Pansarbandvagn 301

Last updated
Pansarbandvagn 301
Pansarbandvagn 301 Revinge 2013-1 (cropped).jpg
Type Infantry fighting vehicle
Place of origin Sweden
Service history
In service1961–1971
Production history
Variantsslpbv 3011, epbv 3012
Specifications
Mass11.7  t (11.5 long tons; 12.9 short tons)
Length4.66 m (15 ft 3 in)
Width2.23 m (7 ft 4 in)
Height2.64 m (8 ft 8 in)
Crew2 (commander/gunner, driver) + 8 (passengers)
Armor 8–50 mm (upper front: 20 mm at 55°)
Main
armament
1 × 20 mm akan m/45B  [ sv ] with 450 rounds total
Secondary
armament
1 × 6.5 mm ksp m/58A mount
1 × 8,4 cm grg m/48 mount with 9 rounds
Engine Svenska Flygmotor B44 gasoline
160  hp (120  kW)
Power/weight13.68 hp/tonne
Suspension Leaf spring
Operational
range
300 km (190 mi)
Maximum speed45 km/h (28 mph)

Pansarbandvagn 301 (pbv 301), meaning roughly armoured tracked carrier vehicle 301, [a] was a Swedish infantry fighting vehicle (Swedish : pansarskyttefordon ) used by the Swedish Army. It was designed to carry a squad of 8 fully armed panzergrenadiers (Swedish : pansarskyttesoldater) into battle and provide direct-fire support for them in combat. The panzergrenadiers could opt to either fight from inside the vehicle through hatches on the roof or dismount the vehicle and fight in its vicinity.

Contents

Design

The pbv 301 was armed with a Bofors 20 mm (0.8 in) L/70 aircraft gun taken from scrapped Saab 21 fighter aircraft, mounted in an oscillating housing above a rotating cupola. It was fed from 75 round belts stored inside the vehicle, with 450 rounds total. Inside the vehicle were mountings for a variety of infantry weapons and munitions, such as an FN MAG and a Carl Gustaf 8.4 cm recoilless rifle with 9 rounds.

The pbv 301 was an interim solution, built on the chassis from the obsolete stridsvagn m/41 tank (which in turn is the licensed variant of the Czechoslovak THN/LT vz. 38), in service since 1942. It was introduced in 1961 and removed from service in the late 1960s and early 1970s when the replacement pbv 302 came into use. The pbv 301 replaced the open-topped terrängbil m/42 KP IFV as the main infantry fighting vehicle of the Swedish Army.

Images

Variants

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Pansarbandvagn directly translates to armor track wagon. The term bandvagn, even though it translates to track wagon, is a Swedish military term used to describe tracked multipurpose carrier type vehicles. Tracked vehicles designed for more specialized combat roles, like tanks etc (Swedish: stridsvagn), are instead only called wagons (chassis description) to denote that they are tracked but more specialized and less universal.

Sources

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