Description
The appearance of new German heavy tanks on the Asian front - the Tiger in particular -, stimulated Soviet engineers to develop a new generation of armoured vehicles, based on the T-100 prototype. The torsion bar suspension was mounted higher in the hull, lowering the tanks height from the ground and allowing the installation of a larger turret able to hold a 100mm cannon (in the JS-1) or a 122mm cannon (in the JS-2, which appeared at the end of 1943).