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Apr 21, 2013

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.

13 comments:

  1. Is this the same gun as 130mm on SU-100Y?

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  2. Slightly different. The ISU-130 used a S-26 gun (130 L/54.7), while the SU-100Y used a B-13 (130 L/50). The S-26 is based on the B-13, but has a bunch of modernizations built in.

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  3. Good find, an image of the ISU 130 has been sought for some time on various sites - ed

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    1. The Russian Wikipedia has one of the full thing, with a muzzle brake: http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A4%D0%B0%D0%B9%D0%BB:Isu130.jpg

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  4. 5 rpm seems about right; that's pretty much what the German 128 gets at the same tier. But then again, it would be pretty much a JP II with inferior mobility and armour. Even premiums need some outstanding features compensating for the weaknesses. -Platypusbill

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  5. Thanks for the article Peter. I just would like to point out that imageshost.ru doesn't work for us in Italy somehow, could you use a different image hosting service next time? I would greatly appreciate it.

    RedBear87 (EU)

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    Replies
    1. Done, I switched it to Blogspot's hosting. I'll try to remember to host all images locally in the future.

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    2. Thanks a lot for your consideration and keep up the good work!

      RedBear87 (EU)

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  6. I was wondering, couldn't they just add this 130mm cannon to the ISU-152? If you say that it has the same penetration value of the ISU-122's A-19/D-25s then they could just play around with the ROF to compensate the higher alpha damage.

    RedBear87 (EU)

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    1. It's historical pen was the same as the bl-9

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  7. there is something fishy about this image

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    Replies
    1. CAMD RF 81-12038-688. You're welcome to go to Podolsk and check it out for yourself, if you're suspicious :)

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  8. I want it now, Insta buy!!!!!

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