15,5 cm bandkanon 1
15,5 cm bandkanon 1, meaning " tracked cannon 1", was a Swedish self-propelled artillery vehicle in use with the Swedish Army from 1967 to 2003, developed by Aktiebolaget Bofors. Its product name was , meaning roughly "Tracked Automotive Gun 155 mm L/50". 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 mm autocannon with an exceptionally high rate of fire, being able to fire 15 shells in 45 seconds with one round preloaded and full magazine of two rows of seven rounds in a clip. 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 underpowered since that engine was designed to drive a 30-ton tank, while the Bkan 1 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 defence budget cuts 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 three battalions of 8 vehicles each until the late 1980s and after that, two battalions of 12 vehicles each until the bandkanon 1 was discontinued in 2003.History
Development of what would become the bkan 1 started at the end of the 1940s, but it was not until the 1950s when development accelerated. When the KRV tank project was cancelled it was decided that one of the prototype chassis was to be repurposed as the prototype of the new self-propelled gun under the designation Artillerikanonvagn 151, translating to "Artillery cannon wagon 151", the number 151 meaning 1st vehicle with a gun in the 15 cm caliber category. The chassis was reversed so the rear became the new front and an oscillating gun turret constructed by AB Bofors was fitted at the back. 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 to speed up production. 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 in order to save weight and the introduction of the POS 2 system for navigation, positioning, and directing.