Editing ZSU-23-4 Shilka (section)

==History==
Class: Self-Propelled Anti-Aircraft Gun<br>
Developed: 1957-1962<br>
Service: 1962+<br>
Vehicles Built: cca 6500<br>
Operators: Soviet Union, Russia, most of the Warsaw Pact and two dozen other countries

The Shilka (named after a Siberian river) came to be in the early 1960s as an attempt to provide Soviet mechanized forces with a short-range highly mobile anti-air platform that would also feature some basic protection. The designation itself, ZSU-23-4, stands for "self-propelled anti-aircraft gun" with the number signifying its gun caliber (23mm) and the amount of barrels (4).

The defining characteristics of the Shilka would be its low weight (mere 19 tons), light armor and high firepower of its quad water-cooled 23mm guns. Thanks to its excellent cooling system, the vehicle was able to fire as many as 3400 rounds per minute. The system was guided by rather advanced radar and was therefore capable of engaging even fast-flying targets.

The Shilka would turn out to be a very successful design. Roughly 6500 were built between 1964 and 1982 (the original production run ended in 1968) with some 2500 of them exported all over the world. They participated in pretty much every major conflict of the 20th century, including the Soviet-Afghan War, the Vietnam War, the Yom Kippur War, the Gulf War and many others, sometimes even appearing on both sides. The brutal volume of fire it offered in combination with HE shells would often be used against soft ground targets with excellent results. Several modernized variants exist, more than two dozen countries or organizations still operate it and it is even now being used in several countries, including the Donbass War or the Syrian Civil War.