SOVIET HEAVY TANK KV-7 (Object 227)

Description

By the end of 1941, when the production of KV tanks had been shifted to the Urals, SKB-2 received the tasking to develop an improved KV tank for the purpose of mounting a more powerful gun and improving its mobility characteristics. By 1942 several experimental variants of the KV had been suggested. One of the first was the design of an artillery mounting, "Object 227", with a non-rotating combat compartment - a gun platform formed from 100 mm armor plates. Because at that time there were no more powerful mass produced guns, the decision was made to mount the 76 mm Tank Gun and, in that manner, increase the firepower and rate of fire of the combat vehicle. The chief designer of "Object 227" was G. N. Moskvin and designers L. I. Gorlitskiy and N. V. Kurin from Uralmash were involved in the armament. L. E. Sychev exercised overall supervision. Work was begun in mid-November 1941 and by 29 December this same tank, under the designation KV-7, was sent together with a KV-8 and a second variant KV-7 to Moscow for joint testing and display to J. Stalin. As a result of the tests, the tank was not recommended to accept for service. The KV-7 was armed with two coaxially mounted 45mm Tank Guns Model 1938 mounted in an armored gun platform. The guns could fire singly or in salvo. The combat weight of "Object 227" was 45 tons and it had a crew of 6. (Scale : 1/35e)