IS-7 (Object 260)
In service 1946 - 1949
Based onIS-4 (Object 701) (successor to)
Prototype only, and the heaviest and most powerful Soviet tank ever actually built and run.
Built byKirov Factory (Leningrad)
Development history
Designed at Leningrad immediately after the war, the IS-7 combined a 130 mm naval-derived gun, a pike-nose hull of up to 210 mm and a 1050 hp marine diesel that made a 68-tonne tank genuinely fast. It also introduced mechanised loading assistance and a remote anti-aircraft mount. Trials from 1946 to 1948 went well, but no bridge, railway flatcar or recovery vehicle in Soviet service could handle it, and in 1949 Stalin capped new tank weight at 50 tonnes, ending the programme. One vehicle survives at Kubinka.
Variants
One canonical record, 2 recorded variants.
Object 260 first series
1946Initial hull with 130 mm S-70 and manual loading assistance
Object 260 1948 pattern
1948Mechanised loading, eight machine guns and revised pike nose; the definitive trials vehicle