M53/59 Praga
1950s self-propelled twin 30 mm anti-aircraft gun
The M53/59 Praga is a Czechoslovak self-propelled anti-aircraft gun developed in the late 1950s. It consists of an armoured version of the Praga V3S six-wheel drive truck chassis, armed with a modified version of the M53 twin 30 mm (1.2 in) anti-aircraft gun mounted on the rear, which can be removed and used to provide ground support.
In Czechoslovakia, it was known as Praga PLDvK vz. 53/59 (PLDvK Model 53/59). PLDvK stands for Protiletadlový dvojkanón, or "twin anti-aircraft cannon". Vehicles for the export market were sold under the designation Praga M53/59 "Ještěrka" ("Lizard").
Description
The M53/59 has an all-welded steel armoured hull with a front engine, crew compartment at the centre and rear mounted guns. The armour is sloped to provide protection against small arms and shrapnel without increasing weight.
Armoured covers with vision slits which can be lowered in combat to provide additional protection to the driver and commander, while the two loaders seated on the back of the crew compartment have two vision slits behind the side doors. The commander also has a hemispherical plexiglass cupola for observation.
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This entry incorporates text from “M53/59 Praga” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.