15,5 cm bandkanon 1

Bandkanon 1
Bkan 1 C at the military history museum in Boden.
Type	Self-propelled artillery
Place of origin	Sweden
Service history
In service	1967 - 2003
Production history
Designer	Bofors
No. built	26
Variants	1 A, 1 C
Specifications
Mass	52 tonnes (114,639 lbs) (bkan 1A) 53 tonnes (116,843 lbs) (bkan 1C)
Length	6.55 m (21 ft 6 in) 11 m (36 ft 1 in)including gun
Width	3.37 m (11 ft 1 in)
Height	3.55 m (11 ft 8 in) 3.85 m (12 ft 8 in) including AAMG
Crew	5
Armor	20 mm (.78 in) maximum
Main armament	155 mm kanon m/60
Secondary armament	7.62 mm ksp 58
Engine	Diesel: Rolls-Royce K60 (bkan 1A) Detroit 6V-53T (bkan 1C ) Gas turbine: Boeing 502-10MA (both) RR: 240 hp (179 kW) Det: 290 hp (216 kW) Boe: 300 hp (224 kW)
Power/weight	10.38 hp/tonne (bkan 1A) 11.13 hp/tonne (bkan 1C)
Suspension	Hydropneumatic
Operational range	230 km (143 mi)
Maximum speed	28 km/h (17 mph)

The Bandkanon 1 (bkan 1) was a Swedish self-propelled artillery vehicle in use with the Swedish Army from 1967 to 2003. It was developed by Bofors under the designation artillerikanonvagn 151 (akv 151) and the chassis was based on the never adopted KRV tank. When the KRV project was canceled the chassis of the self-propelled gun was re-designed to use the same drive train as the S-tank. Bkan 1 was one of the world's heaviest self-propelled artillery vehicles in use during its service and since the engines were dimensioned for the lighter S-tank the bkan was somewhat underpowered. Despite this it had very good mobility.

It had an exceptionally high rate of fire, being able to fire 14 shells in 45 seconds. With one round already loaded in the gun beside the two seven-round clips in the magazine, the rate of fire rose to 15 rounds in 45 seconds. The magazine could then be reloaded with a built in hoist in about 2 minutes. Each shell had a weight of 47 kg and a tactical range of 25 km. The gun was designed to fire tactical nuclear rounds, but as Sweden decided to not produce nuclear weapons, this feature never came into use.

Use

The plan was to produce about 70 vehicles, but due to cuts in defence budget only 26 bandkanon 1s were manufactured. They were used as divisional artillery in Norrland, used by Bodens artilleriregemente and later Norrbottens regemente. They were organized in two battalions of 12 vehicles each until the late 1980s and after that, three battalions of 8 vehicles each until the bkan 1 was discontinued in 2003.

Versions

Bandkanon 1 appeared in two versions, the original version was bandkanon 1 (also designated bandkanon 1 A). After modification done to the vehicle during the 1980s, the new version was designated bandkanon 1 C. The main difference was the introduction of a drive train more similar to the one introduced on the new "C" version of stridsvagn 103, other modifications were the removal of the built-in ammunition crane and the introduction of the POS 2 system for navigation, positioning and directing.

References

• Persson, Mats (2000). Pansarfordon. Retrieved 12 August 2006.
• Wennberg, Robert (1998). Bandkanonvagn 1A. Retrieved 12 August 2006.
• N/A, (1998). Artilleri och Granatkastare - Bandkanon 1 A. Retrieved 12 August 2006.