A Swedish CV90 Infantry Fighting Vehicle maneuvers through the tree line during a training exercise between Swedish and American forces of the Minnesota National Guard’s 1st Combined Arms Battalion (Photo by Staff Sgt. Anthony Housey)
AUSA 2023 — Within months of donating 50 CV90 infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) to Ukraine, the Swedish government has begun the lengthy process to replace platforms within the Swedish Army’s inventory.
Sweden’s FMV defense materiel administration signed an agreement today worth $36 million SEK ($3.3 million USD) with BAE Systems Hägglunds AB, officially beginning the process of replacing the CV9040Cs, which are currently operational in Ukraine.
According to an FMV statement, the agreement between FMV and BAE Systems Hägglunds signals the “implementation of a preliminary contractual design,” representing the “first step to defining the configuration and program of the combat vehicles that will replace the Combat Vehicle 9040C donated to Ukraine.”
“The goal is for the preliminary design to be completed so that a serial order for the so-called CV9035 MkIIIC can be placed early in 2024,” Jonas Lotsne, head of Army Materiel at FMV, said in the statement. “This contract is a prerequisite for the [Swedish] army’s war organization to regain as quickly as possible the ground combat capability that the donated combat vehicles represented.”
“The preliminary planning enables planning of future production and that orders can be placed for certain components and materials with long lead times. The preparations for future production can thus be done in parallel with the final negotiations on the contract for new combat vehicles,” FMV’s statement added.
This initial contract was “not big” but was an “important first step” in the Swedish Army replacing its lost combat capability, according to a spokesperson for BAE Systems Hägglunds.
Replacement vehicles are expected to be CV90 MkIII variants — a “much more modern and fully digitalized variant” of the combat platform in comparison to CV9040 Mk0 vehicles currently in Ukraine, the spokesperson said.
The 32-ton CV90 MkIII, which features an E35 turret and the Bushmaster III 35mm gun, is currently in service with Denmark, Estonia and the Netherlands.
BAE Systems Hägglunds’ support of the Ukrainian Armed Forces did not end with the Swedish government’s donation of CV90s in January, however. In August, the company announced it had established a local company in Ukraine and signed multiple agreements including a statement of intent to “strengthen cooperation in production, operation, training, and servicing of the CV90 platform.”
“Alongside our government customers, we’ve been discussing with President [Volodymyr] Zelenskyy and his team how to best evolve the support that we’re already providing to Ukraine,” explained Charles Woodburn, Chief Executive of BAE Systems.
On Sept. 10, one of Ukraine’s deputy ministers of defense, Hanna Maliar who left her post eight days later, announced on her Telegram channel that the Ukrainian Armed Forces had a “goal” to operate 1,000 “Swedish IFVs.” In her post, Maliar hailed the survivability of the CV90’s three-person crew and ability to deploy up to eight dismounted personnel.
“The CV90s arrived at the [Ukrainian Armed Forces] in the summer of 2023 and are already performing combat tasks at the front. They were first spotted in the Lyman [area], where the enemy has been trying to break through our defenses for several months now.
“In one of the battles, the Swedish [IFV] was covering infantry units from tank fire and at that moment it was hit by a Russian ‘Lancet’ kamikaze drone. However, neither the crew nor the landing party inside were injured — they transferred to another vehicle and continued to perform combat tasks,” she declared.
Should Kyiv follow up on its intent to buy more CV90s, one option could be the CV90 MkIV variant which has a gross vehicle weight of 37 tons. The MkIV includes an electronic architecture Next Generation Vehicle Architecture standard to support future upgrades and is currently in service in Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland. The MkIV has also been selected and procured by Slovakia and the Czech Republic.
