SAV 20.12.48

SAV 20.12.48

SAV 20.12.48

Sweden

III Rank

Battle rating:

AB	RB	SB
3.7	3.7	3.7

Class:

PREMIUM

Tank destroyer

Purchase:Bundle or Gift

Show in game

Description

A SAV 20.12.48 firing

The SAV 20.12.48 was a private venture by Bofors to design a next generation assault gun for both export purposes and indigenous use following WWII. The main goal was to make a light and manoeuvrable armoured vehicle with a 12 cm autocannon, capable of dealing with both soft targets and enemy tanks. A prototype was built during the late 1940s but no one was willing to buy it in a world that was littered in cheap surplus military vehicles and the project was scrapped.

Introduced in Update 1.95 "Northern Wind" as a premium pack in the Gaijin store, the Stormartillerivagn 20.12.48 is a very fast vehicle with a low silhouette that can easily manoeuvre around the map and flank enemies. It is armed with the aforementioned 12 cm autocannon of Bofors design and has a fire rate of 50 rounds per minute, meaning a reload speed of 1.2 seconds between shots, which is the highest in the game for its calibre. The gun's velocity however is subpar and requires good aim and close quarters combat to be effective. Another result of the low velocity is subpar penetration, but because of the vehicle's high mobility, coupled with the gun's high rate of fire and powerful ammunition, it has no trouble taking on any type of vehicle that it may come across during conventional matches.

The SAV 20.12.48 was removed from sale after the 2022 May sale. It was briefly made available for purchase with Golden Eagles during the 2023 "Swedish Armed Forces Day", 2023 "Swedish Home Guards Day" mini-events, the 2023 Winter Extreme Event. (It could be obtained/bought by completing the Thunder Quiz), and was brought back as a GE Premium in the Swedish Armed Forces Day, 2024.

General info

A destroyed SAV 20.12.48

Survivability and armour

Smoke grenades

Creation of a smoke screen in front of the vehicle

Armourfront / side / back

Hull30 / 15 / 15

Turret15 / 15 / 15

Crew3 people

Visibility69 %

The SAV 20.12.48 is very lightly armoured, sacrificing protection for mobility. The highly sloped glacis is 30 mm thick, and can sometimes cause rounds to ricochet, but it is not reliable in any sense of the word. The rest of the tank is vulnerable to even heavy machine guns, and the open top is extremely vulnerable to strafing aircraft. Ammunition is stored in two primary deposits at the back of the crew compartment and is easily hit if the vehicle is penetrated.

Armour type:

Armour	Front (Slope angle)	Sides	Rear	Roof
Hull	___ mm	___ mm Top ___ mm Bottom	___ mm	___ - ___ mm
Turret	___ - ___ mm Turret front ___ mm Gun mantlet	___ - ___ mm	___ - ___ mm	___ - ___ mm
Cupola	___ mm	___ mm	___ mm	___ mm

Notes:

Mobility

A SAV 20.12.48 on its way

Speedforward / back

AB53 / 21 km/h

RB and SB49 / 19 km/h

Number of gears4 forward

2 back

Weight20.0 t

Engine power

AB763 hp

RB and SB400 hp

Power-to-weight ratio

AB38.2 hp/t

RB and SB20.0 hp/t

Game Mode	Max Speed (km/h)		Weight (tons)	Engine power (horsepower)		Power-to-weight ratio (hp/ton)
	Forward	Reverse		Stock	Upgraded	Stock	Upgraded
Arcade	53	21	20	568	763	28.4	38.15
Realistic	49	19		354	400	17.7	20

The SAV 20.12.48 has excellent mobility for a tank destroyer, featuring a high top speed as well as a fast reverse. The result is a highly agile tank destroyer that is capable of taking positions or retreating into cover quickly.

