The

ZIL OJSC AMO ZiL, known fully as the Public Joint-Stock Company – Likhachov Plant () and more commonly called ZiL (, was a major Russian automobile, truck, military vehicle, and heavy equipment manufacturer that was based in Moscow, Russia. The la ...

-135 is a large, eight-wheeled military transport and self-propelled artillery truck produced during the Cold War by the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

starting in 1959. Its purpose was to carry and launch an artillery

missile In military terminology, a missile is a guided airborne ranged weapon capable of self-propelled flight usually by a jet engine or rocket motor. Missiles are thus also called guided missiles or guided rockets (when a previously unguided rocke ...

, specifically a FROG-7, from

surface-to-surface A surface-to-surface missile (SSM) or ground-to-ground missile (GGM) is a missile designed to be launched from the ground or the sea and strike targets on land or at sea. They may be fired from hand-held or vehicle mounted devices, from fixed ins ...

. The ZIL-135 was widely exported to other communist countries, most notably

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and T ...

, where it is a common sight in films and military marches. It also served as the TEL for the

BM-27 Uragan The BM-27 Uragan (russian: БМ-27 Ураган, lit=Hurricane; GRAU index 9P140) is a self-propelled 220 mm multiple rocket launcher designed in the Soviet Union. The system began its service with the Soviet Army in the late 1970s, and wa ...

artillery rocket system. This vehicle has two gasoline engines that power its 20 tonnes to a maximum speed of 65 kilometers per hour. One engine drives the four wheels on the left of the truck, while the other engine drives the four wheels on the right. The ZIL-135 has eight wheel drive, but only the front and rear axles are used for steering. It has a maximum cruising range of 500 kilometers. The cab of the ZIL-135 is

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

protected, allowing the rockets to be fired without exposing the crew to possible contaminants.''Red Steel: Soviet Tanks and Combat Vehicles of the Cold War'', by Russell Phillips, pub Shilka, 2013, p140.WeaponSystems.net
''BM-27 Uragan''. The six-man crew can emplace or displace the system in three minutes.

Variants

Transporter erector launcher of Redut coastal missile system at Park Patriot 01

ZiL

*ZIL-135 (9P113): launcher for FROG-7 (Luna-M) missile (1959) *ZIL-135B: amphibious version of ZIL-135 (1959) *ZIL-135e: non-amphibious version of ZIL-135B (1960) *ZIL-135E: Diesel-electric transmission (1965) *ZIL-135K: launcher for C-5 missile (1961) *ZIL-135KM: launcher for

SS-N-3 Shaddock The P-5 ''"Pyatyorka"'' (russian: П-5 «Пятёрка»; "Pyatyorka", "fiver" in English), also known by the NATO codename SS-N-3C Shaddock, is a Cold War era turbojet-powered cruise missile of the Soviet Union, designed by the Chelomey desig ...

missile (1962, prototype for BAZ) *ZIL-135KP:

land train Land, also known as dry land, ground, or earth, is the solid terrestrial surface of the planet Earth that is not submerged by the ocean or other bodies of water. It makes up 29% of Earth's surface and includes the continents and various is ...

(1969) *ZIL-135L: improved suspension (1961) *ZIL-135LM: ZIL-135L with manual transmission (1964) *ZIL-135LN: chassis-cab based on ZIL-135K *ZIL-135P: amphibious landing transport (landing barge) (1965) *ZIL-135SH: zero-turn radius (1967)

BAZ

*ZIL-135K: launcher for FCR-2 missile (1961) *BAZ-135LM: ZIL-135K with manual transmission (1963) **BAZ-135LMT (BAZ-135L7): tropical weather version of BAZ-135LM (1968) *BAZ-135LMP: launcher for

MLRS (1976) *BAZ-135LTM: transporter for Luna-M missile (1963) *BAZ-135L4: civilian version (1968) *BAZ-E135G: experimental prototype with gas turbine engine *BAZ-135M1: prototype with a single diesel engine *BAZ-135MB: launcher for SPU-35V, Tu-143 and Tu-243 (1964) **BAZ-135MBP: BAZ-135MB with metal cargo platform **BAZ-135MBK: BAZ-135MB with increased cargo and towing capacity (1991) **BAZ-135MBL: (1993)

Specifications

* Length: * Width: * Height: * GVW (without missile): 11.57 tons * Ground clearance: * Pitch angle: 57° * Engine: 2 X ZIL-375YA V-8 6.9 liter gas engines * Horsepower: X 2 * Top speed: * Range: * Fuel consumption: -

References

* {{cite book, first1=Jamie, last1=Prenatt, first2=Adam, last2=Hook, title=Katyusha – Russian Multiple Rocket Launchers 1941–Present, series=New Vanguard 235, publisher=Osprey Publishing, place=Oxford, year=2016, isbn=978-1-4728-1086-1 Wheeled self-propelled rocket launchers ZiL vehicles Military trucks of the Soviet Union Military vehicles introduced in the 1950s Amphibious military vehicles