ISU-152 (China)

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RANK 5 FRANCE
Somua SM PACK
cn_isu_152.png
␗ISU-152
AB RB SB
4.7 4.7 4.7
Research:26 000 Specs-Card-Exp.png
Purchase:76 000 Specs-Card-Lion.png
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Description

GarageImage ISU-152 (China).jpg


The ␗ISU-152 is a rank III Chinese tank destroyer with a battle rating of 4.7 (AB/RB/SB). It was introduced in Update 1.91 "Night Vision".

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 (29°) Front glacis
65 mm (7-69°) Gun mantlet case
100 mm Gun mantlet (0-45°)
75 mm (14-15°) 60 mm (1°) 30 mm

Notes:

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

Mobility

Game Mode Max Speed (km/h) Weight (tons) Engine power (horsepower) Power-to-weight ratio (hp/ton)
Forward Reverse Stock Upgraded Stock Upgraded
Arcade 39 15 46 739 992 16.07 21.57
Realistic 36 14 460 520 10 11.3

Armaments

Main armament

Main article: ML-20S (152 mm)
152 mm ML-20S Turret rotation speed (°/s) Reloading rate (seconds)
Mode Capacity Vertical Horizontal Stabilizer Stock Upgraded Full Expert Aced Stock Full Expert Aced
Arcade 20 -3°/+20° -3°/+7° N/A 7.0 9.8 11.8 13.1 13.9 27.69 24.50 22.58 21.30
Realistic 4.8 5.6 6.8 7.5 8.0

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-540 APHE 170 169 161 152 144 136
OF-540 HE 49 49 49 49 49 49
BR-540B APHEBC 166 164 157 148 140 133
BP-540 HEAT 250 250 250 250 250 250
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-540 APHE 600 48.8 1.2 19 739.2 47° 60° 65°
OF-540 HE 655 43.56 0 0.1 5,900 79° 80° 81°
BR-540B APHEBC 600 48.96 1.2 19 1,020 48° 63° 71°
BP-540 HEAT 680 27.67 0.05 0.1 5,910 62° 69° 73°

Ammo racks

Ammo racks of the ISU-152 (China)
Full
ammo
Ammo
type
1st
rack empty
2nd
rack empty
3rd
rack empty
4th
rack empty
Visual
discrepancy
20 Projectiles
Propellants
11 (+9)
11 (+9)
(+19)
(+11)
N/A
(+13)
N/A
(+19)
No

Notes:

  • The ISU-152 (China) uses two-piece ammunition, composed of projectiles (yellow) and propellant bags (orange). Both have separate racks.

Machine guns

Main article: DShK (12.7 mm)
12.7 mm DShK
Mount Capacity (Belt) Fire rate Vertical Horizontal
Pintle 250 (50) 600 -5°/+85° ±180°

Usage in battles

The ISU-152 is a tank destroyer with a huge 152 mm cannon which can one-shot any target that it penetrates. In an uptier, the gun is equipped with a HEAT shell that has enough penetration to destroy even the most armoured heavy tanks. However, the gun comes with its drawbacks. Its reload time is long, shell velocity is low, and on top of that, shell drop must be accounted for when aiming. This makes aiming and leading at long ranges difficult--indeed, the ISU-152 is best at close and medium ranges.

The gun has a very small gun depression, which means that the ISU-152 is unsuited for hilly maps and for firing from behind ridgelines. Flat, urban terrain lets this vehicle use its gun to the greatest potential.

Of course, the ISU-152 is not a turreted vehicle, and this means that flankers such as the M18 Hellcat are extremely dangerous. Worse, the ISU-152 is quite sluggish in the mobility department. Repositioning in order to face an enemy takes a considerable amount of time, which means that it's necessary to keep a careful eye out for flankers, and to plan escape routes in dangerous situations.

As for armour, the ISU-152's protection is average. Its roof armour can protect against aircraft machine guns and some 20 mm cannons, and its side armour protects well against SPAA guns. However, the frontal armour is easily penetrated by many of the guns at this tier. And, the tightly-packed arrangement of the crew inside the vehicle means that being one-shot is not a rare occurrence in this vehicle.

Provided you have the HEAT shell unlocked, the ISU-152 is a exceptional machine to use in a full uptier and even beyond, with up to 250mm of armour penetration. The HEAT shell on the ISU-152 is identical to the one on the Object 268, a BR 7.3 tank destroyer, with the same armour penetration stats to boot. With the extra silver lions obtainable from the "Rank does not matter" achievement, the ISU-152 may actually be more effective in a uptier then at tier.

