A. Lyamin and L. V. Lyuliev was successful, but the army thought that the 45 mm calibre was a little too large for an automatic field weapon.

In January 1938 the Artillery Factory Number 8 in Sverdlovsk was ordered to develop a 37 mm weapon based on the same design.

The naval mounting was produced as the 70-K and had entered service before the German invasion of the Soviet Union replacing the semi-automatic 45 mm/46 21-K on many ships.

To improve on this, a twin-barrel water cooled mount, the V-11 (called "W-11" in East Germany and Poland because of different Cyrillic transliteration), entered service in 1946, and was in production until 1957.

After this an 85-calibre 100 mm (3.9 in) anti-aircraft mounts long version, the 45 mm/85, was developed and accepted into service in 1954, it was deployed in twin and quad turrets on a number of classes of vessels, including the Neustrashimy, Kildin and Kotlin-class destroyers.

A small piece of lead-tin wire is included in the case to act as a de-coppering agent, to counteract the buildup of copper from the driving bands of the projectiles.

The explosive shells are fitted with point detonating fuzes making them unsuitable for engaging fast moving or small targets.