Landsverk L-30 (

Swedish Army The Swedish Army () is the army, land force of the Swedish Armed Forces of the Kingdom of Sweden. Beginning with its service in 1521, the Swedish Army has been active for more than 500 years. History Svea Life Guards dates back to the year 1 ...

designation: ''stridsvagn försöksmodell 1931'',

abbr. An abbreviation () is a shortened form of a word or phrase, by any method including shortening, contraction, initialism (which includes acronym), or crasis. An abbreviation may be a shortened form of a word, usually ended with a trailing perio ...

''strv fm/31'', "tank trial model-1931") was a

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

late

interwar In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period, also known as the interbellum (), lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days) – from the end of World War I (WWI) to the beginning of World War II ( ...

era

medium tank A medium tank is a classification of tanks, particularly prevalent during World War II, which represented a compromise between the mobility oriented light tanks and the armour and armament oriented heavy tanks. A medium tank's classification ...

constructed by

AB Landsverk AB Landsverk (full name: Aktiebolaget Landsverk, ) was a Swedish heavy industry company, manufacturing a wide variety of tracked and wheeled military vehicles, such as tractor units, off-road vehicles and armored car (military), armoured vehicle ...

for the Swedish Army between 1930 and 1935, featuring welded armour joints and a "wheel-cum-track system", allowing for interchangeable wheeled and tracked propulsion.

Construction

The L-30 was based on the

Landsverk L-10 Landsverk L-10 (Swedish Army designation: ''stridsvagn m/31'', abbr. ''strv m/31'', "tank model-1931") was a Swedish late interwar era medium tank constructed by AB Landsverk for the Swedish Army between 1930 and 1933. The tank had an advanced ...

, a conventional fully tracked tank, but added to the design by featuring deployable wheel propulsion in addition to its tracks (a so-called "wheel-cum-track system"), the idea being that wheeled and tracked propulsion could be interchanged depending on the travel surface: road/terrain. The wheel-track suspension design was quite ingenious, and wheels/tracks could be interchanged in less than a minute, even while on the move. Beyond the wheel-track suspension, it was almost identical to the Landsverk L-10 design, featuring an advanced all-welded construction, using periscopes for visibility rather than view slits. The Landsverk L-10 design was the first tank produced to feature an all-welded construction. While the L-30 prototype was unarmed, the production design featured a turret mounted Bofors 37 mm anti-tank gun L/45 (''37 mm kanon fm/32'') and two Browning M1917 machine guns (''6.5 mm kulspruta m/14-29''), one coaxial mounted in the turret and one flexible mounted in the hull, and was equipped with of armour. File:Landsverk L-10 (strv fm31).jpg, Landsverk L-30 (strv fm/31) in tracked-mode. File:Strv fm31.jpg, Landsverk L-30 (strv fm/31) in wheeled-mode. File:Stridsvagn fm31 (Landsverk L-30), AB Landsverk Landskrona 1935.jpg, L-30 trials at

Landsverk AB Landsverk (full name: Aktiebolaget Landsverk, ) was a Swedish heavy industry company, manufacturing a wide variety of tracked and wheeled military vehicles, such as tractor units, off-road vehicles and armoured vehicles, etc, most notably the ...

Landskrona, 1935.

History

Development of the L-30 started in 1930 as part of a competition set up by the

Royal Swedish Army Materiel Administration The Royal Swedish Army Material Administration (, KAF) was a Government agencies in Sweden, Swedish central government agency that replaced the War College (Sweden), War College in 1865. It was active between the years 1866 and 1954. History Th ...

(KAF) for the next generation of Swedish tanks. Landsverk competed against designs from

AB Bofors BAE Systems AB is subsidiary holding company for the Swedish assets of BAE Systems Land & Armaments, whose ultimate parent is the British defence contractor BAE Systems. The portfolio in 2020 contained the companies ''Systems C-ITS'', involved ...