Modules

Tier Mobility Protection Firepower
I Tracks Parts Horizontal Drive
II Suspension Brake System FPE BR-540B Adjustment of Fire
III Filters Crew Replenishment BP-540 Elevation Mechanism
IV Transmission Engine

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • Deadly cannon provides superior one-shot capacity with any target upon penetration
  • Powerful HEAT penetrates up to 250mm which is very effective in a full uptier. For example the early Centurions, Ferdinand, Tiger II H can all get penetrated with ease.
  • The huge gun mantlet and its complex armor layout is capable of deflecting quite some shells sometimes.
  • 30mm roof armor resists popular aircraft weapons well, like the 12.7mm M2 with ground target belt and the MG 151.
  • All-round protection provides good resistance against flanking SPAAs. The M19 / M42 are very common flankers.

Cons:

  • Long reload of more than 20 seconds and the rather curved trajectory demands very precise aiming, which isn't beginner friendly.
  • Front armour is only 75mm and is not well angled. Gets penetrated easily by common guns at the BR, like the 76mm M1, 17 pdr, 75mm and 88mm.
  • Closely packed crew all easily get killed when an explosive shell penetrates.
  • Very inadequate gun depression of -3° combined with the sluggish mobility makes it only capable of fighting in urban (flat) areas, but never the hills.
  • Turretless layout and the sluggish mobility makes it very vulnerable to surprise flankers, for example the infamous M18, T20, T25 and Puma.
  • Gun breech often gets damaged while under enemy fire.

History

Development

Development of the ISU-152 already started alongside the SU-152, its predecessor. The SU-152 was based off the KV-1S tank, which itself is a lighter version of the KV-1 heavy tank. The vehicle, while highly praised in its performance, saw a need for modernization with the KV-1's phasing out of the Soviet's inventory and being replaced with the new IS heavy tanks. The modernization process began on May 25, 1943, with the goal of using the IS tank as the basis of the vehicle and also increasing armour protection alongside other improvements. Development began in July under Joseph Yakovlevich Kotin, a chief designer of Soviet heavy tanks, who worked alongside G. N. Moskvin as the main designer. The designing of the improved vehicle went on for a month before the first variant was ready, designated the IS-152. This was tested in September 1943, which revealed defects and deficiencies with the design, so it was redone into a second variant called Object 241 in October 1943. Trials began on Object 241, which was successful through the factory and state trials and adopted on November 6, 1943, as the ISU-152. Production began in December at the Chelyabinsk Kirovsk Plant, producing 3,242 units from then all the way until 1947, with 1,885 units made by the end of World War II.

Design

The ISU-152 was the successor to the SU-152, retaining the same 152 mm ML-20S howitzer needed to destroy enemy fortifications in offensive operations. The vehicle was run on a torsion-bar suspension system from the IS tank chassis. The crew consists of four or five men in the vehicle, the optional crew member being a loader. The crew had external views through periscopes and two gun sights, a panoramic and a telescopic one. Crew communication was possible with an intercom system and a 10R or 10RK radio was available to communicate between vehicles. The crew had access to two PPSh submachine guns and grenades in the tank to defend themselves against infantry.

A drawback to the vehicle's design was the gun ammunition and internal storage. The large ammunition pieces were limited to about 20 rounds in the vehicle, and each round was extremely heavy and large that reloading the tank can take up to 40 minutes and lots of strength. Rate of fire was also reduced by the ammunition's heavyweight.

Media

Excellent additions to the article would be video guides, screenshots from the game, and photos.

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

Paste links to sources and external resources, such as:

  • topic on the official game forum;
  • encyclopedia page on the tank;
  • other literature.


China tank destroyers
PLA 
Gun vehicles  PLZ83 · PLZ83-130 · PTZ89
Missile vehicles  AFT09
ROC 
Missile vehicles  CM25
USA 
Gun vehicles  ␗M8 HMC · LVT(A)(4) (ZiS-2) · ␗M10 GMC · ␗M36 GMC
Missile vehicles  ␗M113A1 (TOW)
USSR 
Gun vehicles  ␗SU-76M · ␗ISU-152 · ␗ISU-122 · ␗SU-100