SU-100

This 31.6-tonne Soviet turretless tank destroyer evolved from the SU-85, with design beginning in early 1944 to field a replacement vehicle featuring the more powerful high-velocity 100 mm (L/53.5) D-10S gun. The D-10S was more effective than the German 75 mm KwK 42 mounted on Panzer V Panther and the 88 mm KwK 36 on the Panzer VI Tiger I. With both high-explosive and armor-piercing rounds, this gun was effective against infrantry and could also penetrate any German tank then in service except for the Panzer VI Tiger II. Like the SU-85, its hull was based on the T-34 tank; relative to the SU-85, however, it featured a commander's cupola and thicker armor in its larger casemate-style superstructure, making it impervious to hits even from the Panzer VI Tiger I's 88 mm gun at ranges beyond 1 km. It carried a crew of four at a maximum speed of 30 mph. Manufacturer Ural’s’kiy Zavod Tyazhelogo Mashinostroyeniya (UZTM) produced 2,335 examples between late 1944 and mid-1945. First operational in October 1944, the SU-100 was immediately effective and saw extensive service on the Eastern Front during the last year of the war, including in Hungary and the streets of Berlin. Production carried-on after the war, and the type saw service with many Warsaw Pact members and others; about 350 remained operational outside the former Warsaw Pact as of the 2010s.