ISU-122

ISU-122

SU-85M

ISU-122S

ISU-122

SU-85M

ISU-122S

USSR

III Rank

Battle rating:

AB	RB	SB
5.3	5.3	5.3

Class:

Tank destroyer

Research:20 000

Purchase:135 000

This page is about the tank destroyer ISU-122. For the version equipped with a D-25S cannon, see ISU-122S.

Description

The ISU-122 is a rank III Russian tank destroyer with a battle rating of 5.3 (AB/RB/SB). It was introduced during the Closed Beta Test for Ground Forces before Update 1.41.

General info

Survivability and armour

Armour type:

• Rolled homogeneous armour
• Cast homogeneous armour (Gun mantlet)

Armour	Front	Sides	Rear	Roof
Hull	60 mm (75°) Front glacis 90 mm (31°) Lower glacis	90 mm	60 mm (50°) Top 60 mm (39°) Bottom	30 mm
Superstructure	90 mm (30°) Front glacis 65 mm (7-69°) Gun mantlet case 100 mm Gun mantlet (0-45°)	75 mm (14-15°)	60 mm	30 mm

Notes:

• Suspension wheels are 20 mm thick while tracks are 30 mm thick.

Mobility

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Armaments

Main armament

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Additional armament

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Machine guns

Offensive and anti-aircraft machine guns not only allow you to fight some aircraft but also are effective against lightly armoured vehicles. Evaluate machine guns and give recommendations on its use.

Usage in battles

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Pros and cons

Pros:

• Powerful cannon, can penetrate the majority of enemies it faces
• Great post-penetration damage
• No armour weak spots
• Good acceleration in reverse allows you to hide quickly

Cons:

• Slow reload
• Armour cannot stop most common cannons and penetrations are often lethal
• Like most Tank Destroyers, it lacks a turret and so its firing angles are restricted
• Breech gets damaged often
• Slow traverse means flanking attacks are lethal

History

Development

When the ISU-152 began production in 1943 with the large 152 mm ML-20S gun, production of the chassis and hull soon exceeded the supply of the ML-20S gun, which caused a decrease in the production of self-propelled guns for the Soviet military. It was determined to speed up self-propelled gun production, the ISU chassis were to be mounted with the 122 mm A-19S gun. Work on this mounting already began before the supply issue in December 1943 at the Chelyabinsk Kirov Plant (ChKZ), which had a design team simply take the ISU-152 chassis and hull and only changing out the armament with the 122 mm gun, but this prototype - Object 242 - was not immediately put into production despite successful testings. When the supply issue arose, the prototype was then adopted by the Soviet Defense Committee for increased production and also that the 122 mm gun had better accuracy against tanks than the 152 mm gun. The ISU armed with the 122 mm gun, designated the ISU-122, began production in April 1944.

Upgrade

The original ISU-122 is equipped with the 122 mm A-19S gun, which had a firing rate of 1.5 to 2.5 shots per minute due to its manual-piston breech. An attempt to fix this was a modernized A-19 gun called the D-25. The D-25 didn't see instalment onto the ISU-122 for a while due to prioritization on the IS-2 tanks, but it was available for use on self-propelled mounts after September 1944 as the D-25S. The ISU-122 prototype mounting the D-25 gun was called Object 249 which was successfully tested and an improvement over the A-19 gun with an increased firing rate of 2 to 3 shots per minute with one loader and up to 4 shots per minute with an additional loader in the crew. The D-25 also exploited the use of a muzzle brake in order to reduce the recoil forces on the gun, so the recoil buffer on the D-25 was much smaller than the A-19, which helped reduce the size of the gun and improved crew workspace in the self-propelled gun. Object 249 was then adopted as the ISU-122S, which entered production side by side with the ISU-122 u and both were produced up until the end of 1945. ChKZ produced both vehicles during the war and manufactured 1,735 ISU-122s (April 1944 - December 1945) and 675 ISU-122Ss (September 1944 - December 1945).

Combat usage

The ISU-122 were organized in units in a similar fashion as the ISU-152. The focus was made to not mix the two vehicles in the same regiments or brigades due to logistical reasons with ammunition and ballistic differences in indirect fire, but some units were equipped with both vehicles anyways. Like the ISU-152, the ISU-122 proved to be a very powerful multi-purpose vehicle as an assault gun, self-propelled artillery, and tank destroyer. The 122 mm gun on the ISU-122 allowed it to engage armour and fortifications with heavy armour-piercing round and a large high-explosive round. The primary role of the ISU-122 was as a tank destroyer due to the gun's superior ballistics compared to the ISU-152's, which large calibre size more suited its role as an assault gun. The ISU-122 did participate as an assault gun role in urban combat to support the infantry, but the lack of rotating turret and long barrel length restricted its manoeuvring and ability to engage all enemies in a large angle. Nevertheless, commanders found the ISU-122 as a very good assault gun. Usage of the ISU-122 in an indirect firing role as a howitzer is rare, but when used could fire up to 14 kilometres away. Usage as an artillery piece is more likely during a rapid offensive where towed artillery behind the lines is unable to keep up with the advancing infantry lines.

In-game description

The ISU-122 SPG was created in 1943 based on the IS-1 with the 122 mm A-19 Mod. 1937 field cannon's tipping unit installed in its cabin. The cannon was mounted with an offset to the right from the hull's central axis. The driver's compartment was placed to the left of it. The weapon had a relatively low rate of fire, amounting to around 2.2 shots per minute. The barrel's length came to 46.3 calibres. Its armour-piercing round weighed 25 kg and had an 800 m/s muzzle velocity. Its ammunition load consisted of separately loaded shots. Its direct firing range came to 5,000 m, and its maximum range was 14,300 m.

The fighting compartment was also equipped with two 7.62 mm PPSh and PPS submachine guns with 1,491 rounds and 25 F-1 hand grenades. Starting from October 1944, a 12.7 mm DShK anti-aircraft machine gun was mounted on a bracket next to the commander's hatch. The machine gun had a 250 round ammunition complement. The crew consisted of four to five men. The crew housing in this vehicle was the same as in the ISU-152. Its armour protection was also the same as on the ISU-152. The cannon's gun mantlet had 100 mm thick armour.

The vehicle was mass-produced from April 1944 to September 1945 at the ChKZ factory in Chelyabinsk. In total, 1,735 of them were made. The new SPGs were widely used in battles as tank destroyers and assault weapons in the final stage of the Great Patriotic War. The long barrel length of the A-19 cannon installed in the fore of the armoured cabin limited the vehicle's manoeuvrability. A small number of ISU-122s were modernised in 1958. Only their sights and radio sets underwent modernisation. At the beginning of the 1960s, the SPGs were removed from service in the Soviet Army.

Media

Skin and Camouflages for the ISU-122 in Warthunder Live.

See also

Links to the articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:

• reference to the series of the vehicles;
• links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.

External links

• [Wikipedia] ISU-122