In September 1943, the SU-85 was used for the first time during the forced crossing of the Dnieper. Its good performance made it very popular among the Soviet army. During the summer offensive of 1944, the Soviet self-propelled artillery regiment of the 1021st armed with SU-85 destroyed more than 100 German tanks. A commander of the 1st Guards Tank Army said in his report: 'The new tank destroyers played a key role in the offensive of our armored forces throughout the campaign and posed a great threat to enemy tanks. They have good armor protection and are equipped with artillery that can kill targets from a long distance. At the same time, the new tank destroyer also showed itself well in defense. After the Battle of Kursk, the Soviet army investigated the remaining remains of the German "Ferdinand" self-propelled guns and "Leopard" tanks on the battlefield, and tested the penetration of all the guns that the Soviet army was equipping at that time, and found that the SU-85 self-propelled guns that had just been equipped with troops could not effectively attack the German "Ferdinand", "Leopard" and "Tiger" at medium and long distances, and were easy to be destroyed by the Germans at this distance.