(Krupp) and Morgårdshammar AB, evaluation being conducted in the fall the same year. Landsverks designs came out on top and Landsverk was selected as contractor in January 1931. After further in-depth evaluation of Landsverks designs, KAF ordered one L-30 trial vehicle from Landsverk in October 1931, along three

test vehicles. The lone L-30 (designated ''stridsvagn fm/31'': fm = ''försöksmodell'', "trial model") was intended simply for mobility trials and was produced using mild steel from Landsverk, lacking the frontal hull machine gun port of the L-10 and featuring a wooden mockup turret. Production was delayed and the prototype was produced and delivered to the Swedish Army in 1935. Despite being highly advanced for its time, the design was seen as too expensive and specialized, thus in the end it was cancelled in favour of conventional tanks.

Surviving vehicles

The sole L-30 (strv fm/31) prototype has been preserved. It was exhibited at the Swedish Armour Museum in Axvall between 1969 and 2007, then on being moved to the collection of the new

Swedish Tank Museum Arsenalen The Swedish Tank Museum Arsenalen (Försvarsfordonsmuseet Arsenalen) is a museum specializing in armoured fighting vehicles that opened on 17 June 2011. It is located about 6 km from Strängnäs, Södermanland, Sweden. There are 75 vehicles ...

, where it is displayed today.

Period Landsverk armoured vehicles

''Example list (incomplete)'' ;Tracked vehicles *

Landsverk L-5 Landsverk L-5 was one of the first tank A tank is an armoured fighting vehicle intended as a primary offensive weapon in front-line ground combat. Tank designs are a balance of heavy firepower, strong armour, and battlefield mobility ...

*Landsverk L-30 *

Landsverk L-60 The Landsverk L-60 was a Swedish tank developed in 1934. It was developed by AB Landsverk as a light tank which included several advanced design features such as torsion bar suspension, periscopes rather than view slits and all-welded constructi ...

Landsverk L-62 ''Landsverk'' L-62, also known as ''Landsverk Anti'' II or a combination of both, ''Landsverk L-62 Anti II'', was a Swedish Self-propelled anti-aircraft weapon, self-propelled anti-aircraft gun construction that was specifically designed for Finla ...

Anti *

Landsverk L-100 Landsverk L-100 was a Swedish prototype tank in development during World War II. It had a crew of two, and its armament consisted of a 20 mm gun or one 6.5 mm machine gun. Top speed was around 55 km/h, and the vehicle weighed almost 5 tons. The La ...

Landsverk L-101 Landsverk L-100 (L-100) was a prototype design by AB Landsverk AB Landsverk (full name: Aktiebolaget Landsverk, ) was a Swedish heavy industry company, manufacturing a wide variety of tracked and wheeled military vehicles, such as tractor unit ...

Landsverk L-120 Landsverk L-120 was a light tank designed in Sweden. One tank and one tank chassis was ordered for tests by the Swedish Army in 1936, and one chassis was ordered by the Norwegian Army the same year. The chassis sold to Norway became Norway's first ...

* Landsverk Lago ;Wheeled vehicles * *

Landsverk L-180 The Landsverk L-180, L-181 and L-182 are a family of armored cars developed by the Swedish company AB Landsverk during the interwar years. They had a good international reputation for being fast, robust and reliable and were acquired in small num ...

* Landsverk L-181 * Landsverk L-182 *

Landsverk L-185 The Landsverk L-185 was a Swedish armored car, developed by AB Landsverk AB Landsverk (full name: Aktiebolaget Landsverk, ) was a Swedish heavy industry company, manufacturing a wide variety of tracked and wheeled military vehicles, such as t ...

Landsverk L-210 AB Landsverk (full name: Aktiebolaget Landsverk, ) was a Swedish heavy industry company, manufacturing a wide variety of tracked and wheeled military vehicles, such as tractor units, off-road vehicles and armoured vehicles, etc, most notably the ...

* Landsverk Lynx ;Railroad vehicles *

Landsverk L-310 AB Landsverk (full name: Aktiebolaget Landsverk, ) was a Swedish heavy industry company, manufacturing a wide variety of tracked and wheeled military vehicles, such as tractor units, off-road vehicles and armoured vehicles, etc, most notably the ...

Landsverk L-320 AB Landsverk (full name: Aktiebolaget Landsverk, ) was a Swedish heavy industry company, manufacturing a wide variety of tracked and wheeled military vehicles, such as tractor units, off-road vehicles and armoured vehicles, etc, most notably the ...

* Landsverk L-321

Construction

History

Surviving vehicles

Period Landsverk armoured vehicles

References

Further reading