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Su-85

1943 COLD WAR WORLD WAR 2

History of the Su-85

After the invasion of the Soviet Union by former ally Germany, the Red Army was routed in an attempt to stem the tide of the mighty Wermacht. The arrival of the legendary T-34 medium tank turned battles in the defender's favor, as its thick armor, speed and powerful guns held up well against the German Army's main battle tanks - the Panzer III and Panzer IV series. This forced the Germans to develop more powerful machines, which inevitably became the excellent Panther Medium and Tiger Heavy series. This, in turn, prompted the Soviet Union to provide a tank kill system, which it tried in the development of the SU-122.

However, the SU-122's artillery proved effective only as an "assault gun" in supporting infantry operations and countering enemy fortifications and troop concentrations, and was less effective in the specific role of killing tanks.

The unremarkable appeal of the SU-122 prompted the Soviet authorities to continue their search for a specialized system for destroying the tank. As a starting point and to facilitate mass production, the fuselage of the SU-122 (itself a copy of the T-34 fuselage) was used and the existing 85mm anti-aircraft gun was installed.

The use of these components ensures that new weapon systems can be produced quickly and in required quantities, while keeping costs manageable. Prototypes were provided in August 1943, evaluated and put into production as the SU-85, with 750 prototypes delivered by the end of the year.

At this point, the original 76mm main gun of the base T-34 tank proved to be quite ineffective against the new generation of German tanks. The 85mm gun was the next logical step in the series and the new T-34/85 was born.

In fact, the arrival of the T-34/85 made the dedicated SU-85 somewhat redundant, causing the latter to cease production in September 1944 with some 2,000 deliveries completed.

When the SU-85 was about to be phased out, its replacement became the SU-100 with a more powerful 100mm main gun. The SU-100 entered service the same month that the SU-85 was discontinued.