Pansarbandvagn 301 (pbv 301), meaning roughly armoured tracked carrier vehicle 301, was a Swedish infantry fighting vehicle used by the Swedish Army. It was designed to carry a squad of 8 fully armed panzergrenadiers into battle and provide direct-fire support for them in combat. The panzergrenadiers could opt to either fight from inside the vehicle through hatches on the roof or dismount the vehicle and fight in its vicinity.

Design

The pbv 301 was armed with a Bofors 20 mm L/70 aircraft gun taken from scrapped Saab 21 fighter aircraft, mounted in an oscillating housing above a rotating cupola. It was fed from 75 round belts stored inside the vehicle, with 450 rounds total. Inside the vehicle were mountings for a variety of infantry weapons and munitions, such as an FN MAG and a Carl Gustaf 8.4 cm recoilless rifle with 9 rounds. The pbv 301 was an interim solution, built on the chassis from the obsolete stridsvagn m/41 tank (which in turn is the licensed variant of the Czech THN/LT vz. 38), in service since 1942. It was introduced in 1961 and removed from service in the late 1960s and early 1970s when the replacement pbv 302 came into use. The pbv 301 replaced the open-topped terrängbil m/42 KP IFV as the main infantry fighting vehicle of the Swedish Army.

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