After the end of World War II , the Nordic Sweden adopted a pro-Western neutral policy, making Sweden always believe that if a war breaks out, in order to ensure that its Baltic fleet can freely enter North Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, it will definitely seize the key pass along the Baltic Sea coast by force, and Sweden will be the first to be affected.
At that time, Sweden analyzed that the Soviet Union's armored forces would enter the hinterland of Sweden through the jungle swamp near Finland and Arctic Circle . Faced with this danger, Sweden decided to vigorously develop its own armored forces. In the early 1950s, Sweden introduced the British "Sun Qiulun" tank, which was equipped with an 88-mm cannon that could deal with the Soviet T-34/85 tank.
But by the mid-50s, all the Soviet main battle tanks were replaced with the T-54/55 series, and the 88mm gun of the "Sun Qiulun" tank could not deal with the new Soviet tanks. Faced with this problem, Sweden began to develop and install a new main battle tank with 105mm gun, and designated Bofos as the development contractor. Sweden put low discovery first and finally chose a tank design without turrets and fixed artillery in 1958. It was officially named Stridsvagn103 in 1966, abbreviated as STRV103, and later called the S tank.
S tanks are mainly in the forest areas of northern Sweden. Ordinary tank turrets are often blocked by tree trunks when rotating. The tank needs to adjust the position of the vehicle body to obtain the shooting angle. This is almost no different from the tanks that use fixed artillery. This is also one of the important reasons why Sweden accepts turretless tanks. In addition, the turretless tanks are low in shape and difficult to detect in the short-lived daytime and dim nights in the Arctic. Since the artillery is installed in the vehicle body, its body tube is 62 times the caliber, the cannon is stronger and the range is longer.
After entering the 1980s, new main battle tanks in various countries were equipped with 120/125mm tank gun . The new tail wing stable shell-piercing shell can penetrate the body armor of the S tank. In addition, the emergence of armed helicopter and attack-top anti-tank missiles made the S tank completely lose its advantage.
Originally, Sweden was planning to replace the Rhine company's 120mm gun on the S tank, but with the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the threat from the East no longer existed. In the end, Sweden chose the German "Leopard" 2 improved type as the main battle tank and no longer developed the S-type tank.
