Posts Tagged: tankett m/49
Delivery specification for ikv 72
This is a delivery specification/data sheet for ikv 72 (known as “tankett m/49” during its development). Includes an armor scheme – not that the armor is of any significant thickness, only intended to protect against regular rifle-caliber rounds.
Archive reference: SE/KrA/0062/D/01/016:H/F I/28
Suggestion for a tracked mortar carrier (1950)
In 1950, a lieutenant at I 15, B. Schmidt, suggested to KAFT that in light of recent developments in the field of artillery-hunting radar it might be a good idea to mount the ubiquitous 12 cm Tampella mortar on a tracked chassis, enabling it to “shoot-and-scoot”.
This post features the lieutenant’s letter as well as a KAFT memo suggesting to try the idea out on the “tankette” chassis. As far as I know the idea was tried in reality but the mortar recoil turned out to be too big for the small chassis and the idea was dropped.
Archive reference: SE/KrA/0062/D/01/016:H/F I/19
Further documents regarding tankette m/49
A few more documents from 1949 discussing tankett m/49, from a different archive volume than the previous post.
Archive reference: SE/KrA/0062/D/01/025:H/F I/2
Development of tankett m/49
These documents from 1949 (I’ve attempted to order them chronologically) describe the early stages of development of tankett m/49, a very cheap and light construction (intended for about 6.5 metric tons) originally envisioned in three versions: one with only machine guns, one with a tank gun (initially 75 mm) and one “special” that could be armed with things like flamethrowers. The development work was contracted to Landsverk (chassis), Bofors (gun) and Volvo (engine and drive train).
Initially the “gun tankette” was armed with the short 75 mm gun used on the strv m/42, but as the project progressed both a 84 mm and a 105 mm gun option were investigated. Eventually the vehicle would enter service as ikv 72, where ikv stands for “infanterikanonvagn”, which translates to something like “infantry gun carriage”.
Archive reference: SE/KrA/0062/D/01/016:H/F I/17 and SE/KrA/0062/D/01/016:H/F I/18