Ikv 91
| This page is about the Swedish light tank Ikv 91. For the 105 mm variant, see Ikv 91-105. |
Contents
Description
The Infanterikanonvagn 91 is an infantry support vehicle designed and produced by Hägglund & Söner. The prototype of the Ikv 91 was completed in 1969 and the production began in 1975, being manufactured until 1978. A estimated 212 units were manufactured and supplied to the Swedish army. During the 1980s, it was clear that the Ikv 91's firepower was insufficient to defeat later generation Soviet tanks but still powerful enough to deal with lighter armored vehicles and infantry with its 90 mm low pressure cannon, as well as laser rangefinders for a precise first shot engagement to immobilize threats from a safe distance. There were plans to improve its weaponry with a larger-calibre 105 mm Rheinmetall cannon but the turret and hull were deemed too frail and unable to support it, thus requiring an extensive modernization of the platform and would be too costly. The Ikv 91 began its service in 1976 until they were slowly phased out for the new CV90 in 1993, the Ikv 91's service didn't end until 2002.
Introduced in Update 1.97 "Viking Fury", the Ikv 91 is the Swedish Army's first modern infantry support tank. Despite its low muzzle velocity, it can be equipped with a laser rangefinder to significantly improve accuracy, a feature that sets it apart from its competitors. The Ikv 91 is a real long-range predator with outstanding optics, built to engage enemies at long distances with precision. However, the vehicle is only built with relatively thin armour plates, leaving the crew vulnerable to even heavy machine guns at close range. Since engagement is usually close-up on city maps, it can be extremely challenging to play but can excel as an support tank for the heavier armoured vehicles that will take the focus away from the Ikv 91.
General info
Survivability and armour
As one would expect from a light tank, the Ikv 91 is very weakly armoured. The armour, both on the front and sides, protects from small arms (like British 7.92 mms for example) and most splash damage. However, while the front hull also protects against .50 cals, the turret can be penetrated by them, which can quickly lead to death as 3 out of the 4 crew members are in the turret.
Although the commander can fire the weapon instead of a gunner, this rarely matters in any direct fight as they sit next to eachother and are both hit together. When they aren't hit, the gun is usually destroyed, often leaving the tank with only retreat as an option.
The engine and transmission are located in the rear hull, meaning that shots to the front hull are unlikely to destroy them, and shots to the rear hull are less likely to deal fatal damage as the engine and transmission will absorb most of the explosive damage, while the crew is not close enough to be hurt by the shrapnel. This does not help against pure kinetic shells whatsoever. It is ill-adviced to use engine as a shield until parts are researched, as even field repair fails to start the engine back up again and the tank literally cannot move after being disabled.
The tank rarely catches fire and usually expires before this happens. The only common source of fire is a failed airstrike that hits the engine too many times.
The tank also has 3 groups of modern aerosol smoke (usually only acquired at rank VI), these immediately explode midair and conceal the tank within 2 seconds instead of 5 or more. The implication is that they can be used to immediately separate opponents and in any position, particularly in AB, where the tank has stronger scouting (letting it to see enemy tanks through its own smoke wall). Some opponents with long reload also prefer to leave rather than fight an undamaged Ikv 91 inside its own smokes.
Armour type:
| Armour | Front (Slope angle) | Sides | Rear | Roof |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hull | 12 mm (70°) Top 20 mm (30°) Bottom |
4 mm (4°) Top 8 mm (0°) Bottom |
8 mm (3°) Top 8 mm (20°) Bottom |
8-12 mm |
| Turret | 12 mm (11-33°) Turret front 8 mm (0-70°) Gun mantlet |
12 mm (2-25°) | 12 mm (0-29°) | 12 mm |
| Cupola | 12 mm | 12 mm | 12 mm | 12 mm |
Notes:
Mobility
| Game Mode | Max Speed (km/h) | Weight (tons) | Engine power (horsepower) | Power-to-weight ratio (hp/ton) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Forward | Reverse | Stock | Upgraded | Stock | Upgraded | ||
| Arcade | 72 | 13 | 16.3 | 511 | 630 | 31.35 | 38.65 |
| Realistic | 65 | 12 | 292 | 330 | 17.91 | 20.25 | |
While the Ikv 91 is slower than wheeled light tanks on road (58 km/h (36 mph) in RB/SB, 65 km/h (40 mph) in AB), it has very good mobility off-road and a good power-to-weight ratio (20.2 hp/t in RB/SB, 38.6 hp/t in AB), overall allowing it to take positions ahead of the enemy main forces and to relocate quickly.
