Iosif Stalin tank
| Iosif Stalin tank | |
|---|---|
IS-2 model 1943 (fore) and IS-3 at the Great Patriotic War Museum, Minsk, Belarus
|
|
| Type | Heavy tank |
| Place of origin | Soviet Union |
| Service history | |
| Used by | Soviet Union, China, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, DPRK, Egypt, Poland |
| Wars | |
| Production history | |
| Designer | Zh. Kotin, N. Dukhov |
| Designed |
|
| Manufacturer | Kirov Factory, UZTM |
| Produced |
|
| Number built |
|
| Specifications (IS-2 Model 1944) | |
| Weight | 46 tonnes (51 short tons; 45 long tons) |
| Length | 9.90 m (32 ft 6 in) |
| Width | 3.09 m (10 ft 2 in) |
| Height | 2.73 m (8 ft 11 in) |
| Crew | 4 |
|
|
|
| Armor | 60–110 mm (2.4–4.3 in) |
|
Main
armament |
D25-T 122 mm gun (28 rounds) |
|
Secondary
armament |
3 × DT (2,079 rounds) |
| Engine | 12-cyl. diesel model V-2 600 hp (450 kW) |
| Power/weight | 13 hp/tonne |
| Suspension | torsion bar |
| Fuel capacity | 820 l (180 imp gal; 220 US gal) |
|
Operational
range |
240 km (150 mi) |
| Speed | 37 km/h (23 mph) |
The IS Tank (in Cyrillic "ИС", meaning the Joseph Stalin or Iosif Stalin in Cyrillic "Ио́сиф Ста́лин") was a series of heavy tanks developed as a successor to the KV-series by the Soviet Union during World War II. The heavy tank was designed with thick armor to counter German 88 mm guns and carried a main gun capable of defeating Tiger and Panther tanks. It was mainly a breakthrough tank, firing a heavy high-explosive shell that was useful against entrenchments and bunkers. The IS-2 went into service in April 1944 and was used as a spearhead by the Red Army in the final stage of the Battle of Berlin.
The KV-1 was criticized by its crews for its poor mobility and the lack of a gun heavier than the T-34 medium tank. It was much more expensive than the T-34, without having greater combat performance. Moscow ordered some KV-1 assembly lines to shift to T-34 production, leading to fears that KV-1 production would be halted and the SKB-2 design bureau, led by Kotin, closed. In 1942, this problem was partially addressed by the KV-1S tank, which had thinner armor than the original, making it lighter and faster. It was competitive with the T-34 but at the cost of no longer having the heavier armor. Production of the KV-1S was gradually replaced by the SU-152 and ended in April 1943.
The capture of a German Tiger tank in January 1943 led to a decision to develop a new heavy tank, which was given the codename Object 237. Before Object 237 had time to mature, intense tank fighting in the summer of 1943 demanded a response. Dukhov's team was instructed to create a KV tank, the KV-85, which was armed with the 52-K-derivative gun of the SU-85, the 85 mm D-5T, that proved capable of penetrating the Tiger I from 500 m (550 yd). The KV-85 was created by mounting an Object 237 turret on a KV-1S hull. To accommodate the Object 237 turret, the KV-1S hull was modified, increasing the diameter of the turret ring with fillets on the sides of the hull. The radio operator was replaced with an ammunition rack for the larger 85 mm ammunition. The hull MG was then moved to the opposite side of the driver and fixed in place to be operated by the driver. There was a short production run of 148 KV-85 tanks that were sent to the front beginning in September 1943. Production ended by December.
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Wikipedia