Stridsvagn 103 demonstrating to the public at Regementetsdag (English: Regiment Day) at P7 Revingehed, 24th April 2022.
WHAT comes to mind when a person is asked to think of a vehicle called a "tank"?
Without assuming too much, would it be fair to say a very heavy vehicle with caterpillar treads instead of wheels with a big cannon on top that can turn a full 360-degree circle because it is mounted on a turret?
After all, this has been the general configuration for the vast majority of tanks since World War 2.
However, it has been claimed repeatedly for decades that a front-line main battle tank was designed from the ground-up and put into service without a turret.
Is there any truth to this?
VERDICT:
TRUE
Yes, and this tank – the Stridsvagn 103 or S-Tank - was produced by Sweden in the 1950s to counter a possible threat on its border, the former Soviet Union.
This is explained by The Tank Museum curator Curator David Willey, who explained the history of the S-Tank in a video on the British museum's YouTube channel.
Willey explained that the Scandinavian nation put out a proposal in the mid-1950s and ultimately got three different possible options – one of which was for a vehicle that could be put together locally as opposed to working with the Americans or French.
Willey then goes into explaining what S-Tank design team lead Sven Berge evaluated when coming up with the rather unconventional design.
"One of the things he looks at is what knocked out tanks in WW2 and Korea and discovers that statistically, half of them are destroyed due to turret hits. He takes that information and evidence on the effectiveness of low-profile vehicles to come up with a radical new proposal," says Willey.
He adds that Berge also pointed out that on an average main battle tank, the turret weight is about 25% of the whole vehicle.
"So if you say goodbye to the turret, you're doing a weight-saving and you're creating less of a potential target. This leads him to come up with an idea where you have the gun solidly mounted on the vehicle and you add a very clever suspension system and steering to help aim," said Willey.
He then says that Berge also realises that another innovation can be added to the S-Tank; the number of crew can be reduced as the way its 105mm gun is mounted also allows for an automatic loading system instead of a manual loader.
"He's also looking at the fact that the driver is going to have to aim the gun, he can be the gunner too – so we can dispense with the gunner," says Willey.
This is itself a radical departure as many main battle tanks to this day have crew of four; a driver, gunner, loader and commander.
However, Berge revised his two-crew proposal once he realised that two people could become overwhelmed operationally and the S-Tank was ultimately designed for a three-person crew of two drivers and a tank commander
So, why did the S-Tank become a historical curiosity despite all its advantages and 290 entering service with the Swedish armed forces?
Well, the whole idea of a conventional tank having a turret might have played a role in that.
On this, Willey cites a write-up by an evaluating British Army officer who basically said in his introduction that "if anyone else tells me this is a tank, their report is going straight out my window."
"Self-identification or whatever you want to call it; just because someone says it is that, doesn't mean to say it is that. The argument why the Swedes in particular say it is a tank is because of how they intended to tactically use it, for all the roles a normal turreted tank would have," said Willey.
Ultimately, the S-Tank was retired after just over three decades in service, being retired and replaced with the more conventional German Leopard 2 in the late 1990s.
So yes, while it never caught on – it is an interesting example of innovation from the nation that brought us flat-pack furniture to assemble at home while listening to Abba.
SOURCES:
1. Tank Chats #117 | Stridsvagn 103 | The Tank Museum
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7cb7GlOnSY&ab_channel=TheTankMuseum
2. Strivsvagn-103 (1956)
https://www.tanks-encyclopedia.com/coldwar/Sweden/Stridsvagn-103.php