Modifications and economy
| Mobility | Protection | Firepower | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
Armaments
Main armament
The Ikv 91 has for main armament a 90 mm gun able to use two shells: HEAT-FS and HE. All shells are unlocked from the beginning, even the excellent HEAT-FS with 400 mm of penetration and a whole 655 g TNT equivalent of explosive mass. The turret traverse speed is not the best (18.8°/s in RB/SB and 35.4°/s in AB while the American M41A1 Walker Bulldog gets 33.3°/s in RB/SB and 63.7°/s in AB), particularly when compared to future light tanks, but is above average at its BR and with upgrades is usually enough. The same goes for targeting the gun up or down.
Unfortunately, the gun also shakes a lot upon any change in movement direction, almost to an uncontrollable degree, which makes it extremely unreliable on sudden encounters, especially over uneven terrain. It is also inherently inaccurate even with all the upgrades and sometimes manages to miss the mark even with the laser rangefinder, particularly when trying to fire immediately before the gun stopped completely.
The reload speed is faster than average, but quite a few tanks reload faster at this BR, notably light tanks (the BMP-1 for example). The reload speed is also dependent on the first-stage ammo stowage, meaning that it will get slower should one run out of first-stage ammo.
The slow speed of both HEAT-FS and HE is offset by the laser rangefinder - a device on a whole level above normal rangefinders (which are also very rare at the BR), which allows the tank to automatically zero the gun scope on the target in RB, or to make shot predictions from any range in AB, making the Ikv 91 effective at long-range engagements too. It is also possible to use it from commander scope as well, which reduces the possibility of getting shot back to almost zero.
| 90 mm kan Ikv 91 | Turret rotation speed (°/s) | Reloading rate (seconds) | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mode | Capacity | Vertical | Horizontal | Stabilizer | Stock | Upgraded | Full | Expert | Aced | Stock | Full | Expert | Aced |
| Arcade | 59 | -10°/+15° | ±180° | N/A | 23.8 | 32.9 | 40.0 | 44.2 | 47.1 | 7.80 | 6.90 | 6.36 | 6.00 |
| Realistic | 14.9 | 17.5 | 21.3 | 23.5 | 25.0 | ||||||||
Ammunition
| 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 | ||
| slpsgr m/72 | HEATFS | 400 | 400 | 400 | 400 | 400 | 400 |
| slsgr m/72 | HE | 24 | 24 | 24 | 24 | 24 | 24 |
| 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% | ||||||||||
| slpsgr m/72 | HEATFS | 825 | 4.5 | 0.05 | 0.1 | 954 | 65° | 72° | 77° | |||
| slsgr m/72 | HE | 600 | 6.67 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 1,910 | 79° | 80° | 81° | |||
Ammo racks
| Full ammo |
1st rack empty |
2nd rack empty |
3rd rack empty |
Visual discrepancy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 59 | 35 (+24) | 17 (+42) | 1 (+58) | No |
A maximum of 59 shells for the main gun can be carried, although the high-effectiveness of the HEAT shells gives the possibility for players to only carry a fraction of that and still be able to take out several targets in one run. The first-stage ammo stowage is comprised of 16 shells all located next to the loader, the next 18 shells are located in the front hull next to the driver, and the last 25 shells are located between the loader and the engine.
Machine guns
The Ikv 91 comes with two 8 mm machine guns: A pintle-mounted machine gun and a coaxial machine gun next to the main gun. The machine guns have a relatively slow fire-rate but are still effective at taking out exposed crew members of enemy vehicles.
| 8 mm ksp m/39B | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mount | Capacity (Belt) | Fire rate | Vertical | Horizontal |
| Pintle | 2,000 (250) | 649 | -5°/+15° | ±120° |
| Coaxial | 2,250 (250) | 649 | N/A | N/A |
Usage in battles
Thanks to its excellent HEAT-FS shell, the Ikv 91 can engage any target, even when up-tiered. However, a margin of caution is still needed when going against tanks that have .50 cals, as .50 cals can go through the sides and turret to then kill the gunner, loader and commander. The good mobility makes it able to go from one objective to another very quickly. The laser rangefinder also gives it the possibility to quickly make accurate long-range shots. The -10° depression also allows it to take firing positions that some other tanks cannot (particularly the Russians that usually only have -5°).
