Brainstorming Tanks: ISU-130

By EnsignExpendable

As if the Soviet Union didn't have enough premium tank destroyers already, how about another one? The ISU-130 is a likely candidate.

An ISU-130 boops a Panther on the head during trials. The muzzle brake has been removed to study recoil lengths.

For a period of time around the mid-to-late war, the USSR was obsessed with putting large guns in the ISU-152. Object 250, or ISU-130, started development in 1944, but trials showed that the gun needed further development. Considering that the 130 mm gun penetrated as much as the gun on the ISU-122BM, there was no advantage in mass producing the ISU-130. The end of the war put an end to experiments with "high power" tank destroyers on the ISU-152 platform.

The ISU-130 had pretty much the same mobility as the ISU-152. For the purposes of making a premium tank, it could lose that fancy modernized engine, and become close to a stock ISU-152 with a BL-9S installed. The larger caliber would obviously increase damage. However, caliber is a double-edged sword, as it would also decrease reload speed. Real life ROF was about 2 RPM (this TD lacked the IS-7's autloading mechanism), so it would have to be boosted just a tad for this to be any fun. Considering that the devastating BL-10 fires at about 4 RPM, 5 RPM for a smaller caliber should be fair.

The ISU-130 was also equipped with a Hertz panoramic sight for indirect fire, but an artillery role is unlikely, considering the relatively small caliber and the TD designation of all of its ISU cousins.