KV-9 (Klimenti Voroshilov) / (Object 229)

[ZakTheBuilder1]

Self-Propelled Tracked Assault Gun Prototype

The KV-9 was a KV-1 Heavy Tank offshoot intended to satisfy a World War 2-era Soviet requirement for a self-propelled assault gun - one prototype was completed.

Kirov Works (Factory No.100) of Chelyabinsk took the framework of the KV-1 and mated it with a revised turret form housing a modified version of the 122mm D-30 towed field howitzer - this becoming the 122mm "U-11" of short-barreled form. The turret sported frontal protection of 135mm thickness, making it highly impervious to most any German field or tank gun (the famous "88" FlaK gun was of chief concern).

The KV-9's turret and gun were later reconstituted in a KV-13 Medium Tank project (known as "Object 233") in which the component was mated to the established running gear and hull of the KV-13 to produce the "IS Model 2". Again, a single prototype was evaluated with success in 1943 but this proposed form eventually lost out to the competing "IS Model 1" offering.

A cheaper KV-2 I guess