|
|
The KV-12 was a design for an assault gun armed with a 203mm howitzer but it was rejected because the gun wasn’t considered suitable.
The design team led by Kotin and L. Troyanov received the order to design two new heavy self propelled tank destroyers on 4 January 1943, and in only 25 days they came up with the KV-12 and KV-14.
The KV-12 was to be armed with the 203mm B-4 Model 1931 howitzer. This gun would have been carried in a fixed fighting compartment built at the front of a KV-2 chassis. Although this was a powerful gun it lacked the range to defeat the Tiger at a range where the Tiger’s own 88mm gun couldn’t easily destroy the KV-12. The idea was thus rejected as being impractical.
The KV-14 was more successful. This was armed with a 152mm ML-20 gun-howitzer, which had the range and armour penetration that was required. The KV-14 entered production as the SU-152, initially as a tank destroyer but with the intention of using it for infantry support once the more heavily armed T-34-85 and IS-2 tanks were in service.