Object 704

## Basic Information

The **Object 704** is a Soviet tier IX tank destroyer.

Developed in 1945 on the basis of the IS-2 and IS-3 vehicles, under the supervision of Joseph Kotin. One of the distinctive features was the slope angle of armor plates. Passed trials successfully, but never entered service.

A direct upgrade from the ISU-152, the Object 704 feels like an improvement in all aspects over its predecessor, save top speed, enabling the player to do much more than what the ISU would normally allow. The first noticeable difference is the fact that the 704 has an even lower vertical profile. Therefore, your crew's top priority should be a maximized camouflage skill. This tank is incredibly difficult to spot when masked by terrain, and a crew proficient in camouflage will make it almost invisible, staying undetected and unspotted while unleashing a devastating salvo on clueless opponents who will have no idea where the shots are coming from. The devastating salvo is, of course, courtesy of your new top gun, the dreaded BL-10, which is a significant improvement over the previous top gun of the ISU-152. It has better accuracy, better aim-time and better rate of fire.

The armor of the Obj. 704 is another breath of fresh air for weary ISU drivers. While it is thicker, boasting a 120mm frontal plate as opposed to the ISU's 90mm, its true advantage is in the sharp, acute angles which comprise its layout. Because of these extremely angled surfaces, the Object 704 is littered with hard-points and voids of spaced armor which will infuriate enemy players as their perfectly placed shots do no damage even when scoring direct hits. Despite this, it is inadvisable to allow your tank to be the main target of enemy guns. You are, after all, an ambushing tank destroyer not a front-line vanguard. Position yourself in a spot which allows for maximum use of the 704's camouflage rating and in turn has good line of sight to possible enemy pathways. As your teammates light up enemy vehicles, let loose with the BL-10 and watch from cover as the enemy team buckles under the pressure of your high alpha damage. Combined with its improved maneuverability, a well driven Obj. 704 will spell an ill-fated assault for its opposition and enable the player to wreak havoc and reap the rewards.

The Object 704 leads to the Object 268.

## Pros & Cons

##### Pros:

* Amazing damage per shot and penetration.
* Numerous armor hardpoints/spaced armor voids
* Exceptional camouflage values like ISU-152
* Far superior acceleration & turning to the ISU-152
* Excellent DPM potential in addition to the high alpha

##### Cons:

* Long aim time and average accuracy
* Poor traverse speed
* Wider horizontal profile, though lower vertical, when compared to the ISU-152
* Lower speed limit when compared to the ISU-152
* High priority target. Will attract an overwhelming amount of attention if spotted.

## Performance

The Object 704 is, for the most part, a direct upgrade to the ISU-152. Everything you learned from the ISU-152 you will make use of in the 704, and you get some pros and lose some cons.

The best upgrade you get is your gun. You get the BL-10 which is a much more superior gun than the D-4S top gun on the ISU-152. Boasting better accuracy, aim time, and Penetration (from 260mm to a whopping 286mm), it is much easier to play the role of a sniper in this tank destroyer.

Secondly, the armor is a surprising upgrade. On paper, it only has 120mm of armor, but it is very well sloped. The sides of the front are also spaced armor, and landing a shot there does no damage. As an even bigger plus, your gun mantlet is EVEN BIGGER than on the ISU, making half of this tank's front effectively immune to damage.

While it's not designed as such or treated by many as if it can, being an assault gun (peek-a-booming, getting in close, etc.) is very much a viable playstyle under the right circumstances, and is favored by many of the server's best players to ensure that they have a direct impact on a match's outcome. This is a big difference from the ISU, which lacked the armor, modicum of agility, and hit points to really pull this off. However, a sniping-oriented playstyle is still very much viable with the excellent camouflage, like in the ISU-152, and the area denial inherent to that playstyle can be highly effective, as no one at any Tier wants to be the first to round a corner and get hit by 750 alpha damage.

However, you trade some things from the ISU. Firstly, the tank is wider each side and is more prone to getting hit. You also lose 4 km/h top speed, which effectively makes the tank slower than the ISU-152 in long-distance relocation.

Other than that, it's a good tank destroyer for its tier.

## Historical Information

One prototype, developed in 1945, used elements of the IS-2 and IS-3 tanks. The overall height of the vehicle was reduced to 2240 mm, which was compensated with an increased width of the superstructure. The factory designation was Object 704 (Объект 704). It was armed with the 152.4 mm ML-20SM model 1944 (МЛ-20СМ обр. 1944 г.) gun-howitzer, with a barrel length of over 4.5 meters (29.6 calibers) and no muzzle brake, which further increased the firepower of the gun.

It had a maximum range of 13,000 meters. The self-propelled gun carried 20 rounds of two-piece (shell and charge) armor-piercing and high explosive ammunition. The armor-piercing round, weighing 48.78 kg, had a muzzle velocity of 655 m/s. The rate of fire was 1-2 round/min. The ISU-152 model 1945 had four hatches at the superstructure roof and one emergency hatch at the bottom of the hull behind the driver's seat, which had an armored cover.

The self-propelled gun carried two external fuel tanks (90 liters each) not connected to the supply system. The secondary armament of the fighting vehicle consisted of two 12.7 x 108 mm DShK machine guns, one anti-aircraft and one co-axial.

The protection was increased by placing thicker armor at more radical angles. In the area of the gun, where the mantlet combined with the hull front behind it and the housing of the recoil mechanism, the armor thickness was 320 mm. The ISU-152 model 1945 (ИСУ-152 обр. 1945 г.) was the best protected of all experimental or production Soviet self-propelled guns of the Second World War. However, the radical incline of the superstructure walls combined with the increased recoil of the gun, due to the lack of a muzzle brake, significantly complicated the work of the crew, and for this reason mainly wasn't adopted. Today, the self-propelled gun is exhibited at the Kubinka Tank Museum.

## Historical Accuracy Errata

\* The Object 704 was only fitted with the 152 mm ML-20SM mod. 1944. The 152 mm BL-10 was only ever tested on the ISU-152.

* Like many soviet tanks in game the Obj.704 has increased gun depression. In reality it had -3° instead of -6°
* Both engine choices are fictional, the only prototype of the Obj.704 used the 520 hp V-2IS engine.