armed with twin 57mm autocannons. Despite being an SPAA, most people who play it actually use it for anti-tank purposes, and take joy in doing so. Why is that, and how is it played?
Image credit: Caff_
| Pros | Cons |
| Good mobility | Open-topped |
| Great cannons | Weak armour |
| Cannons are hard to aim |
Armament
The ZSU is armed with two 57mm S-68 cannons. As a base set of shells, the ammunition has 151mm of penetration at point blank. This is enough to shred almost any tank you will face. The stock belt of APCBC/HE alternates between armour piercing with explosive filler, and a high explosive round. The stock belt is fine, the main problem is going to be your clip size — it’s 8, and you will exhaust it in 4 shots and need a 3 second reload, during which if you’re out in the open and have attracted attention, anything with a roof-mounted machine gun will be able to shred you.
The other problem is the poor rate of fire on the guns, and the fact that the recoil means that when firing multiple shots in quick succession, the guns are very inaccurate, especially over longer ranges. You also have the issue with Soviet vehicles of no gun depression. You can only depress 5 degrees, however vertical traverse is 85 degrees. With a turret rotation speed of 21 degrees a second horizontally and 14 degrees a second vertically, the turret is quite mobile and fast moving (apart from gun depression).
Your ammunition is mostly stored in the rear of your turret, however some is stored underneath the crew compartment. Most of the time, killing shots will be hitting the ammunition in the turret. Now, I’ve mentioned one belt, but there are 3 others, shown below (note the clip size doesn’t change):
| Belt | Armour penetration at 500m (flat armour) | Pros | Cons |
| BR-281SP | 130 | No high explosive shells, just armour piercing | Solid shot (no explosive filler) |
| OR-281U | 15 | Good at deleting aircraft with good shots | Useless against anything more heavily armoured than a T92 |
| BR-281U | 130 | Again, no HE shells. Explosive filler. | None |
Funnily enough, the Chinese version, the WZ305 (PLAF designation — PGZ80), apart from being based on a ZTZ79 chassis and having some more armour, gets airburst proximity fuse high explosive, making it more effective. However, it is currently also 1 BR higher.
Mobility
| Top Speed | Reverse speed | Power to weight ratio | Engine horsepower | Weight |
| 50km/h | 8km/h | 18.6hp/t | 520hp | 28 tons |
With a decent top speed and, for Soviet vehicles at least, a fast reverse speed, you are able to outpace many enemies on the battlefield. It is best to try and flank, but you can try and rush points. If you decide to do any of this, your main opponents will be faster vehicles like the XM800T or the Wiesel 1A4. The turn time may feel a bit sluggish, and you lose lots of speed while doing so. You are fastest travelling in a straight line on a flat road.
Armour
Despite being based on a T-54 chassis, it retains none of the armour from it. Both hull and turret armour max out at 15mm. This leaves you susceptible to anything heavier than a 7.62mm, meaning tanks with a roof-mounted MGs can shred you. You do have 6 crew, and it can take a while to MG that into oblivion. The Chinese version is based on a different chassis, however that doesn’t change anything about the armour protection on the vehicle.
YOU ARE AN OPEN-TOP. Never forget that. Strafes, bombs more than a mile away, and sometimes even just sufficiently large enough HE shells (like the one from the PzH 2000) landing near you can kill you. While I would recommend using cover, even that won’t work sometimes.
Playstyle
So, what’s its overall playstyle? You either rush points, hoping to shred Hellcats (M18, Super Hellcat, M36 Jacksons) or you flank. With flanking, you shouldn’t fire at long distances due to the gun’s accuracy. When played correctly, it can decimate entire teams.
Brawling
You don’t want to brawl. While it is true the cannons have good penetration, brawling will lead to you getting killed. Due to the offset of the cannons, it is very hard to exploit weak spots, unless you are skilled. This gives the enemy time to destroy you. It is also hard for you to target cannons and machine guns from the front, again due to the cannon offset. You should only try ambushes, striking at the unprotected sides of tanks, or try to destroy light tanks.
Rushing
If you rush a point, usually the first enemy vehicles to arrive will be M18s, XM800Ts, or maybe even M41s. These are easy prey, so as long as you try to ambush and surprise them, with a well-timed rush, you can rack up some easy kills and capture a point. Try to use buildings if you rush later in the game, to hide from planes. Whatever you do, do not pass through an open field, this will only lead to death.
Flanking
Flanking is possible due to the above average mobility for its BR placement. Try not to flank beyond what is reasonable, as the inaccuracy of the cannons will lead to you being spotted. If you flank somewhat close to the edge of the battlefield, you can get some quick kills from people (like you) trying to be intelligent and get some flanking done.
Conclusion
Well, there you have it. The ZSU-57-2 — the definition of a glass cannon. Easily taken out, but in the right circumstances, you can easily take out tanks and planes alike. It is amusing using an SPAA to destroy tanks, but War Thunder players never use anything how it was intended, do they?
I hope this helped!