The Zi£-131 is a Soviet / Russian off-road truck, the first prototypes of which appeared in the early 1960s. Serial production lasted from 1966 to 2002 and was concentrated at the Zi³ plant in Moscow.
The Zi£-131 was developed and put into production as a supplement and successor to the Zi£-157 car. Compared to its predecessor, it received primarily an engine generating much greater maximum power (150 HP compared to 109 HP), which translated into significantly better performance and a load capacity, which increased from 4500 kg to 5000 kg. In addition, a fully loaded Model 131 can also tow a 5-tonne trailer. The Zi£-131 has an all-wheel drive (6x6) and is characterized by good off-road ability. However, it is not very economical, because on the road it consumes up to 65 liters of fuel per 100 km, and off-road fuel consumption increases to at least 150 liters per 100 kilometers! Many specialized versions were created on the Zi£-a-131 chassis, such as: a garbage truck, a tanker or a truck tractor. The BM-21 Grad unguided missile launcher is also mounted on this car.
The S-75 Daugava (NATO designation: SA-2 Guideline) was a Soviet surface-to-air missile designed to destroy medium and high altitude targets from the Cold War period. The SA-2 was a two-stage missile with a range of up to 45 kilometers, capable of carrying a warhead weighing up to 200 kilograms and capable of destroying targets at an altitude of up to 25,000 meters.
In the early 1950s, the American air force began to intensively develop its fleet of strategic bombers (B-47 and later B-52), which were to deliver nuclear blows in the territory of the USSR. This fact led to the commencement of work by the Soviet Union in 1953 on a new anti-aircraft missile, which was finally the SA-2. It was presented to the public for the first time in 1957. Probably in the same year, the SA-2 began to be introduced on a large scale to anti-aircraft units of the Soviet Army. At the time of its introduction, the system presented high combat capabilities and turned out to be an unpleasant surprise for the USAAF. It proved its worth in 1960, when the SA-2 rocket shot down a U-2 plane piloted by Francis Powers. This weapon was also sold by the USSR to North Vietnam and effectively limited the freedom of operation of American aircraft during the Vietnam War (1964 / 1965-1975). Later, many system upgrades were introduced, the most important of which is the S-75M Volkhov (NATO designation: SA-2C), with significantly higher parameters, shorter response times and better guidance systems. SA-2 missiles were exported to many countries, including Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Egypt, Moldova, Poland and Romania. They also took part in many armed conflicts. In addition to the aforementioned Vietnam war, they took part, for example, in the Six-Day War (1967), the Indo-Pakistani wars of 1965 and 1971, the Yom-Kippur war (1973) and the Iraqi-Iranian war (1980-1988).