The 40s and 50s weren't the best times for Swedish armored forces.
They were behind their time.
The military were phasing in vehicles that were already outdated.
In the early 1950s, the Swedish military made a mistake.
And this led Bofors and Landsverk engineers into a dead end.
The tank, which could have become one of the best for its time,
never even received an army index— only a codename:
Kranvagn, a mobile crane.
After World War II, the Swedes had little understanding of modern tanks.
Or none at all.
Why was this so?
Historian Yuri Pasholok knows the answer.
In 1943, the Swedes had their first
opportunity to familiarize themselves
with the Soviet T-34 tank.
Finland helped them with this,
as it had a small number of these tanks as trophies.
In March 1950, Sweden received information
saying that the Soviet Union had IS-3 heavy tanks.
Why so late?
Because Sweden was a neutral country,
and its intelligence functioned a bit differently.
The Swedes’ reaction to the Soviet vehicle was pretty typical.
They suddenly realized that they were helpless, were shocked,
and feverishly started looking for a way out.
The military needed something to beat the IS-3.
Swedish experts studied foreign tanks
that were available to them, including the Tiger II.
It was kindly provided by the French
who hoped to benefit from a military cooperation with Sweden.
That's why France generously shared information
about its own technologies, too.
They even showed them the AMX 50 prototype.
The Swedes were very interested in the concept of this tank,
as it had powerful front armor and very thin sides.
But the most important thing about this vehicle
was the oscillating turret with an autoloader.
And the autoloader was one of the elements of the new tank concept,
which they had been working on since 1943.
The project kicked off in 1949.
The French AMX 50 served as a basis for it.
The military presented several requirements to the designers.
The tank should be fast.
Its power-to-weight ratio should be 20 hp per ton.
The front armor of the IS-3 was estimated at 120–150 mm.
And the Swedish tank's gun should be able to penetrate it.
The weight should be 30 tons.
This restriction was imposed
based on the load capacity of local bridges.
The vehicle was planned for operations in Sweden.
So its design should take into account
the specific features of the country.
Its tactics were fairly simply.
The tank was to appear from behind a hill,
fire all of its shells, then leave the battlefield.
The peculiar feature of the Swedish school
is that they don't simply follow the global trends,
but approach the problem very reasonably, asking:
“What is necessary specifically for Sweden?”
So they try to streamline the work and assess what tanks they need
and what specific type of warfare may be conducted in Sweden.
And, consequently, they develop their vehicles
for specific concepts of specific warfare in Sweden.
Three concepts were developed by autumn 1952.
They were the so-called Emil E1, E2, and E3.
The versions featured different armament,
so they differed in size and weight.
The one that best fit the specifications was the prototype
with a 120-mm rifled gun.
To put it mildly, the vehicle turned out to be pretty peculiar.
Though you can still see the influence of the AMX 50,
it is indeed quite a different vehicle.
After a negative experience with the m/42,
which became outdated virtually as it rolled off the production line,
the Swedes tried to run before crawling:
they wanted a tank, packed with cutting-edge technologies.
The chassis was very low.
As a result, the tank's height was under 2.5 meters.
And the vehicle weighed 28 tons.
But it must be observed that it was a heavy tank.
Its weight doesn't mean anything.
The 140 mm of front armor clearly indicated what kind of vehicle it was.
Being 145 mm thick,
the KRV's armor was sloped at such an angle
that it could sustain shell hits better than the IS-7.
With these characteristics, the tank turned out to be pretty compact.
Its hull was only 6 meters long.
To make the vehicle's profile lower,
it was powered by a flat engine.
A special 120-mm gun was designed for the tank,
it was only 40 calibers long.
The gun fired powerful high-explosive anti-tank shells.
This allowed it to destroy the IS-3,
the very tank that was so widely used
to frighten the entire West back then.
However, the Emil E1 project was rejected.
The customer wasn't happy with the gun.
According to the military, it was too weak.
They chose the heaviest Emil E3 project
equipped with a 150-mm gun.
The tank was longer and heavier.
It weighed over 40 tons.
As a result, it required a more powerful engine: 800 horsepower.
But the problem was that the Swedes, in fact,
didn't have engines better than 400 horsepower.
They had to look for one elsewhere.
So, they arranged a deal with the US company Continental Motors.
Two companies worked on the prototype:
Bofors was designing the turret and weapon system;
Landsverk was working on the running gear.
At this stage, the tank got its name — Kranvagn, or KRV.
The first Emil prototype was to be completed in 1955.
Then, by 1956, the first example was to be built.
And in 1958, they were going to launch mass production of this vehicle.
The work at Landsverk was on schedule.
However, Bofors experienced difficulties
with turret equipment and the gun.
They were struggling to find proper solutions for HEAT shells,
the stabilization system, and the autoloader.
The attempt turned out to be too daring for that period of time.
Sweden—a country far from being underdeveloped
in terms of technologies—
was not able to meet the requirements
that were imposed on the tank they were about to build.
When Landsverk had already built their running gear,
the Bofors engineers could only say in dismay:
“We’re still working.”
When it was time to test the KRV,
its turret and gun weren’t ready yet.
Therefore, a spherical mockup
that was equal in weight
and dimensions was fitted to the Landsverk’s running gear.
The running gear was fine.
Its characteristics were by no means worse
than those of other nations' vehicles.
The Swedes were pretty close to having a modern heavy tank.
But Bofors never managed to create an oscillating turret.
In 1954, the work on the Kranvagn project was suspended.
To equip their Army with modern vehicles,
the Swedes purchased the British Centurion tanks
and dropped the subject.
They decided to cancel this project,
just like other anti-IS-3 projects before it.
The Swedes had a problem similar to one
they had had in the second half of the 1940s—
the ever-increasing requirements.
Often, the military can’t stop their pursuit of perfection.
If they had agreed to mount a 120-mm gun,
they would have been able to build this tank
even using Swedish engines instead of American ones.
Funny thing:
the Swedes were building a tank for battles
that would never happen,
because the IS-3 was claimed to be obsolete
by the Soviet military back in 1946.
So, there was no point in building thousands of these tanks.
The T-54 could become their real match,
but their existing ammunition would be more than enough
to withstand their Soviet rival.
It would’ve probably been one of the best tanks
built by Western engineers.
The only problem is that it would have ended up being far too expensive.
However, the work on the Kranvagn project was not in vain.
Its running gear played a crucial role
in tank-construction techniques worldwide.
It was used to test solutions
that were later applied to the Strv 103.
And the latter was designed by the very same people
who had worked on the KRV.
One of the Kranvagn's running gears
was used as the base for the AKV 151 SPG prototype.
However, it wasn't put into mass production,
although engineers managed to design a loading system
that was then mounted on the Bandkanon 1.
This self-propelled gun produced 14 shots every 48 seconds—
this is almost the rate of fire for a multi-launch rocket system.
The other Kranvagn's running gear is stored in the Arsenalen Tank Museum.