WW2HeavyHeavy TankSoviet Union

IS-6 (Object 252/253)

In service 1944 - 1945

Based onIS-2 (derived from)

Prototype only. A heavy tank tested with electric transmission, abandoned because the drive was heavy, hot and scarce in copper.

Built byChelyabinsk Kirov Works

Photograph pending. No clearly licensed photograph of this vehicle was found.

Development history

Two hulls were built in 1944: Object 252 with a conventional mechanical drive and Object 253 with an electric transmission on the German Elefant principle. The electric vehicle overheated and consumed copper the war economy could not spare, while neither offered enough over the IS-2 to justify retooling. The IS-4 and IS-7 took the heavy line forward instead.

Variants

One canonical record, 2 recorded variants.

  1. Object 252

    1944

    Conventional mechanical transmission version

  2. Object 253

    1944

    Electric transmission version; overheated and consumed scarce copper