Overall, the Ikv 91 can be played at mostly any range and can outmanoeuvre most of the tanks it encounters. Although it cannot attract too much attention as its particularly weak to aircraft, but is able to use smoke shells to hide in cases like these.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Solid mobility, especially off-road
- Excellent HEAT-FS shell that is unlocked from the beginning
- Laser rangefinder, a feature unheard of at its BR, allows the tank to snipe from any range
- Aerosol smoke, another feature unheard of at its BR, allows to use smoke very aggressively
- Reasonably good optics with a zoom level of 10x
Cons:
- The armour does not protect against .50 cals everywhere, notably the turret
- HEATFS loses velocity very quickly, making long-distance moving targets hard to hit, even when zeroed with the rangefinder
- The 10x zoom, while good at longer ranges, can hinder close-quarters fights
- Although it has a lot of strong points, almost any other light tank will destroy it rather easily if allowed to get close
- Despite all the features designed to assist you with aiming, it will sometimes still manage to miss the target regardless, which can be fatal if the enemy is aware of your presence
History
The Infanterikanonvagn 91, or Ikv 91, was a Cold War era design made in Sweden. Although it is practically a light tank, it was designed as an infantry support vehicle, similar in role to the Russian PT-76. It was designed by Hägglunds, and ordered by the Swedish military. Hägglunds had previously designed the Pbv 302, an armoured personnel carrier. When designing the Ikv 91, Hägglunds used many parts from the Pbv 302, in order to reduce costs and increase parts commonality. The design featured a lightweight, lightly-armoured hull. The armament consisted of a 90 mm gun mounted in a turret. Secondary armament consisted of two low-calibre machine guns. The vehicle was powered by a Volvo Penta model TD 120 A diesel engine producing 330 hp. One of the requirements for the design was amphibious capability, a necessity in certain parts of Sweden. As such, it was amphibious with some preparation. The prototype was completed in 1969, but production wasn't authorized until 1975. 212 Ikv 91 were produced, and were given to infantry brigades, for use as tank destroyers. The Ikv 91 served until the early 2000s, replaced by newer designs such as the Strf 90 and Strv 121/Strv 122. In 1983, a prototype for an improved Ikv 91 model was created. This prototype mounted a 105 mm gun, instead of the 90 mm gun. It was marketed for export, but was never ordered It is often known as the Ikv 105.
Media
- Skins
- Videos
See also
- Similar vehicle
External links
Bibliography
- David B. (2015, November 19). Infanterikanonvagn 91. Tank Encyclopedia. https://tanks-encyclopedia.com/coldwar/Sweden/Infanterikanonvagn-91.php
- Infanterikanonvagn 91. (2020, March 27). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Infanterikanonvagn_91&oldid=947630551
- Military-Today. (n.d.). IKV-91. Military-Today. http://www.military-today.com/tanks/ikv_91.htm
| Hägglund & Söner | |
|---|---|
| Light Tanks | |
| Ikv 91 | Ikv 91 · Ikv 91-105 |
| Tank Destroyers | |
| ATGM Carriers | UDES 33 · Pvrbv 551 · Pbv 302 (BILL) |
| SPAA | |
| Strv m/41 | Pbv 301 |
| SAM | Lvrbv 701 |
| See Also | BAE Systems AB |
| Sweden light tanks | |
|---|---|
| L-60 | Strv m/38 · Strv m/39 · Strv m/39 TD · Strv m/40L |
| Strv m/41 | Strv m/41 S-I · Strv m/41 S-II |
| Ikv 91 | Ikv 91 · Ikv 91-105 |
| CV 90 | Strf 9040B · Strf 9040C · Strf 9040 BILL |
| CV 90105 · CV 90120 | |
| Wheeled | Pbil m/40 · U-SH 405 |
| Other | Strv m/31 · Strv 74 · Pbv 501 |
| Finland | Vickers Mk.E · ▄T-26E · BT-42 · ▄PT-76 · CV 9030FIN · CT-CV 105HP |
| Denmark | CV 9035DK |
