Sweden has received its first four Granatkastaranscarband 90 (Grkpbv90) self-propelled mortars, the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration (FMV), announced on 1 February. The first four vehicles are pre-production units that will be used for training, methodology tests and validation trials. The first regular production vehicles will then be delivered in August, and the others will follow until final delivery in 2020. By the end of 2016, the Swedish Defence Material Administration (FMV) had signed an agreement with HB Development (HB Utveckling AB, the joint venture between BAE Systems Bofors AB and BAE Systems Hägglunds AB) for the building and delivering of 40 120mm mortar carriers Grkpbv90 to the Swedish army.
The Grkpbv90 is a CV90 armoured vehicle with BAE Systems’ Mjölner (hammer of Thor) turreted twin 120 mm smoothbore gun system installed and will provide indirect fire support to Swedish Army mechanised battalions. Mjölner is the hammer of Thor in Norse mythology. The CV 90s for this project were purchased already in 2003 and were intended to have the Advanced Mortar System from Patria mounted. For economic reasons, the order to Patria was cancelled and the vehicles put in storage until the project relaunch. In total, 40 CV 90s will be delivered with this configuration by 2020.
In terms of performance, Grkpbv90 will meet the current criteria when it comes to firing rate, and they will be considerably faster to group and move, as all the equipment and personnel are inside the vehicle, together with their own navigation system, POS2. This means that platoons with Grkpbv90 will have increased ability to support the armor units by being faster at grouping, shooting and regrouping. A platoon with towed mortars moves in ten minutes, while the Grkpbv90 can do it two minutes, and is also ready to move one minute after having fired the last round.
CV90 is a family of Swedish tracked combat vehicles designed for FMV by BAE Systems Hägglunds and BAE Systems Bofors, which provides the vehicle’s turrets. More than 4.5 million engineering hours has contributed to the development of this advanced vehicle. The Swedish version is outfitted with a turret equipped with a 40 mm autocannon. The Swedish Army has more than 500 CV90s. BAE Systems was awarded a contract to refurbish 262 of the vehicles, including survivability, turret, and combat system performance upgrades. Adding the mounted mortar systems addresses another priority that helps increase the vehicles’ lifespan in support of Army capabilities.
