Stridsvagn 103
Swedish main battle tank
The Stridsvagn 103 (Strv 103), also known as the Alternative S and S-tank, is a Swedish Cold War–era main battle tank, designed and manufactured in Sweden. "Strv" is the Swedish military abbreviation of stridsvagn, Swedish for tank (literally combat wagon, it also is the Swedish word for chariot), while the 103 comes from being the third tank in Swedish service to be equipped with a 10.5 cm gun.
Developed in the 1950s, it was the first main battle tank to use a gas turbine engine and the only mass-produced tank since World War II to not use a turret besides the German Kanonenjagdpanzer, which is not classified as a tank by role, but by design. It has an unconventional design with a unique gun laying process: it is turretless with a fixed gun traversed by engaging the tracks and elevated by adjusting the hull suspension. The result was a very low-profile design with an emphasis on survivability and heightened crew protection level.
Strv 103s formed a major portion of the Swedish armoured forces from the 1960s to the 1990s, when, along with the Centurions, it was replaced by the Leopard 2 variants Stridsvagn 121 and Stridsvagn 122.
While most turretless armoured fighting vehicles are classified as assault guns or tank destroyers, the Strv 103 is considered a tank since its designated combat role matched those of other tanks within contemporary Swedish doctrine.
History
Concept development
In the early 1950s, the Royal Swedish Army Materiel Administration's Ordnance Department began development of a new tank known as kranvagn, or KRV. The desired features were a weight around 30 tonnes with high gun performance, protection and mobility. The new design emerged with a very low-profile hull with a tall and highly angled turret mounting a large-calibre main gun and autoloader system, reducing the crew to three. 105 to 120 mm guns were initially considered, with the 120 being favoured, and later a 155 mm design was also considered.
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