IS-7 the heavy tank

The IS-7 is a heavy tank that became famous with its project name Object 260. This became famous as the ‘war thunder’. The development of this tank was begun in 1945 and this is a Soviet tank. But this was canceled and replaced by the T-10 tank. So, this IS-7 has only existed as a prototype.

Production and design

Designer

This was firstly designed by Nikolai Fedorovich Shashmurin in Leningrad. And the designed year was 1945. This was 68 tonnes of weight and the armor was very thick.

Basic built of the tank

And it was ideally armed with the 130 mm long-barrelled gun, S-70. This is the largest and the heaviest member of the family, IS. Another thing is the heavy tank designs which are designed in advance.

Design

They say the armor has the same design as the IS-3 has. Especially the pike nose on the upper glacis. The sporting 150mm of armor is inclined and 65⁰.

The armor of this tank was specially designed as a defeater against the Jagdtiger’s 12,8 cm Pak 44. It was durable for the last 1km from the tank. For the lower glacis, they designed to put 100mm armor.

How the original design changed

But later the designer decided that it should be more than 100mm. So, they put 110mm – 120mm armor. And the thickness varied depending on the welding patterns.

The upper and the lower side armors varied from 150mm to 100mm accordingly. The inflatable bags were located behind the lower plate of the side. They hold the fuel.

The turret

The turret mantlet was the thickest part. It was 350mm thick. And the turret was between 240mm and 250mm. and it was angled between the degrees of 50 to 60.

The enormous angle that the pike nose offers when shot frontally results in a substantially increased risk of ricochet. Thus, armor protection could be boosted without needing to employ enormous amounts of materials.

The pike nose

The pike nose, on the other hand, would not have a relative thickness high enough to ricochet the shell if shot at a sideways angle. The inside of the tank has a “V” form from the front, allowing the side armor to be spaced.

Due to several hydraulic assistance, it was easy to drive despite its weight. The autoloader was straightforward to use and the IS-7 was comfortable, according to the loaders.

Speed

It also had a top speed of 60 km/h, courtesy of a 1050 horsepower diesel engine that gave it a power-to-weight ratio of 15.4 hp/tonne, which was better than most modern medium tanks.

Resistance

Its armor was resistant to not just the Jagdtiger’s 12.8 cm PaK 44, but also it’s own 130 mm. The tank never made it to the manufacturing lines for unknown reasons, most likely due to significant complications stemming from its mass (bridges, rail transit – no Soviet/Russian tank admitted into service after that topped 55 t).

Guns

The 130 mm S-70 was a naval cannon converted to fire a 33 kilogram (73 pounds) armor-piercing projectile at 900 meters per second (3,000 feet per second).

The gun’s loading mechanism was a conveyor belt system with an aided loading mechanism. It could hold six ready rounds before needing to be replenished. The rounds were made up of two components: the shell and the propellant.

According to Nicholas Moran, the IS-7 had a large number of machine guns (eight) and would have lost five of them if it had gone into production.

Why did it never continue?

Despite being a superb breakthrough vehicle, the IS-7 was heavy, expensive, and overspecialized; the T-10, on the other hand, was better suited for longer conflicts and protracted warfare, as well as being easier and less expensive to transport. In February 1949, work on the IS-7 came to an end.

How it did on the tracks?

The IS-7’s tracks were designed specifically for it, but the IS series cars’ tracks were very similar. The track was the first in the Soviet Union to use single-pin rubber bushings held in place by bolts.

The IS-7 features seven road wheels that are coupled to torsion bars by road wheel arms and are limited by volute spring bump stops and hydraulic shock absorbers.

External fuel tanks might be carried in the back to extend the tank range.

Varients

This tank has its 3 more varients.

• Object 261 – This is the self-propelled gun variant of the IS-7. It has a 152mm cannon at the back. There was only a wooden mockup made.
• Object 262 – This is a front-mounted 152mm gun on a self-propelled gun version.
• Object 263 – This is the IS-7 tank destroyer variant. A rear, semi-enclosed fighting compartment houses a 130mm S-70A cannon.

IS-7 in Popular gaming Culture