SOVIET JS-4 HEAVY TANK - 1948

Description

The IS Tank 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 IS acronym is the anglicized initialism of Joseph Stalin. There are two tanks known as IS-4: Objekt 245 and Objekt 701. Objekt 245 was an IS-2 rearmed with a long 100 mm D-10T cannon. The other IS-4 was a new vehicle projected by LKZ in parallel with the IS-3 known as Objekt 701 by the same design and development bureau. For the latter, the IS-2 hull was lengthened, with an extra set of road wheels added and an improved engine. Both hull and turret armor were increased. Several alternative armaments were explored in paper studies but ultimately the IS-2’s original 122 mm gun was retained. An effort was also made to make use of technical data derived from study of the German wartime Panzer V Panther tank, which influenced the layout of the Objekt 701’s engine cooling system. The tank was approved for mass production from 1947 to 1949 but, due to disappointing speed and mobility, only 250 were built. Most of these were transferred to the Russian Far East. In 1949, production was cancelled and later these tanks were removed from service. (Scale : 1/72e)