RE Swedish OOB

[Kartoffel]

http://articles.janes.com/articles/J...er-Sweden.html

Made me laugh that a machine designed for killing people can now be operated not only with a green option to help mitigate environmental degradation whilst waging war but also with the long term health risks of its occupants looked after. So much for Gen. Grant's statement that war is all hell.

[Aeraaa]

And the funny thing is that the were originally designed to operate in a Nuclear battlefield...

[Palle]

It is Sweden, the most politically correct and overprotective state in the world. The Socialist Utopia was never realised in the communists states, but Sweden is getting there.


Edited to add; I do NOT hate Swedes, I have many Swedish friends from Viking Re-enacting. Nor is this post supposed to demean Sweden or Swedes in any way, but it is a bit funny.

[Marcello]

They seem common sense modifications. They get rid of the Sagger launcher, useless by now for all practical purposes, and get rid of some crap. No point in breathing asbestos if there is some replacement around.

[Aeraaa]

Yeah, the launcher was the first thing we got rid in our BMPs as well, but we've added a .50cal AA machinegun on the vehicle.

[mkr8683]

I never thought I'd see the words 'comfortable' and 'BMP' in the same sentence.

And it was WT Sherman that said 'war is hell.'

[Kartoffel]

Originally Posted by mkr8683

I never thought I'd see the words 'comfortable' and 'BMP' in the same sentence.

And it was WT Sherman that said 'war is hell.'

Yep, just looked it up on wiki quote. Looks like I goofed on that one

[mkr8683]

Hey.. it happens!

In 2006, my squad worked an ECP in Baghdad with a battalion of the Georgian Army. They had found an ex-Saddam's army BMP-1, drug it into an overwatch position, cranked the turret around to face the ECP entrance, and left it. The thing was full of pigeons, and the inside walls were scribbled over with soldier graffiti, such as '1-7 Cav was here,' 'F*** 1-7 Cav,' '3-16 FA dominates,' '3-16 FA sucks a**,' ad nauseum. I remember how cramped the inside was; as bad as our Bradleys were, I'd hate to ride into a fight in a BMP.

[wulfir]

Originally Posted by Palle

It is Sweden...

Pansarbandvagn 501 (BMP-1) was bought to give infantry brigades some armoured protection and was a replacement to the Bandvagn 206/Tgb type trucks previously used.

They were intended to be used in the Arctic Brigades but then someone noticed the narrow tracks of the BMP-1 did not work very well in deep snow - so the Pansarbandvagn 401 (MTLB) was sent north and the Pbv 501 was supposed to be used in the southern part of the country, where snow depths are usually not that great. Amazing how this could not have been known, given that the Finns had much experience with BMPs and the fact that Soviet Mot Rifle Division (type) North used MTLB and not BMP.

Field trials were held and the fleet of Pbv 501 were upgraded, but only a handful were ever used by actual units, because those brigades that were meant to be turned into mech were disbanded.
Most Pbv 501 went straight into storage, spent a couple of years there and were then scraped, or sold off. A few can be found in AFV museums.

[DRG]

Are they ALL off the TO&E then ???

If they are all gone approx what year did that happen ?

Don