Tankopedia
Late Cold WarMBTMain Battle TankSweden

Stridsvagn 103 (S-Tank)

In service 1967 - 1997

The turretless tank that aimed by tilting its own hull - Sweden's answer to defending forests with three men and an autoloader.

Built byBofors

Stridsvagn 103 (S-Tank)
Strv 103 demonstrating at P7 Revingehed, 2022 — VHMQ Photography, via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0

Development history

The S-Tank rejected the turret entirely: the 105 mm gun was fixed in the hull, aimed in azimuth by pivoting the tank on its tracks and in elevation by an adjustable hydropneumatic suspension. That gave an extremely low silhouette, ideal for the prepared defensive positions Swedish doctrine assumed, plus an autoloader that cut the crew to three and delivered a high rate of fire. Its weakness was firing on the move and in soft ground. Withdrawn in 1997 when Sweden bought the Leopard 2, it remains the only mass-produced turretless main battle tank.

Variants

One canonical record, 3 recorded variants.

  1. Strv 103A

    1967

    Initial production version

  2. Strv 103B

    1970

    Flotation screens, laser rangefinder

  3. Strv 103C

    1986

    New diesel, improved fire control, dozer blade