The Ukrainians are opposing Russia's invading army with a mix of armored personnel carriers. Now they are building their own model: a Swedish export.
Bakhmut – He trudges through deep snow, he rattles through the embers – and seemingly feels at home everywhere: The “Combat Vehicle 90” gives Ukraine new power in the defensive fight against Vladimir Putin's invasion troops.
The CV90 is an infantry fighting vehicle and was part of the aid package from the soon-to-be NATO partner Sweden. At the beginning of 2023, Stockholm initially delivered 51 CV90s to the Ukrainian army, whose crews trained in Sweden for almost three months to operate the vehicle for the Ukrainian war. In July 2023 they experienced combat operations with the vehicle for the first time.
The armored personnel carrier, operated by two drivers, with its six infantrymen is now really heating up the Russian army, the recently reported Kyiv Post: Unlike arms deliveries from some Western countries to Ukraine, some of which included outdated Cold War-era equipment, Sweden's CV9040C is considered a late-model, top-of-the-range weapon. Market variant of the vehicle with all-round armor, laser protection and improved air conditioning – this model is the vehicle in the series that has been specially optimized for foreign missions.
The Swede in Ukraine: accurate against Putin's tanks
The Kyiv Post cited various sources according to which the 21st Separate Motorized Infantry Brigade is the only Ukrainian unit with CV90. The vehicle is also at the front in the eastern Bakhmut and northeastern Kupyansk sectors. In fighting in January, this brigade, along with two other combat brigades, reportedly defended Ukrainian defenses against a Russian counterattack and destroyed more than 40 Russian tanks and armored personnel carriers as they attempted to attack across a kilometer-wide battlefield.
Eight other Western countries now rely on the Swedish construct. In addition to the Marder and Bradley armored personnel carriers, the CV90 is the third type of Western-designed armored personnel carrier to be delivered to Ukraine. Basically, the Swede can best be compared with the German Puma infantry fighting vehicle. However, the German Pro lacks any combat experience – and there are doubts about the operational suitability of the German design.
The Swede in the furnace: unerringly against the Taliban
The Swedish model has already been able to collect the former – in Norwegian service during Operation “Harekate Yolo” as the first major military operation in northern Afghanistan to combat the insurgent Taliban in October and November 2007. It ended after several weeks with the recapture of the area just before areas in the north occupied by the Taliban by allied units of Afghan and NATO troops. The 30-millimeter machine cannon is said to have knocked out some Taliban guns there.
The CV90 is an armored personnel carrier weighing around 23 tons with a 40 millimeter or 30 millimeter cannon and another machine gun with a caliber of 7.62 millimeters. With the help of the 550 hp engine, the vehicle should be able to accelerate up to 70 km/h. More than 1,300 vehicles are in use in NATO and Switzerland.
The development of the armored personnel carrier began ten years before the Puma, which is probably why it seems to be the more sophisticated vehicle. The CV90 has 15 operational variants in daily use across nine armies. This gives the CV90 the reputation of being a very effective, robust combat vehicle with a very high level of availability; the platform has matured gradually. It is produced by the British defense company BAE Systems or its Swedish subsidiary.
The Swede in the future: Ukraine will soon build it itself
Now Vladimir Putin's face the CV90. Loud Kyiv Post Ukraine and Sweden will advance the joint production of an improved version of the Swedish CV90 in Ukraine. The current version is said to have improved off-road performance and reinforced multi-layer armor.
Currently, the Ukrainian infantry deploys a bewildering mix of armored personnel carriers, including mine-protected armored vehicles from six donor states that are barely compatible with each other, highly armored American Humvees (High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles), Soviet wheeled and tracked infantry fighting vehicles, and light Russian infantry fighting vehicles (MT-LB), American M113 personnel carriers and a fleet of US and German armored personnel carriers comparable to the CV-90 but less modern than it – for example the German Marder.
“This agreement will make it possible not only to carry out a one-time transfer of weapons, but also to organize comprehensive cooperation in the field of defense industry between Sweden and Ukraine, especially in the future to anchor part of Western defense production in Ukraine,” Dmytro said Klimenkov, the deputy defense minister of Ukraine. “We undoubtedly need more of them,” he emphasized, referring to the armored personnel carrier. Due to its design, the CV90 is said to be able to cope well with the heavy, muddy terrain in Ukraine – one of the disciplines that could put it ahead of other western competitors.
When Norway wanted to buy armored personnel carriers, the British Bradley was available alongside the CV90. The fact that the CV90 is specifically designed to meet the unique requirements of the Scandinavian landscape with its fjords, mountains and hills gave it a clear advantage. Despite the fact that the Bradley had clear advantages in tank combat, the CV90 ultimately won the competition: the Bradley had major problems getting through 50 centimeters of snow – unacceptable to the Norwegian military was.
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