the Panzer III medium tank, which were all carefully studied and evaluated by the Soviet Union. After 1941, several captured tanks and AFVs of Nazi Germany (like the Panzer IV medium tank, the Jagdpanzer IV tank destroyer, the Sturmgeschütz III and Sturmgeschütz IV assault guns/tank destroyers and the Elefant heavy tank destroyer, amongst others), including half-tracks, were evaluated here as well. Rare vehicles or prototypes of German armour and combat vehicles that fell into Soviet hands were also taken to Kubinka and tested before being put on display; such vehicles include a large mine-roller vehicle, an 88mm anti-tank self-propelled gun carriage and most notably, the 188-ton Panzer VIII Maus super-heavy tank and the 60 cm Karl-Gerät super-heavy self-propelled howitzer. A few captured Tiger I heavy tanks were brought to the testing and proving grounds at Kubinka in 1943 to be subjected to firing tests so as to gauge its armour protection level and field or develop weapons that would knock out the tank. From the tests, it was determined that the most effective weapon against the tank's thick armour was the Soviet 85 mm 52-K Model 1939 anti-aircraft gun, which could penetrate the Tiger I's frontal armour (100 mm thick) within the range of 1000 metres. Several Tiger II heavy tanks were also captured by the Soviet Union and were brought to Kubinka for further evaluations in 1944. In 1945 the Soviet Union also tested captured Japanese tanks that were seized after the rapid Soviet invasion of Manchuria, South Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands, northern China and northern Korea. (These include the Type 95 Ha-Go light tank, the Type 4 Ke-Nu light tank, the Type 2 Ka-Mi amphibious light tank (which has all of its pontoons and flotation devices fitted), and the Type 95 Ri-Ki crane vehicle (a combat engineering vehicle), amongst other types.) Besides captured Axis tanks and AFVs, the USSR also tested several Western Allied armour and military vehicles supplied to it under the Lend-Lease military assistance program started by the United States. Such vehicles include the US M3 Stuart, M3 Lee/Grant, M4 Sherman, and also British ones, such as the Matilda II, Churchill and Valentine tanks. Cold War history Soviet tank technology was chiefly concentrated at the Kubinka Force Technology Center, which provided a series of technical evaluations and testing and relevant information to the national defense system to facilitate potential or future tank designs. Today, the Kubinka