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Strv Ny - New Tank

With recent American and British experience from the Gulf War in early 1991, it soon became clear that Sweden's old tanks did not correspond to the 1990's requirements. Continuing the development of a new Swedish tank was judged to be too expensive and would take a long time. The "operational weakness" that was discovered meant that one could not wait for the acquisition of new tanks until after the year 2000. This made the government in the special the defense bill in spring 1991 state that a possible acquisition of new tanks should be implemented as a direct purchase abroad - something that is later determined in the defense decision the following year.

The decision became a turning point in that a long tradition of developing tanks. A project group "Strv Ny" was established in September 1991 at FMV and it immediately started work on preparing a procurement from abroad. The most important selection criteria for a new tank system were firepower at least equivalent to 120 mm, shooting with cannon on the move, shooting and observation in the dark or diminished visibility, a protection level that resisted modern ammunition, a total weight less than 65 tons and good accessibility.

After an analysis of the market, where 14 potential candidates were evaluated, four suppliers were submitted an RFI (Request For Information). In March 1992, the answers arrived on the tanks Challenger 2 (Vickers Defense, UK), Leclerc (GIAT, France), Leopard 2 "Improved" (Krauss-Maffei, Germany) and M1A2 "Abrams" (General Dynamics, United States) were considered to meet the requirements of the tender specifications.

Common to the four vehicles was the armor with 12 cm high pressure gun - otherwise they differed considerably. As with the traditional passenger cars produced in these countries, this was not quite far-fetched.

Negotiations began on loans from the tanks for comparative trials in Sweden. In June the English to renounced continued participation with the reasoning that they needed their tanks for their own testing. Circumstances which, however, spoke against the British tanks was the gun barrel, the lower engine power and the centrally placed ammunition storage in the crew space - something that may also have contributed to the withdrawl.

The test tanks were sent to Swedish personnel for training on remaining candidates in respective country. In the fall of 1992, the Leopard and the M1 arrived in Sweden, but it took time, until January 1993, before the French were able to connect to the trials with a couple of tanks from the pre-series Leclerc.

An intensive trial period began. The trials in Upper Norrland came to be an "aha experience" when the 55 tonnes of heavy tanks turned out to have considerably better accessibility in snow and soft soil than the Army management had previously assumed. The wagons were simply so heavy that they pushed themselves through the deep snow and got ground contact, which allowed surprisingly good combat technical mobility in the terrain. In addition, the hit probability during shooting was underway far better than expected.

In parallel, FMV carried out technical tests and analysis. Especially, the tank's survival ability was subject to thorough scrutiny. Tests were conducted in respective country against sub-hulls of the various tanks' protective modules in chassis and turrets. The corresponding tests were also done with the relevant hot ammunition at FFK in Karlsborg. All tanks were alternatively provided with a Swedish-developed protection from Åkers Krutbrukand German partner IBD (Ingenieurbüro Deisenroth).

In early 1993, a formal quote request was sent for a complete tank system from the respective suppliers. After tenders were received, negotiations took place during the latter half of the year and the replies received were reworked to order drafts. The differences between the tanks were large and the French were forced to note that their Leclerc was still an immature product compared to its competitors. The evaluation document was over 100 pages and contained lots of information. The final report with the results of the comparative analyzes was presented in December 1993.

When it was clear to the Americans that the M1 probably wouldn't be selected, they made one last advance with a spontaneous offering where the price has been reduced by SEK 1 billion. They offered a meeting with the US president, on his way home from a visit to Moscow, to stop for a deeper discussion with the Swedish Prime Minister in the tank question. FMV received the quote but declined to meet with Clinton.

Instead, a petition was submitted to the government days before Christmas in December 1993, where the German tank Leopard 2 was advocated. After one sensitivity analysis in a few days, where the American M1 was considered one last time, on January 20, 1994, the government decided to procure 120 new Leopard 2S - a further development of Leopard 2 A5. At the same time, the government also decided to acquire 160 used Leopard 2 in an older version - Leopard 2 A4 (all were upgraded to this version).

After a spring of final negotiation, a contract could be signed on June 20, 1994 with Krauss-Maffei Wehrtechnik on the purchase and licensing of the Leopard 2S. The contract also included the purchase of maintenance and education systems. At the same time, an "offset agreement" was concluded on counter purchase transactions at a contract value corresponding to the order.