"Swedish cold war anti-aircraft weapons" Topic

Hi all,

I am currently working on a cold war Swedish army using 1/300th micro-tanks. Question is this: Did the Swedish army in the 1970-80 period use the good old Bofors 40mm gun, or was there a vehicular system?

As I see the 40mm was used post-war I imagine it was still a popular piece of equipment. Any help appreciated.

The 40mm Bofors was very much still alive for the duration of the cold war. The m/36 version known from WWII was however relegated to local defence forces, being replaced by the m/48 version in the 50's.

Other anti-aircraft weapons in the swedish inventory at the time was the 20mm m/40-70 (then used in the Rb69/70 platoons), the Rb69 (Redeye), the Rb70 and from the early mid-80's the Lvrbbv 701. The lvrbbv 701 was really the first mobile anti-air system in Sweden. The Bofors didn't make it as a mobile anti-aircraft system in Sweden until it was mounted on the CV-90 as the Lvkv90.
For high altitude defence Sweden relied on it's fighters or the HAWK SAM-system, in different versions.

20mm lvakan m/40-70: tjelvar.se/vapen/4-13.htm
40mm lvakan m/36: tjelvar.se/vapen/4-32.htm
40mm lvakan m/36: tjelvar.se/vapen/4-12.htm
Rb69 Redeye: tjelvar.se/vapen/4-15.htm
Rb70: tjelvar.se/vapen/4-69.htm
lvrbbv 701: tjelvar.se/vapen/4-71.htm
Rb67/77/97 HAWK: soldf.com/rbs77.html

Thanks Krieger,

So Bofors for local defence. My infantry have something that looks like the Redeye. Now I could get the Hawk for more advanced defence, but Heroics and Ros only do it vehicle mounted and your pictures show it towed. Hmm, I wonder if the army used the M548 or not.Could convert the Pbv 302 to an anti-air variant as well perhaps.

Great link to the site about Swedish military history. Thanks.

There are some nice photos on the Gotland Militärhistoria webpage!
As I am very inetersted in the Swedish Armed Forces you receive a big thanks for sharing from me Krieger!

Kind regards,
Benjamin

No problem!

I should add that "local defence" was a term for more static units, belonging to a certain military area. The Bofors guns would most likely have tasks such as "defend this airfield" or "defend this bridge". The brigades used the redeye or Rb70 along with 20mm autocannons during the period.

The HAWKs were for strategic defence and was tasked for defense of southernmost Sweden (Skåne) and the "Armored division" that was fielded.

The Swedish army did sadly not use the M548 for its HAWKs.

I do wish someone would make trailer-mounted HAWK missiles in various scales, e.g. 1/300 or 1/285, 1/144, and 1/100.

+1 on that Mako. Thanks once again Krieger for you valuable input.

Yes, trailer-mounted Hawks would certainly be useful, as nearly everyone used them! Ditto L70 Bofors…

The Swedish army did sadly not use the M548 for its HAWKs.

That is a new sentiment about the M548. They were maintenance nightmares.

The Rb70 would be fairly rare in the 1970-80 period, the system was delivered from 1975 onward and the first units became operational in 1977. And there was the need to train over 40 companies armed with the system while many (most?) AA regiments only seem to have been able to train one company each year.

During the period in question the Swedish army's two most important AA assets were the short range of most Soviet aircraft and the still pretty numerous Swedish Air Force.
Without bases in Finland or on the island of Gotland the Soviet aircraft based in the Leningrad and Baltic military districts had a hard time reaching mainland Sweden and large parts of the country could only be reached by bombers. Southern Sweden was within range from bases in East Germany and Poland but the aircraft would still have lacked the "legs" to reach the core base areas of the Swedish Air Force. So the Swedish Air Force had some justification for their confidence in meeting a Soviet attack.

Until 1978 there was an additional AA system in Swedish service, the Bristol Bloodhound II which was used by six missile squadrons beloning to the Air Force.

mako11
I would love the hawk 1/300 and 1/600 scale but the system had too many radars needed (models) also those radars changed a couple of times over its lifetime see wiki entry

If it's any help, I talked a bit to the old man who happen to work on Hawks in the 3rd LAAM battalion back in the mid 80s. Seems like the High Power Illuminator Radar (aka the Mickey Mouse) was what they were using. Not sure about the Swedes though. With the USMC the five ton truck was the transportation of choice. At least during Desert Storm after they were set up the trucks were used as a general transport pool for the rest of the force. And he said the Hawks needed a lot of trucks to do their initial deployment. A bit off topic but I thought I'd share a bit before I forget.

Can't comment on the earliers version called Rb67 in Swedish service but Rb77 version had the "Mickey Mouse" radar for target illumination and the Swedish Ps-707 search radar. (A version of the Ericson Giraffe radar developed for the Rb70 system) there were a few other Swedish modifications that simpliefied operation and deployment of the system as well but it did require a lot of vehicles to move men and equipment. (But then that is true of most AA units, it took 6 trucks and two ordinary cars to move my platoon of Bofors 40mm complete with fire control unit and ammunition.)