APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200090022-2
being tested by the Royal Swedish Army. Designated the IKV-91, or infantry gun vehicle (Figure 4), it consists of a turret-mounted, low-velocity 90-mm gun on a relatively large, lightly armored hull of simple design and construction. This vehicle is expected to fulfill Royal Swedish Army requirements for an amphibious armored vehicle with excellent mobility over marshy terrain and across water obstacles, as well as with the capability of combat with and in support of both the S-tank and infantry troops. These prototypes of the IFV-91 are undergoing tests. If no major problems are encountered during the tests, delivery to army units is anticipated by 1974.
Research also is underway on two other armored vehicles, both of which employ the chassis of the Swedish designed and developed PBV-302, an amphibious armored personnel carrier. These are the BGBV-82, an armored recovery vehicle (Figure 5), and the BROBV-941, an armored bridge-launching vehicle (Figure 6). The bridge mounted on the latter vehicle is undergoing test and evaluation by the army.
Other research efforts are directed toward improved weapons and ammunition, specifically to improve kinetic energy performance, terminal effects, ranges, and fuzes. A 76-mm antitank weapon, designated Miniman, is a smooth-bore recoilless throwaway type and is intended for infantry use as additional firepower when combating armored vehicles. An 84-mm infantry recoilless weapon, the Carl Gustav, is being improved, and a 90-mm shaped-charge antitank projectile is under development. The Swedes also are developing radar-guided, light antiaircraft automatic weapons. The FOA has scheduled a research program to improve the performance of shaped charges to defeat bar armor arrays, to increase warhead lethality, to increase reliability, and to lengthen stand-off performance.
A new antitank mine and two new antipersonnel mines have been developed by AB Bofors for the Royal Swedish Army. The antitank mine is a shaped-charge mine designed to penetrate the hull of an armored vehicle and cause extensive damage internally to the vehicle and crew. One of the antipersonnel mines, nonmetallic and completely weatherproof, is a blast, contact, casualty-producing mine which is relatively shockproof; the other is a Claymore-type weapon that disperses lethal fragments over a 120° arc out to a maximum range of 400 meters.
Sweden has an impressive capability for the development and production of a wide range of transport vehicles, components, and related equipment. A number of tactical cross-country trucks in light, medium, and heavy categories have been developed for the military. The principal companies involved in military vehicle research and development. Volvo Penta AB at Goteborg and SAAB have produced powerful high-mobility vehicles incorporating all-wheel drive, locking differentials, high ground clearance, flexible rough-terrain suspensions, and wide-profile tires. Amphibious versions are equipped with water-jet propulsion providing for operation in excess of 5 miles per hour in water. Swedish industry also has developed compact, high-torque hydraulic motors suitable for installation in terrain vehicles. Such motors are available in models of much greater specific power output than equivalent electric motors and in configurations suitable for wheel hub mounting.
In the field of vehicle diesel engine research, development, and production, SAAB is foremost and its products are noteworthy. Compactness, durability, and ease of maintenance are features which make the company's engines attractive to vehicle designers. United Stirling of Sweden, established in 1968, under license from Philips of the Netherlands, has undertaken an extensive prorgram to perfect the Stirling engine and produce it in a range of sizes from 10 to 200 horsepower. Stirling's investigations cover both the rhombic drive engine, developed by Philips, and a double-acting V-type engine of unique design. Series production is planned for 1976, and applications include various propulsion and miscellaneous special-purpose equipment.
The Swedish topographic equipment capability is small but of international importance, principally because of Swedish geodimeters. These electro-optical distance-measuring instruments, developed originally in Sweden by Eric Bergstand for geodetic and engineering surveys, are the best known and most widely used instruments in this equipment category. Because of their high accuracy, they are used in many countries as a standard for calibration of other electronic and electro-optical distance-measurements with a 40-mile range. The geodimeters are produced by AGA AB in Lidingo. The company also has developed a land navigation system for vehicles that has been demonstrated for the U.S. Army and is marketed to other non-Communist countries. Gyrotheodolite aiming circles used by the Royal Swedish Army are produced indigenously. Swedish research in photogrammetry, photo interpretation, and remote sensing has been recognized internationally.
Sweden has the capability to conduct research and development in the field of engineer construction equipment, but, because the country has no active
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APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200090022-2
