Wednesday 19 May 2021

D-25 vs D-10

F.16 Op.2154 D.4"Top Secret
To the People's Commissar of Armament of the USSR, comrade D.F. Ustinov

On your orders, we report on the issue of replacing the D-25 gun in the IS tank with the D-10T.

  • Due to the higher rate of fire of the D-10 compared to the D-25, chiefly due to the single piece ammunition, it is reasonable to make this change, but only if an armour piercing shell is developed equivalent in penetration to the D-25's shell.
  • No such shell is being produced at this time.
  • We consider it necessary to preserve the D-25 gun in the IS-2 heavy tank. The latest trials at the ANIOP show a rate of fire of 4-6 RPM, this is a good result.
  • The factory is wrapping up preparations for D-10S production in August-September of 1944.
  • All armament production can be moved to produce the D-10T instead of the D-25 in October-November.
  • 150 D-10T guns can be produced in October, 250 in November.
  • To achieve this, factory #9 requires 4 600x6000 roughing lathes and two #6 milling machines.
  • Production of D-25S guns should then be transferred to factory #75 or #221 in October.
Signed:
Mirzakhanov
Gonor
Fratkin
Ryzhkov
Petrov
August 8th, 1944"

2 comments:

  1. Isn't it odd that they always bring up that the D-10 has no AP shell as good as the D-25?

    It seems like they always refer to the penetration test against the Panther, where the D25 could penetrate the upper plate at 2.5km and more.

    I mean it's a heavier shell so it will probably out perform the D10 at some point... :D

    Even the Tigers 8.8cm KwK 36 outperforms the Panthers 7.5cm KwK 42 at around 1.6km

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    1. I'd agree with the longer range thing with APHE, though also it's an advantage when the gun's HE round is potent enough to effectively take out any vehicle. The D-25's HE round could do that; the D-10, not so much. Given the relative ammo types carried by the IS-2 (I've read typically 3 OF-471 shells per each APHE) they probably went into action with the OF-471 in the breach by default.

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