Author: Rainbow Kursk
According to CCTV News reported on August 10, according to the war report of the Russian Defense Ministry, the Russian army destroyed some of the weapons supplied by the West to Ukraine in the Nikolayev region.
According to the war report of the Russian Ministry of Defense on the 10th, the Russian army destroyed the "Cheetah" anti-aircraft tank provided by Germany to Ukraine in the Nikolayev area. Russian air defense systems also shot down 9 Ukrainian military drones and 7 Haimas rockets.
The Ukrainian side said on the 9th that a fierce battle occurred with the Russian army near the city of Donetsk, and the Ukrainian army repelled the Russian offensive in the direction of Bakhmut and Avdeyevka.
This was the first time the German-made "Cheetah" anti-aircraft tank (Flakpanzer Gepard) was lost on the battlefield in Ukraine. The so-called anti-aircraft tank, in fact, the standard is the self-propelled anti-aircraft gun, which is mainly used to accompany the armored forces to carry out field air defense, which can strike gunships, drones and even low-flying cruise missiles. The Cheetah self-propelled anti-aircraft gun was once a benchmark in the field of self-propelled anti-aircraft artillery, the top stream, and was considered the mainstay of strengthening the field air defense capabilities of the Ukrainian army before going to the Ukrainian battlefield, but it was still destroyed on the ruthless battlefield.
Image: The Cheetah's self-propelled anti-aircraft guns that open fire fiercely.
In fact, the Cheetah self-propelled anti-aircraft gun is a retired equipment provided by Germany.
However, during the Cold War, the "Cheetah" self-propelled anti-aircraft gun can be said to be the world's most powerful field anti-aircraft weapon. It benefits from the firepower advantage of advanced radar fire control systems and twin 35 mm anti-aircraft guns.
Compared with the 25 mm, 30 mm, 37 mm and 57 mm anti-aircraft guns at that time, the twin 35 mm anti-aircraft guns of Bofors in Sweden were the best comprehensive anti-aircraft guns, so after the "Cheetah", most of the self-propelled anti-aircraft guns of Western countries chose this set of double 35 anti-aircraft guns. The mainland once developed the Type 80 twin 57 mm self-propelled anti-aircraft gun and the Type 88 twin 37 mm self-propelled anti-aircraft gun, the former lacking radar fire control system, and the latter 37 mm anti-aircraft gun with poor rate of fire and ballistic performance.
Since then, the mainland has worked small-caliber anti-aircraft guns, developing the Type 95 self-propelled anti-aircraft gun, supplemented by short-range anti-aircraft missiles to make it a one-shot artillery air defense system.
Image: Type 80 self-propelled anti-aircraft gun.
Image: Type 88 self-propelled anti-aircraft gun.
Image: Type 95 self-propelled anti-aircraft gun.
However, the above-mentioned self-propelled anti-aircraft gun system has such defects, and in the end we embarked on the road of introducing a twin 35 mm anti-aircraft gun.
On the basis of the introduction of the Swiss double 35 mm anti-aircraft gun system, we also launched the Type 09 self-propelled anti-aircraft gun in the new century, which has become the most advanced field self-propelled anti-aircraft gun in the mainland, and it has been more than 30 years since the advent of the "Cheetah" self-propelled anti-aircraft gun.
Picture: The domestic Type 09 double 35 mm self-propelled anti-aircraft gun, known as the "Chinese Cheetah", costs the equivalent of three Type 99 tanks.
The Cheetah self-propelled anti-aircraft gun also began to be retired in the German army due to the aging of the system, and a new generation of field air defense gradually gave way to short-range air defense missile systems, such as the latest "LeFlaSys" self-defense system, with the "Mongoose" airborne combat vehicle as the chassis, increasing the performance of defensive UAVs. The United States also basically eliminated self-propelled anti-aircraft guns after the war, and instead equipped its field troops with self-defense missile systems equipped with Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, such as the latest M-SHORAD field air defense system.
Photo: German LeFlaSys self-propelled air defense system.
Photo: U.S. Military M-SHORAD Field Air Defense System.
So is the traditional anti-aircraft gun of the "cheetah" withdrawn from the stage of history?
It should be said that compared with the radar and photoelectric control of multi-barrel artillery systems, modern short-range air defense missiles do have stronger advantages, such as longer range, greater power, and the ability to ignore after launch, the launcher can maneuver away from the position immediately after launching the missile, and the self-propelled artillery often has to shoot down the enemy aircraft before it can leave the position, which makes it easy to expose itself to the counterattack of the enemy aircraft.
The Russian army's fighting in Syria also proved this. When the Russian military's "armor" S1 artillery integrated air defense system attached to the Khmering Air Force Base is used, it is often the anti-aircraft missiles carried on it, rather than the anti-aircraft gun, and the 30 mm anti-aircraft gun system equipped with it has the problem of poor accuracy and difficulty in hitting the UAV.
At the beginning of the Russo-Ukrainian War, the advanced "Tunguska" field anti-aircraft artillery integrated air defense system was also destroyed. According to preliminary statistics, 6 to 7 "Tunguska" have been destroyed.
Photo: Abandoned and destroyed Russian "Tunguska" shell artillery integrated field air defense system.
Relatively speaking, short-range anti-aircraft missile systems mounted on light chassis or simply individual shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missile systems are better survivable.
Although the Russians later pulled the old-fashioned ZSU-23-4 "Shileka River" self-propelled anti-aircraft gun into the battlefield, it was mainly used for close support in urban operations, with four 23 mm machine guns to shoot wildly at ground targets, rather than attacking air targets.
Therefore, it can be said that although the self-propelled anti-aircraft artillery will not immediately withdraw from the war stage, but with the further development of air power, especially the spread of unmanned aerial vehicle technology, want to use traditional self-propelled anti-aircraft guns to counter unmanned aerial vehicles, this road seems to be impossible to open, even if the rate of fire is higher multi-barrel Gatling anti-aircraft guns, there is also a problem that the range is much smaller than that of air-to-ground missiles, and some countries have revived 57 mm caliber or even 76 mm caliber self-propelled anti-aircraft guns, which have not been widely recognized by the international market.
The main force of future air defense operations will be new field air defense missile systems with better range and accuracy.
Pictured: Mainland's two 76mm export-type self-propelled anti-aircraft guns have not received a response from the market.
Pictured: The destroyed Russian ZSU-23-4 self-propelled anti-aircraft gun, with the abandoned Doyle M1 field anti-missile system in the rear.