Super-heavy tank
A super-heavy tank or super heavy tank is any tank that is notably beyond the standard of the class heavy tank in either size or weight relative to contemporary vehicles. Programs have been initiated on several occasions with the aim of creating an indestructible vehicle for penetrating enemy formations without fear of being destroyed in combat; however, only a few examples have ever been built, and there is little evidence of any super heavy tank having seen combat. Examples were designed in World War I and World War II, along with a few in the Cold  War. History. World War I. The first super-heavy tank was designed by the Russian naval engineer Vasily Mendeleyev who worked on the project from 1911 to 1915. The tank was envisioned to be invulnerable to almost all contemporary threats but remained on paper due to its high construction cost. Following the production of their first tanks, the British "Flying Elephant" was designed as a tank that would be resistant to artillery fire. Since mobility was more important than protection, and the tanks already developed were successful, work on the project was stopped. The German K-Wagen (Großkampfwagen) was a  very heavy design carrying 4 guns and needing a crew of 27. Two of them were under construction when the war ended and both were demolished. In the early 1920s, the French produced the 70-tonne Char 2C. The ten tanks would see limited combat during the Battle for France in 1940, but were used mostly for propaganda purposes and the French tried to pull them out of combat zones. The pre second World War design and prototype of TOG 2* was a lot heavier than any other contemporary tank used by United Kingdom and also can be considered Super -Heavy Tank. World War II. During World War II all of the major combatants introduced prototypes for special roles. Adolf Hitler was a proponent of "war winning" weapons and supported projects like the 188 tonne Maus, and even larger 1,000 tonne Landkreuzer P. 1000 Ratte. The British and Soviets all built prototype designs similar to the Jagdtiger, and the US was working on the project then known as T95 Gun Carriage, which was later changed to T28 Super Heavy Tank. However, most of these designs never passed the prototype stage, and only some have ever been in existence. Compared to  other heavy tanks of the time, Tiger II could be considered super-heavy tank, considering that other heavy tanks were a lot lighter. However at the time Germans generally opted to use more heavy vehicles, with their Panzer IV being significantly uparmed and uparmored (and, as a result, a lot heavier) and Panthers being considered medium tanks while of similar mass to other heavy tanks. As a result by late time German standards Tiger II was indeed heavy tank and nowhere near as heavy as Maus. Cold War. The idea of very heavy tanks saw less development after the war , not least since the destructive force of tactical nuclear weapons would always overcome any feasible armour. The advances in armour technology allowed large tanks to stay in the approximate 65 ton range. Examples include Object 279 (Soviet Union) and T30 Heavy Tank (United States), but neither can be considered a true Super-Heavy Tank. Post Cold war. Further advances in armour technology have given the armour of late 20th century tanks the estimated equivalent of over a meter of rolled homogeneous armour (the type of armour used before, now used for comparison between different armour designs). At the same time  the weapon development allows for any equal adversary to destroy any target detected and tracked by the wide array of different sensors available. This means adding more armour would not increase protection to any significant degree, and thus current development is instead focused on a combination of remaining undetected, interfering with tracking and active counter-measures to neutralize the enemy weapon systems. Neither of the TOG prototypes were built the way they were designed; had the sponsons been added and the proper turret attached, their weight would have been different.