Object 248

Object 248

Object 248

USSR

IV Rank

Battle rating:

AB	RB	SB
6.7	6.7	6.7

Class:

PREMIUM

Heavy tank

Purchase:Bundle or Gift

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Description

The Object 248 was a proposed modification to the aging IS-1 with the intention of equipping it with a 100 mm gun. There were two distinct versions. The first to arrive was Object 245, armed with a D-10 cannon, followed by Object 248, armed with an S-34. They were tested in the second half of 1944. At the beginning, they were considered a failure, as the modifications did not improve the performance of the IS-1 but rather made it even worse. It was discovered that the guns were unstable and could be damaged due to weak gun cradles, and the tank commander could be hit by the breech of the gun while it was rolling back after being fired. These were not fully addressed until the end of the year, when the majority of the design flaws were corrected. Unfortunately, it was considered too late, as both German and Soviet forces had already developed more advanced tanks that outperformed both tanks, and production was promptly cancelled.

The Object 248 was introduced during Update "Danger Zone" as a reward for Battle Pass: Season VIII, "Field Testing". It has a powerful 100 mm gun that provides faster reload and more penetration at the expense of explosive mass when compared to the IS-2's 122 mm. However, because of the more than halved reload time, it can be more aggressive on the battlefield while still being able to engage enemy tanks at medium to long range, providing more versatile playstyle options.

General info

Survivability and armour

Armourfront / side / back

Hull100 / 90 / 60

Turret100 / 100 / 100

Crew4 people

Visibility102 %

The Object 248 inherits the hull and turret of the IS-1/2. At this battle rating, this level of protection is overall very lacklustre, although the all-round armour is very effective against SPAA and low tier vehicles (e.g. M42, Crusader AA). The hull is the same as early IS-1/2 models instead of the 1944 model, meaning the 120 mm thick upper front plate (driver's port) will easily be penetrated by almost any tank (e.g. Panther G, Jagdpanther, M26, etc.). Same applies for the large, poorly angled 100 mm lower plate. The only places that can resist some shots are the upper glacis and the rounded "shoulders" which are all very well angled. Note that the curved "shoulders" will become unangled when angling the hull, creating another weak spot, so the player must balance the angling very well. The side thickness of the hull ranges from 100-90 mm, which is thick enough for some angling tactics against kinetic shells. Even when not angling, hits on the hull side might get absorbed by the track or the gap between the hull's upper edge and the turret's lower edge. However HEAT shells (e.g. Type 60, M41) will still easily penetrate the Object 248. The rear hull's 60 mm thickness and angling is not enough for it to resist any common guns, however the engine behind it can absorb most if not all penetrations.

The turret is also poorly armoured. It has an all-round thickness of 100 mm which may help to bounce some shots with luck. The frontal turret is covered by a large curved gun mantlet which might absorb some shells if they come in contact with the barrel, but that's about it. Well-aimed shots will easily go through the flat parts of the frontal turret or the tall commander's cupola.

The post-penetration survivability is also unsatisfactory, given the cramped design style of Soviet tanks. Frontal penetrations of AP shells through the lower front plate, driver's port, or the turret will usually be a guaranteed death as the closely packed crew of 4 are easily affected by explosion or shrapnel. Penetrations from HEAT are usually not as deadly though can still do critical damage. Side penetrations can very much result the same. Rear penetrations on the hull, as mentioned above, are likely to get blocked by the engine, thus a tactic is to drive the tank backwards and use the engine and radiators as extra armour, at the cost of constantly getting set aflame.

Armour type:

• Cast homogeneous armour (Front and rear hull, Turret, Gun mantlet, Cupola)
• Rolled homogeneous armour (hull sides and roof, Turret roof, Hatches)

Armour	Front (Slope angle)	Sides	Rear	Roof
Hull	120 mm (27-34°) Driver viewport 60 mm (77°) Upper glacis 100 mm (28-36°) Lower glacis	90 - 100 mm (9-25°) Top 90 mm Bottom	60 mm (49-50°) Top 60 mm (38°) Bottom	30 mm Hull 10 mm Engine Compartment 60 mm (77°) Front hull
Turret	100 mm (7-72°) Turret front 100 mm (4-80°) Gun mantlet	100 mm (4-32°)	100 mm (23-43°)	30 mm 30 mm Turret Hatches
Cupola	90 mm (3-58°)	90 mm (10-58°)	90 mm (1-58°)	90 mm

Notes:

• Suspension wheels are 20 mm thick, tracks are 30 mm thick, and torsion bars are 10 mm thick.

