Stridsvagn 74 (strv 74)
Tall and slim, Tank 74 had a reputation for being able to take firing position behind a pine tree.
Strv 74 originated in strv m / 42, Sweden's first real tank. By the late 1930s, the Hungarian army had ordered a 16-ton tank known as Lago from Landsverk AB. Lago was the result of further improvements to the L-60. The Swedish army needs for a bigger and better tank resulted in that 100 modifed Lagos were ordered in November 1941. It was designated Stridsvagn m/42, and was a fully modern tank for its time. It was armed with a 75mm L/34 gun, having adequate effect on armored and soft targets (about the same effect as 75mm StuK37 L/24 gun used by early StuG IIIs). The tank were well protected and had good mobility. In January 1942 another 60 Stridsvagn m/42 were ordered. This time they were to be built with license by Volvo, and 55 of them are fitted with Scania engines while the last five were equipped with a newly developed Volvo engine. All 60 vehicles had hydraulic gearboxes instead of the electromagnetical in the first batch. To differ the variants from each other, they are designated; Strv m/42 and E (one engine), M (electromagnetical gearbox), H (hydrualic gearbox). By the end of June 1942, a further 80 vehicles are ordered from Landsverk, 70 m/42 TH and 10 m/42 EH. In addition, some 42 m/42 EH are ordered from Volvo. The first of the 282 ordered Strv m/42 were delivered in April 1943, and the last in January 1945. These equipped the heavy tank companies of the armored brigades, but were replaced during the 1950s by Stridsvagn 81, the Swedish designation on Centurion Mk. III.
It was clear early on that the m / 42 with its short cannon had limited ability to combat armor. The requirement above all was to support infantry in the forest. Along with bureaucratic rules on the maximum width of the vehicle at 235 cm, had made ??it impossible to mount a heavier gun. With the introduction of Centurion it was discovered that it the longer gun worked well even in the forest. Attempts were made ??with French AMX 13 tank tanks to buy complete AMX turret and mount it on the strv m / 42, but it turned out that it was too narrow turrent for this role. But a slightly longer barrel that gave about 30 m/sec higher initial velocity with sub-caliber ammunition. To accommodate the cannon, a new turret with a lot of other details taken from Centurion, a number of test vheicles were built, the first with a wooden turret.
Two prototypes were produced, mass production began in 1957 and 235 of TM and TH variants, all with Scania engines, were rebuilt to Stridsvagn 74. This had a new modern turret and cannon. The EH vehicles with the Volvo V8 engine were rebuilt to infantry-gun vehicles as Ikv 74. final delivery took place in 1960. The reconstruction was done by the military and by contemporary standards was very cheap, about 360 000 / wagon. This meant that the Army received three strv 74 for what a strv 81 Centurion cost. The turrets were manufactured by Landsverk, 113 pcs, and Hägglund & Sons 112 pcs. There were no difference in the turrets, the same blueprints were used by both.
Further changes were introduced because the weight had increased about 4 tons, including increased engine power. An injection system was introduced in place of carburetors, to get better fuel economy with the injection. Other changes included wider tracks, dual periscopes in the driver's door and many other detail changes, eg for ammunition storage, other radio stations etc. Gradually were added rökkastare and carrying wheels on the turret, and the shortening of the exhaust pipe to the generator, and turret basket.
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