Modifications and economy

Repair cost

AB600

RB698

SB932

Crew training10 000

Experts67 000

Aces330

Research Aces570 000

Reward for battleAB / RB / SB

2 × 70 / 100 / 130 %

2 × 136 / 136 / 136 %

Modifications

Mobility	Protection	Firepower
Tracks Suspension Brake System Filters Transmission Engine	Improved Parts Improved FPE Crew Replenishment	Horizontal Drive Adjustment of Fire Elevation Mechanism Smoke grenade

Armaments

Top view of the SAV 20.12.48

Main armament

120 mm automatkanon

Autoloader

Automatically feeds projectiles into the breech. The speed does not depend on the skills of the loader

Ammunition62 rounds

Reload1.2 s

Vertical guidance-10° / 25°

Horizontal guidance-15° / 15°

The 120 mm automatkanon is a potentially devastating weapon. It is fitted with an automatic loader that is fed by a six-round clip, for a total of seven shots ready to go once fully loaded (including one in the gun barrel). The autoloader has an extremely fast reload of only 1.2 s, allowing the SAV 20.12.48 to engage up to seven targets in under 10 s. Once the clip has been expended, a new round must be loaded into the clip before the autoloader may be cycled and the gun made ready to fire. However, this process only takes a few seconds. The gun also has a good amount of gun depression, allowing the Sav 20.12.48 to abuse hills when combined with the high reverse speed.

120 mm automatkanon					Turret rotation speed (°/s)					Reloading rate (seconds)
Mode	Capacity	Vertical	Horizontal	Stabilizer	Stock	Upgraded	Full	Expert	Aced	Stock	Full	Expert	Aced
Arcade	62	-10°/+25°	±15°	N/A	13.2	18.3	22.2	24.6	26.1	1.20	1.20	1.20	1.20
Realistic					8.9	10.5	12.8	14.1	15.0

Ammunition

The primary shell is the hpgr m/50 APCBC round. With nearly 1 kg of explosive filler, it is extremely deadly and almost guaranteed to knock out anything with a single shot if it penetrates the crew compartment. Its penetration is quite respectable; although not quite enough to frontally penetrate everything the Sav 20.12.48 can encounter, it has more than enough penetration to kill most tanks from the side. It has a relatively low muzzle velocity, however, and is thus hard to hit with at long range.

The SAV 20.12.48 also has a capable HE shell; sgr M/50Z, with over 2 kg of explosive filler. This shell is capable of penetrating and overpressuring the roofs of most of the vehicles and is a great alternative if the APCBC doesn't cut it. It is especially effective at taking out hull-down opponents who attempt to hide their hull's weak spots.

Penetration statistics
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm)
		10 m	100 m	500 m	1,000 m	1,500 m	2,000 m
hpgr M/50	APCBC	95	94	89	84	79	75
sgr M/50Z	HE	28	28	28	28	28	28

Shell details
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Velocity (m/s)	Projectile mass (kg)	Fuse delay (m)	Fuse sensitivity (mm)	Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (g)	Ricochet
							0%	50%	100%
hpgr M/50	APCBC	525	23.5	1.2	19	890	48°	63°	71°
sgr M/50Z	HE	525	23.5	0	0.1	2,250	79°	80°	81°

Ammo racks

Ammo racks of the SAV 20.12.48

Full ammo	1st rack empty	2nd rack empty	3rd rack empty	Visual discrepancy
62	35 (+27)	7 (+55)	1 (+61)	No

Usage in battles

A SAV 20.12.48 ready to ambush

The combination of high mobility, powerful explosive filler APCBC shells, and autoloader make the Sav 20.12.48 an extremely dangerous tank destroyer to face. It is fast enough to quickly setup ambush positions near where the enemy team is likely to pass by, and a careless team can quickly find itself losing up to seven tanks in less than 10 s to the Sav 20.12.48 lying in ambush. Ideally, the Sav 20.12.48 would also be in a hull down position, where most of the tank can be hidden since the gun is mounted near the top of the vehicle and the high reverse speed allows it to back into cover quickly.