Mobility

Speedforward / back

AB38 / 15 km/h

RB and SB36 / 14 km/h

Number of gears8 forward

2 back

Weight46.5 t

Engine power

AB992 hp

RB and SB520 hp

Power-to-weight ratio

AB21.3 hp/t

RB and SB11.2 hp/t

Game Mode	Max Speed (km/h)		Weight (tons)	Engine power (horsepower)		Power-to-weight ratio (hp/ton)
	Forward	Reverse		Stock	Upgraded	Stock	Upgraded
Arcade	38	15	46.5	671	992	14.43	21.33
Realistic	36	14		460	520	9.89	11.18

The mobility of the Object 248 is satisfactory for a heavy tank. The forward speed on average is about ~35 km/h on paved flat road, and ~20 km/h cross-country, which allows it to keep up with similar teammates like IS-2 and Tiger H1. The acceleration on all terrains is not exactly agile as a result of the rather underpowered 520 hp engine driving a 46 ton body (the power-to-weight ratio is just over 11 hp/t - quite low). The hull traverse is very slow, and becomes more sluggish when driving on loose surfaces like mud or snow, so a short forward/backward motion is needed to turn the hull faster. The reverse speed of -14 km/h is a great advantage, as it enables the Object 248 to quickly go back to cover if needed, as well as to use the backward-driving tactic above.

Keep your situational awareness high, since the Object 248's poor agility does not let you respond to more agile flankers (e.g. M18, T-34-85, Panther) quickly.

Modifications and economy

Repair cost

AB3 282

RB3 401

SB4 645

Crew training10 000

Experts340 000

Aces890

Research Aces1 180 000

Reward for battleAB / RB / SB

2 × 140 / 200 / 220 %

2 × 184 / 184 / 184 %

Modifications

Mobility	Protection	Firepower
Tracks Suspension Brake System Filters Transmission Engine	Improved Parts Improved FPE Crew Replenishment	Horizontal Drive Adjustment of Fire 100mm_ussr_Smoke_ammo_pack Elevation Mechanism

Armaments

Main armament

100 mm S-34 cannon

Ammunition31 rounds

First-order9 rounds

Reloadbasic crew → aces

11.1 → 8.5 s

Vertical guidance-3° / 18°

IS-2 players would become best friends with the Object 248's main gun very fast, since it gets rid of the long reload while keeping the excellent one-shot capability. This 100 mm S-34 cannon has a quick reload time of around 10 seconds which is generally fast enough for most situations. The reduced calibre also increases the ammunition capacity to 31 rounds at most, allowing the player to significantly lengthen their battle time without resupplying ammo. The BR-412B APHEBC shell is extremely powerful, with ~210 mm penetration at around 400 m, and 184 mm at 1,000 m. This level of penetration is adequate to frontally crack even the hardest nuts at its battle rating, such as Ferdinand, Jagdpanther, Ho-Ri, M26, etc. More commonly seen and less armoured tanks like Panthers, M4 Shermans, Centurions, etc., are of course even easier to deal with. Upon penetration, the shell's 100 g explosive filler will effortlessly knock out most if not all crew inside the target tank. However, one slight downside of it is the reduced explosive mass comparing to the 122 mm BR-471B's 246 g of explosives, meaning when shooting spacious vehicles like Jagdtiger, you should attempt to target the centre mass of the crew so the shell explodes as closely to their middle as possible, to guarantee a one-shot kill. The shell also has a slightly higher velocity and flatter trajectory, making it easier to land shots at distant and/or moving targets.

The main gun aside, other aspects of the Object 248 don't quite complement the firepower, rather they are drawbacks. Firstly, the familiar awful gun depression of -3° which completely hinders the Object 248's capacity to fight on uneven surfaces. Even a small bulge on the ground would obstruct the gun from aiming down, so the player is left with fewer spots in all maps to unleash their firepower. The turret rotates quite slowly too, at around 10°/s, which is inadequate to quickly change a target. This can be fatal when the Object 248 is being flanked. Lastly, the poor gunsight zoom of 3.5x at max limits the tank from ranged engagements, as it is hard to see a target with low zoom.

