The Bandkanon 1, abbreviation bkan 1, was a Swedish self-propelled artillery vehicle in use with the Swedish Army from 1967 to 2003. Bkan 1 was one of the world's heaviest and most powerful self-propelled artillery vehicles in use during its service. It had a 155 mmautocannon with an exceptionally high rate of fire, being able to fire 14 shells in less than 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 an official world record of 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 28 km. Its chassis was based on a lengthened Stridsvagn 103 with one extra road wheel. The first variant, the Bkan 1A, used the same engine as the first Strv 103's and was thus somewhat under powered since that engine was designed to drive a 30-ton tank unlike the Bkan 1 which weighed over 50 tons. Despite this its mobility was more than adequate for its role as an artillery piece.
Use
The plan was to produce about 70 vehicles, but due to cuts indefence budget only 26 bandkanon 1s were manufactured. They were used as divisional artillery in Norrland, used by Boden Artillery Regiment and later Norrbotten Regiment. 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 bandkanon 1 was discontinued in 2003.
History
When the KRV tank project was cancelled, the chassis was developed by AB Landsverk under the designation Artillerikanonvagn 151. As the concept seemed promising, the self-propelled gun was re-designed by Landsverk under supervision of the Royal Swedish Army Materiel Administration to use the same drive train as the S-tank and a main gun constructed by AB Bofors. Bandkanon 1 appeared in two versions, the original version was Bandkanon 1. After modification done to the vehicle during the 1980s, the new version was designated Bandkanon 1C. 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.
