The toughness of the Swedish armored battalion.

The toughness of the Swedish Armored Battalion

The Swedish Armored battalion is one of the most advanced and effective in the world, it consists of approximately 1050 soldiers divided into six different squadrons. Two Armored infantry squadron, two tank squadrons and two Staff/grenade launcher squadrons.

The armored infantry squadron originally had no vehicles of their own, instead they rode on the back of the tanks. This made them unprotected from enemy fire, this gave the initiative to construct additional smaller “tanks” or so called combat vehicles. Our modern combat vehicle’s designation is Combat Vehicle 90 or Stridsfordon 90 in Swedish.

Combat Vehicle 90

The Swedish company Hägglunds/Bofors created this modern piece of technology in 1993. It can hold 10 people, the driver, the shooter, the commander and 7 soldiers in the back. The engine is a V8 created by Scania. It has approximately 550 horsepower’s. It can drive 70km/h forwards and 45km/h backwards.

The primary cannon is a 40mm Bofors L/70 and the secondary machine gun is either a KSP/58 or a KSP/39 with the caliber 7.62mm. It is also equipped with a Galix 80.5mm smoke launcher.

Tank 122

The tank squadrons are the core of the armored battalion. A Swedish battalion consists of two beautiful spinoffs of the German tank Leopard 2 called “Stridsvagn 122” or Tank 122.

Discovery Channel has awarded the tank with the esteemed price of being the best tank ever constructed.

The tank weighs 60 tons, is 10 meters long and is equipped with a 1500 horsepower diesel engine. The main weaponry is a 120mm cannon bolted on to a tower which can turn 360 degrees. It also has two 7.62mm machineguns, one on top of the tower and one integrated into the tower. The tank is also equipped with different utility tools such as a smoke battery and thermal sights.

The last part of the armored battalion is the staff/grenade launcher squadron. This consists of the Commander who is usually of major or higher rank along with radio operators and medical troops.

P7 and P4

P7 and P4 is the home of the armored battalion. P7 is located in Revingehed, Skåne and P4 is located in Skövde. We used to have an armored battalion in Ystad aswell but it closed down in 1997.

Hugo Kvist
Senior Editor at SAF, Swedish Armed Forces
SA16B