100 mm S-34					Turret rotation speed (°/s)					Reloading rate (seconds)
Mode	Capacity	Vertical	Horizontal	Stabilizer	Stock	Upgraded	Full	Expert	Aced	Stock	Full	Expert	Aced
Arcade	31	-3°/+18°	±180°	N/A	11.3	15.7	19.0	21.1	22.4	11.05	9.78	9.01	8.50
Realistic					8.3	9.8	11.9	13.2	14.0

Ammunition

Penetration statistics
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm)
		10 m	100 m	500 m	1,000 m	1,500 m	2,000 m
BR-412B	APHEBC	218	215	201	184	169	155
OF-412	HE	27	27	26	24	23	21

Shell details
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Velocity (m/s)	Projectile mass (kg)	Fuse delay (m)	Fuse sensitivity (mm)	Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (g)	Ricochet
							0%	50%	100%
BR-412B	APHEBC	895	15.88	1.2	19	100.1	48°	63°	71°
OF-412	HE	900	15.6	0.2	0.1	1,460	79°	80°	81°

Smoke shell characteristics
Ammunition	Velocity (m/s)	Projectile mass (kg)	Screen radius (m)	Screen deploy time (s)	Screen hold time (s)	Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (g)
3D3	880	15.6	16	5	25	50

Ammo racks

Full ammo	1st rack empty	2nd rack empty	3rd rack empty	4th rack empty	5th rack empty	6th rack empty	Visual discrepancy
31	__ (+__)	__ (+__)	__ (+__)	__ (+__)	__ (+__)	__ (+__)	__

Machine guns

7.62 mm DT machine gun (coaxial)

Ammunition2 331 rounds

Belt capacity63 rounds

Reloadbasic crew → aces

10.4 → 8.0 s

Fire rate600 shots/min

7.62 mm DT
Mount	Capacity (Belt)	Fire rate	Vertical	Horizontal
Coaxial	2,331 (63)	600	N/A	N/A

Usage in battles

The Object 248 is armed with a 100 mm S-34 cannon which offers the ability to compete against higher BR vehicles than the IS-2 series, thanks to the higher penetration and faster reload speed the gun offers the tank can perform very well when played smart and careful.

The Object 248 should be treated as a medium tank as it has relatively little armour for a heavy tank for its BR. Play it as a medium tank (T-34 and T-44) and refrain from engaging head-on with enemies, instead flank the enemy from the sides or attack from cover. The tank is perfectly capable of this and can be very lethal when used in this way. But play carefully as a single hit could be enough to take you down due to poor armour.

Pros and cons

Pros:

• Rounded frontal hull and turret can sometimes bounce shells
• All-round protection, very useful against SPAA like Ostwind II
• Relatively low and small for a heavy tank
• Fast reverse speed of -16 km/h allows it to pull back into safety quickly
• The 100 mm cannon has lethal penetration & damage: it can frontally penetrate & knock out hard targets like M4A3E2, Jagdpanther, Tiger II, etc.
• The 100 mm cannon has a rapid reload (~10 seconds), boosting its firepower exponentially
• Adequate acceleration & speed on paved road, can keep up with some medium tanks (e.g. Panther) to provide much-needed heavy fire

Cons:

• Weak frontal armour: lower front plate and gun mantlet can be easily penetrated by common foes like M4A3 (76), Chi-Ri, Tiger II, etc.
• Closely sat crew of 4 are very likely to be taken out with a single shot
• Sluggish acceleration in loose muddy terrain, heavily reducing mobility
• Poor gun depression (-3°), limiting its capacity in mountaineous terrains
• Turret rotation of ~10°/s is quite slow, can be fatal when reacting to flankers like M18 and M41

History

Describe the history of the creation and combat usage of the vehicle in more detail than in the introduction. If the historical reference turns out to be too long, take it to a separate article, taking a link to the article about the vehicle and adding a block "/History" (example: https://wiki.warthunder.com/(Vehicle-name)/History) and add a link to it here using the main template. Be sure to reference text and sources by using <ref></ref>, as well as adding them at the end of the article with <references />. This section may also include the vehicle's dev blog entry (if applicable) and the in-game encyclopedia description (under === In-game description ===, also if applicable).

Media

Skins

• Skins and camouflages for the Object 248 from live.warthunder.com.

Videos

The Shooting Range #316 - Metal Beasts section at 00:27 discusses the Object 248.

Battle Pass: Field Testing discusses the Object 248 at 02:05 - War Thunder Official Channel

See also

Related development

• IS-2 (Family)

External links

• [Devblog] Battle Pass vehicles: Object 248 heavy tank