ISU-152 (Zveroboy)

History

The ISU-152 is an extension of the Su-152 self-propelled heavy assault gun (described in detail elsewhere on this page) developed by the Soviet Union in late 1942 for World War II use. Recovering from the initial shock after the German invasion in 1941, the Soviet Army realized it needed a heavy offensive weapon to disperse enemy positions within rangeespecially in urban environments.

This led to a period of rapid research and evaluation, resulting in modifications to the KV-1 heavy tank's chassis to accommodate the sturdy, boxy armored superstructure of the 155-meter ML-20 howitzer. The result was the Su-152.

Although successful in the second half of 1943, there was room for improvement, which eventually came in the form of the "ISU-152".

Unlike the earlier Su-152, the ISU-152 used the chassis and running gear of the newer IS (Joseph Stalin) heavy tank series and was powered by a Kharkiv V-21S 520 hp diesel engine. The crew size remains at four or five, and an optional 12.7mm DShK heavy machine gun (HMG) can still be mounted on the right side of the top of the fuselage superstructure.

The driver was seated in the front left, the gunner and the loader in the row directly behind. The vehicle commander and breech operator are located on the right side of the fuselage superstructure. The crew carried a submachine gun (PPSh) to protect the vehicle at close range.

The torsion bar suspension system gives the vehicle a certain off-road capability. The main weapon became the ML-20S howitzer. It can carry projectiles up to 18 x 155 mm.

The ISU-152 was essentially a modernized version of the previous Su-152 vehicle, and its pilot form was tested at high speed between September and November 1943. A revision was forced due to problems encountered during this assessment. The ISU-152 eventually evolved into a (sort of) battle-ready platform in a very short time.

By December, mass production for the 1944 campaign had begun, with more than 1,800 ISU-152s to be produced by the end of the war, and the work would continue until 1947, when total production would have reached about 3,242. At the end of its useful life, various other modern systems were introduced in the series to make the vehicle as usable as possible on the modern battlefield.

This also helps to sell the vehicle in the export market.

In addition to the ISU-152 base production model is the ISU-152-2, a 1944 pilot vehicle to increase the inherent firepower of the design. The ISU-152K was a 1956 development and modernization of an aging wartime model, while the ISU-152M was the last modernized model to follow in 1959. "Object 704" was a related project from 1945 to demonstrate a potential combination of IS-2/IS-03 heavy tank components in the new ISU-152 design - it was not adopted and the war ended this year anyway.

Operators of this product (outside the Soviet Union) include China, Czechoslovakia, Egypt, Iraq, North Korea, Poland, Romania and Yugoslavia. Finland captured several specimens in the "Continued War" with the Soviet Union in 1944.

Iraq used the weapon in its war with neighboring Iran during the Iran-Iraq War of 1980-1988 - and some examples are still in use during the subsequent 1991 Gulf War. North Korea used the tank in the 1950-1953 Korean War, and Egypt used the ISU-152 against neighboring Israel in various Egypt-Israel wars beginning in 1948.

The Romanian Army referred to the ISU-152 as "T-152".

Specification

Basic

Roles

Dimensions

Performance

Performance

for everyone else in our database)

Armor

18 to 21 x 155 mm projectiles.

200 to 300 x 12.7mm ammunition.

Changes