tank The Greatest Armored Vehicle to Exist

[TheClassyBandit 463 / 7,670]

In April 1937, Armour Command of the Red Army sent the military operational requirements to Factory #184, these were the requirements for the development of “an armoured machine of a new type” with a maximum mass of 50 tons, protected by at least 60mm of armour and the option to install different weapon types. Depending on the task of the battle machine, a 107mm cannon, a 122mm howitzer or 152mm howitzer could be mounted. Additional weapons were a 45mm cannon, a high-calibre AA machine gun and a 20mm tank cannon.

In spite of the complexity of the task the construction bureau of the factory managed to cope with the new design and the new battle machine (object 104 in the factory numeration) reached the factory testing stage which lasted for a year. During this period a considerable number of flaws were detected, these issues were eliminated as the tests proceeded.

 

Blueprints:

 

In September 1939 after most of the defects had been eliminated, the development prototype obj. 104, (newly designated ST-1) was delivered to Moscow to be shown to members of the Soviet government and Red Army command. The demonstration of the new battle machine highly impressed the Soviet political and military leadership, and therefore it was decided to build a series of machines for operational trials. The new vehicles went through a baptism of fire during the Soviet-Finnish war. ST-1, along with new trial tanks the SMK and the T-100 had been sent to the front. Later, the ST-1 was changed to KV in the documents for disinformation purposes.

Not only did it have an extremely high cross-country ability, the ST-1 also was almost immune to anti-tank hedgehogs and mines. Even more so, thanks to it unique looks, it would spread fear and panic in enemy infantry ranks. 152mm howitzer allowed to destroy concrete pill-boxes with a minimal ammo expenditure. Finnish 37mm cannons could not penetrate the battle compartment’s armour and Molotov cocktails were also useless due the high profile of the machine. The large “dead zone” of the main armament and limited range of vision were the main weaknesses. A successful combat deployment convinced even the most pessimistic military officials of the necessity to put ST-1 into mass production.

 

ST-I Participating in a Parade.

 

According to different sources by June of 1941 from 20 to 30 ST-1’s were built. All of the aforementioned vehicles were deployed in the western military districts but by the beginning of the war, the machines were not fully mastered by the crews - also there was a lack of spare parts for repairs that resulted from a large amount of electrical failures In the course of the near-border battle in summer of 1941, all completed ST-1’s were lost. But some of them were mentioned in German battle reports.

Due to the difficult situation at the front and the military factories’ relocation to the East, a decision had been made not to continue the production of walking tanks and concentrate on less spectacular but more efficient, easy to master and repair vehicles with traditional running gear.

 

The ST-I in battle.

         

 

Mainline version of the combat walker originally designated 'Object 104', later changed to ST-1.

Main Armament:

152mm M-10Sh Howitzer x 1 (Ammo: 20)

Secondary Armament:

45mm 20-K cannon x 1 (Ammo: 113)

20mm TNShSH cannon x 1 (Ammo: 600)

Machine guns:

7.62 DT machine gun x 1 (Ammo: 1260)

7.62 DT machine gun x 1 (Ammo: 1260)

12.7 DShK machine gun x 1 (Ammo: 1200)

 

This has surely been the world's greatest armored vehicle, too bad none survived the war though. Could of had something like the Panzerkampfwagen VIII Maus ("Mouse") in a museum!

 

 

 

[Shuruia 3,145 / 28,023]

I wonder how many gullible people will believe this.

[Firestorm 104 / 4,804]

Stolen from Star Wars?

 

 

[TheClassyBandit 463 / 7,670]

I can assure you, this was a real vehicle.

[Little Ring 440 / 7,172]

 

Best armored car.

[Dreamy 10 / 2,215]

Wasn't this an April fool's from the game War Thunder? 

 

Edit: Seems like it was https://warthunder.com/en/devblog/current/757/

Edited October 5, 2016 by Dreamy

[Nutella 1 / 1,553]

This is a real thing?? 

 

[Faex 486 / 8,707]

A weapon to surpass Metal Gear