Information AboutSu-122 |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT SU-122 | |
| assault guns | |
| world war ii tank destroyers | |
| world war ii soviet self-propelled guns | |
| world war ii self-propelled artillery | |
| self-propelled artillery of the soviet union | |
The SU-122 (''Samokhodnaya Ustanovka–122'') was a Soviet self-propelled gun used during World War II . HISTORY The SU-122 was an assault gun which used the hull of the T-34 tank and was the result of an April 1942 specification for assault guns aimed with guns of 122 mm calibre or higher. The SU-122 was designed by the Uralsky Machine Building factory (UZTM). The first production SU-122s were built at the end of 1942, for a total of 25 vehicles. The SU-122 did reasonably well in combat against the Wehrmacht , although the HEAT round for its gun didn't perform up to expectations. Production continued from 1942 until the early autumn of 1943 , for a total of roughly 1,150 SU-122s built. SU-122 was completely replaced by SU-85 in mass production for better anti-armour capabilities. VARIANTS Towards the end of the production run, SU-122s were built with the same ball mantlet as the later SU-85s, but are easily recognizable by the thicker, shorter gun barrel of the 122-mm M-30 howitzer . The SU-122 had no variants that went into production, but there were several unsuccessful prototypes and minor variants. Various attempts were made to modernise and improve the SU-122, particularly in the area of simplification, to lower production costs. The first attempt to modernise the SU-122 resulted in the SU-122M, which was armed with the 122-mm U-11 howitzer instead of the M-30 howitzer of the SU-122 itself. To accommodate the new gun, the gun compartment was altered. Though this design showed some promise, trials showed numerous defects: the SU-122M was less reliable than the original SU-122, cost more and was overloaded. It was therefore not taken into production. The other attempt to create an improved SU-122 replacement was done by taking a SU-85 chassis and coupling it with the 122-mm D-6 howitzer, which was lighter and compacter than the U-11 howitzer. This again was not a success. Finally, there was a small series of SU-122s built on the chassis of the SU-100 . REFERENCES EXTERNAL LINKS SEE ALSO
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