IS tank family

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Iosif Stalin tank
IS-2 model 1943 and IS-3 at the Great Patriotic War Museum, Minsk, Belarus
Type	Heavy tank
Place of origin	Soviet Union
Service history
Used by	Soviet Union China Cuba Czechoslovakia East Germany Hungary Egypt Poland North Korea
Wars	World War II Korean War Hungarian Revolution of 1956 Six-Day War Prague Spring 1991-1992 South Ossetia War War in Donbas[1]
Production history
Designer	Zhozef Kotin Nikolay Dukhov
Designed	1943 (IS-2) 1944 (IS-3) 1944–45 (IS-4)
Manufacturer	Kirov Factory, UZTM
Unit cost	IS-2: 264,400 rubles[2]
Produced	1943–44 (IS-1) 1944–45 (IS-2) 1945–47 (IS-3) 1947–49 (IS-4)
No. built	207 (IS-1)[3] 3,854 (IS-2) 2,311 (IS-3) 250 (IS-4) 6 (IS-7)(prototypes)[4]
Specifications (IS-2 Model 1944[6])
Mass	46 tonnes (51 short tons; 45 long tons)
Length	9.90 m (32 ft 6 in)
Width	3.09 m (10 ft 2 in)
Height	2.73 m (8 ft 11 in)
Crew	4
Armor	IS-2 Model 1943: Hull front: 120 mm Lower glacis: 100 mm at 30° angle Turret front: 100 mm (rounded) Mantlet: 155 mm (rounded) Hull side: 90–130 mm at 9-25° Turret side: 90 mm at 20° angle.
Main armament	D-25T 122 mm gun (28 rounds)
Secondary armament	1×DShK, 3×DT (2,079 rounds)
Engine	12-cyl. diesel model V-2 600 hp (450 kW)
Power/weight	13 hp/tonne
Suspension	torsion bar
Fuel capacity	820 L (180 imp gal; 220 US gal)
Operational range	Road: 240 km (150 mi) Cross-country: 180 km (110 mi) [5]
Maximum speed	37 km/h (23 mph)

The IS tanks (Russian: ИС) were a series of heavy tanks developed as a successor to the KV-series by the Soviet Union during World War II. The IS acronym is the anglicized initialism of Joseph Stalin (Ио́сиф Ста́лин, Iosif Stalin). The heavy tanks were designed as a response to the capture of a German Tiger I in 1943.^[7] They were mainly designed as breakthrough tanks, firing a heavy high-explosive shell that was useful against entrenchments and bunkers. The IS-2 went into service in April 1944 and was used as a spearhead by the Red Army in the final stage of the Battle of Berlin. The IS-3 served on the Chinese-Soviet border, the Hungarian Revolution, the Prague Spring and on both sides of the Six-Day War. The series eventually culminated in the T-10 heavy tank.