Background & Development:
The CV90 aka Combat Vehicle aka Stridsfordon 90, has to be one of the most commercial success’s in AFV history of the 1990’s.
Its history stemmed back to 1985 when HB Utveckling, a small holding company of the successful Bofors Defence and Hägglunds and Soner (now part of BAE Systems Land Systems) were awarded with a contract from the Swedish Defence Material Administration for 5 prototypes of the CV90 for the Swedish Army.
Prior to this, a future thinking contract had been awarded, a two man turret mounting a 40mm main gun had been funded.
In 1986 a further contract had been placed for 4 turrets, 3 with 40mm main guns and 1 with a 25mm main gun.
One of these turrets and prototypes was selected and ordered as a production vehicle, as in 1991 the Swedish Army placed their first order. The hull, which is manufactured by Hägglunds, is sent to Bofors who manufacture the turret with their 40mm main gun and integrate the turret with the hull. First production vehicles were delivered in 1993 as the Combat Vehicle 90 to the Swedish Army.
Crew:
The driver sits left of the engine in the front of the hull, with the commander and gunner in the two man turret in the middle of the turret. The rear compartment is where the 8 infantry sit facing each other. They exit the vehicle through a door in the rear of the vehicle and also have access to roof hatches.
Firepower:
The main gun is a Bofor’s 40mm, which is the largest calibre amongst non Russian IFV’s and a calibre that other new IFV’s are now aspiring too. It’s capable of firing several ammunitions and thanks to its calibre, has made it the most successful gun in Afghanistan, as lower calibres have not been able to defeat the thick walled compounds used by the Taliban.
48 rounds in a carousel underneath the turret floor and 162 in stowage bins. The gun can fire a wide variety of rounds, like the high explosive-tracer, the multi-purpose-tracer and the armour-piercing fin-stabilised discarding sabot tracer. The Armoured Piercing Fin-Stabilised Discarding Sabot (APFSDS) round has a tungsten alloy long rod penetrator which can punch through 150mm of armour from as far as 3km away. The high explosive and multi-purpose rounds can destroy ground and aerial targets up to 4km away.
The main gun can be elevated from -8º to +35º and the turret traversed 360º.
The vehicle is equipped with a 7.62mm coaxial MG for close encounters. One more 5.56 mm or 7.62 mm machine gun is positioned on top of the turret.
Protection:
The basic vehicle is rated against 14.5mm rounds. The vehicle can be fitted with module armour. Modular armour can accommodate various ceramics, composite or passive armour, such as the world famous, shape charged defeating MEXAS.
The internals of the vehicle is fitted with an NBC system and a bank 4 smoke grenade launchers is mounted either side of the vehicle.
Mobility:
The vehicle uses the Ds14 supplied from the established firm Scania, which generates 550hp and provides a top road speed of 70km/h. It has an operational range of 600km.
Trial Variants:
CV9025 IFV 2 man turret with 25mm main gun - prototype only.
CV 90120-T 120mm light tank - trials only.
CV 90 AMOS Twin 120mm mortar - trials only.
BAE FRES for the British Army FRES program.
Operators:
Sweden: 509 vehicles, includes -
TriAD - 40mm self-propelled anti-aircraft gun.
CV 90 Forward Command vehicle.
CV 90 Forward Observation vehicle.
CV 90 Armoured Recovery Vehicle.
Switzerland: 186 CV9030CH
Norway: 104 CV9030N. 17 of these have been upgraded with air-condition, additional mine protection and rear-view cameras, and are designated CV9030NF1.
Netherlands: 192 CV9035NL Deliveries will be completed by 2011.
Finland: 102 CV9030FIN.
Denmark: 45 CV9035DK.
Combat History - Afghanistan (ISAF)
In November 2007, Norwegian CV 90’s contributed in the defence of the Norwegian Forces.
In May 2008, Norwegian CV 90’s beat down a Taliban attack.
In January 2010, a Norwegian soldier driving a CV9030 was killed when it drove over an IED in Ghowrmach, Afghanistan.
By April 2010 two of the ten Danish vehicles sent to Afghanistan have been hit with IEDs.