The vehicle itself is very fragile, however, and if it is caught out of position it is very easily destroyed. It is also very vulnerable to aircraft due to the open top, and has no means of defending itself from aircraft.

It can also be very tempting to fire off all seven rounds at once, but as with all autoloaders, trigger discipline is a very important skill to develop in order to use the vehicle to its full potential.

Most of the heavy tanks that the SAV 20.12.48 is able to face are largely resistant to your shells, especially if they're angled. If you see a KV-1 or Churchill, disengage and let your allies with better firepower take these out.

Pros and cons

Pros:

• Highly lethal APCBC explosive filler shells
• Good mobility and high reverse speed
• Can fire seven rounds within 9 s using the autoloader
• Excellent gun depression
• Small silhouette, especially when hull down
• High hp/ton ratio - not many enemy or allied vehicles are as quick to accelerate or able to reach high speeds as quickly
• Penetration usually is a one-shot due to the high amount of explosive filler in the APCBC shells
• Extremely effective in an ambush role - an SAV 20.12.48 left unchecked can destroy an entire flank in rapid succession

Cons:

• Very thin armour
• Open crew compartment, highly vulnerable to strafing aircraft
• Must reload at least one round into clip before the gun can be fired
• Low shell velocity
• Sustained firing decreases accuracy
• Struggles to penetrate heavy tanks like the KV-1 and Churchill series of tanks, even at close range or from the sides
• Magazine can quickly be depleted - replenishing the entire magazine takes up a lot of time
• Only 3 crew members - low survivability

History

A SAV 20.12.48 firing

Devblog

In 1948, Bofors began work on developing a new self-propelled gun as part of a private venture in an effort to realize a long-lasting goal of establishing itself as a manufacturer of armoured fighting vehicles, alongside its already proven reputation in arms production.

To do so, Bofors came up with a design for a new SPG, which incorporated a 12cm cannon, whose design was heavily inspired by those used on destroyer vessels, along with a highly effective autoloading mechanism. The design was ready by the end of 1948 and a single prototype was constructed in the following year.

However, while test results didn't seem to impress the Swedish military enough to consider placing an order for the vehicle, the factor that certainly sealed the vehicle's fate for good was its price. Namely, being developed with the use of its own funding, Bofors had to demand a high production price for the vehicle, a price deemed too high by the Swedish military considering the vehicle's most probable role being an infantry support vehicle.

As a result of the lacking interest, the SAV 20.12.48 never went into production. Despite its failure, the project wasn't a complete loss for Bofors, as some of the experiences gained during its development later found application in other vehicles, such as the far more successful Strv 103.

Media

Skins

• Skins and camouflages for the SAV 20.12.48 from live.warthunder.com.

Images

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Videos

The Shooting Range #182 - Metal Beasts section at 00:32 discusses the SAV 20.12.48.

Best tank destroyers discusses the SAV 20.12.48 at 5:17 - War Thunder Official Channel

Best experimental vehicles discusses the SAV 20.12.48 at 7:08 - War Thunder Official Channel

See also

Links to the articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:

• reference to the series of the vehicles;
• links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.

External links

• [Devblog] SAV 20.12.48: Nordic Sledgehammer

AB Bofors
MBTs
Strv 103	Strv 103-0 · Strv 103A · Strv 103С
Tank Destroyers	SAV 20.12.48 · Bkan 1C
SPAA	Lvkv 42
Radar	VEAK 40
SAM	ASRAD-R*
See Also	BAE Systems AB
	*Saab Bofors Dynamics

Sweden tank destroyers
Strv m/41 derivatives	Spj fm/43-44 · Sav m/43 (1944) · Sav m/43 (1946) · Pvkv II · Pvkv III
Ikv 72/103	Ikv 72 · Ikv 103
Pvkv m/43	Pvkv m/43 (1946) · Pvkv m/43 (1963)
ATGM	UDES 33 · Pbv 302 (BILL) · Pvrbv 551
Other	SAV 20.12.48 · Bkan 1C
Norway	VIDAR