The King Tiger, Panzerkampfwagen Tiger Ausf. B (Sdkfz. 182 (Sdkfz.267 and 268 for Command Variants)), often shortened to Tiger B, Tiger II, or Königstiger (German for Bengal Tiger or "King Tiger"). Allied forces usually called it the King Tiger or Royal Tiger.
In early October 1942, plans for production of the VK 45.03 were issued for a successor to the Tiger I. Initially two designs were provided, one by Henschel and one by Porsche. Both used a turret design from Krupp mounting the long barreled 88mm KwK 43 L/71; the main differences were in the hull design, transmission, and suspension. The Henschel version used a conventional hull design with sloped armor resembling the layout of the Panther tank. It had a rear mounted engine and used nine overlapping road wheels per side, mounted on transverse torsion bars, in a similar manner to the original Tiger. To simplify maintenance, however, the wheels were overlapping rather than interleaved as in the Tiger I.