Stridsfordon 9040C Prototype (Late) — Countering the Shaped-Charge (Part 2)

MoleJ · August 9, 2026, 5:28pm

Stridsfordon 9040C Prototype (Late)

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Introduction:
Hi and welcome to another suggestion of mine, this being my 9th suggestion!
The Strf 9040 was always intended to be uparmored, as when it began production, studies were carried out to evaluate if the protection could be made better via adding ERA or other applique armor. One chassis was sent down to Rafael in Israel for testing with ERA, while some other chassis were tested in Sweden with applique armor. But it was not until the early 2000s that an armorkit would actually be put forward for the Strf 9040.

Earlier, AMAP-B Medium had been used on export variants, and AMAP-B Heavy is used on the Strf 122 series, so naturally the answer would be found at IBD and Åkers Krutbruk Protection AB. The chosen armor package would be the AMAP-SC, which is specifically for shaped-charge projectiles, hence the SC in the name of the armor package. The first version of the prototype was a Strf 9040B used to evaluate the AMAP-SC armor package. This vehicle represents the very first produced Strf 9040C in 2001. This is a more revised version of the earlier prototype, but it has some differences from the Strf 9040C Prototype (Early) and also some from the real production batch of the Strf 9040C.

History:
The Stridsfordon 90 came to be as the Swedish army had a gap between APC’s and MBT’s. The idea was to create a vehicle that was able to defend itself in case it got into a difficult situation, but it needed to be able to take out heavy armor like MBT’s. Therefore, the Bofors L/70 40mm cannon was chosen to be the main weapon of choice, and an in-house chassis was made by Hägglund. And thus the Strf 90 was born, but it was quickly realised that the armor was not enough for the 90’s battlefield. Add-on armor was now on the table, as well as ERA, and multiple tests were conducted for what could be mounted and integrated on the Strf 90.

After the CV90 Mk.I saw action in Afghanistan with Norwegian troops, the threat of shaped-charge ammunition became real, and work began on finding a solution for the Strf 90 in Swedish service. Since AMAP-B was already in use with the export CV90 models, it was decided to see what IBD and Åkers Krutbruk Protection AB had to offer, and they had the AMAP-SC armor package. It was decided to test this on a Strf 9040B for trials. Later, a revised prototype for the C variant would be presented.

Looking at the later Strf 9040C prototype, there are some visual differences both from the early prototype and from the production batch produced in 2001. You still have the slit for the cheek-mounted machinegun, but you also have the mounting for the external machinegun on the roof. So for this prototype, it was actually possible to mount two 7.62 mm ksp 58 machine guns. It also has smoke launchers, which the early prototype lacked. Otherwise, they are pretty similar except for some pure visual differences like the removal of the support bars or protection bars that go from the front AMAP-SC block to the front corners of the vehicle. The left cheek has been slightly redesigned to match the shape of the production vehicles as well as the anti-slip coating applied.

The later Stridsfordon 9040C Prototype fitted with a mineroller, also not the missing roof-mounted external machine gun

What changes were done for the production batch were very simple: the cheek-mounted machine gun was removed, and a new mount was created to house the machine gun on the roof above the main cannon. Mechanical linkages were used to link the machine gun together with the main cannon so they would elevate and depress together without the use of an RCWS or similar mounting. This made it possible to remove the slit in the armor package, which would have been a weak spot in the armor. And thus the Strf 9040C was born and began production in 2001 with an additional batch named Strf 9040C+ in 2005.

Schematic of the finished AMAP-SC kit for the Strf 9040C

Specifications

Armor:
Just like the early Strf 9040C Prototype, the armor of this vehicle would be the same as found on the Strf 9040C we have in-game, with no real differences in the effectiveness of the armor.

Chassis
Front: 20mm + AMAP-SC
Sides: 16 mm + AMAP-SC
Rear: 20 mm

Turret
Front: 20 mm + AMAP-SC
Sides: 20 mm + AMAP-SC
Rear: 20 mm

Crew:
Crew remains the same for this variant of the Strf 90, which means we have a commander, gunner, and driver all in their usual positions with the same optics and other utilities.

Commander
Gunner: Optics: 7.2x - 8.0x, Thermal imager, and Laser rangefinder
Driver: NVD

Armaments:
By and large, this is the same as the Strf 9040C we have in-game with the Bofors L/70 40 mm automatic cannon, but it would be possible to get it with two machine guns, and compared to the early Strf 9040C Prototype, it gets access to the same set of smokes as the Strf 9040C in-game.

Main armament
The main armament is the Bofors L/70 40 mm automatic cannon derived from the anti-aircraft version of the Bofors 40 mm.

Bofors L/70 40 mm

Ammunition
There are two different ways to do the ammunition choice; either let it have the same as the Strf 9040B, which lacks the slpprj m/01, but since this was most likely very close to the production batch, it could in theory have gotten the slpprj m/01.

Choice 1

slpprj m/90
slsgr m/90
kulsgr m/90

Choice 2

slpprj m/90
slsgr m/90
kulsgr m/90
slpprj m/01

It would depend on what it should represent in-game; should it just be a Strf 9040C with a gimmick of an extra machine gun, or should it be like the early Strf 9040C prototype, with it being represented as a Strf 9040B just with the same armor packages as the Strf 9040C.

Secondary armament
You can also do the secondary a bit differently. Most likely, when the later prototype was first made, the machine gun would have been a 7.62 ksp 39 C; when the machine gun was moved to the turret roof, it was also changed to a Ksp m/58. But as the Strf 9040A and B models have now been upgraded to the D1 and D2 models, the Ksp m/58 has been mounted in the cheeks of some of those vehicles. Therefore, in theory, the Ksp m/58 could, if it wasn’t, be mounted in the cheek of this prototype, so that leaves us with three different choices:

Choice 1

7.62 ksp 39 C in the cheek
Smoke launchers

Choice 2

7.62 ksp 39 C in the cheek
7.62 ksp m/58 on the roof
Smoke launchers

Choice 3

7.62 ksp m/58 in the cheek
7.62 ksp m/58 on the roof
Smoke launchers

Choice 4

7.62 ksp m/58 in the cheek
Smoke launchers

All of these options are viable and possible with the information we have currently about the vehicle.

Mobility
The mobility would be the same as the Strf 9040C we have in-game.

Engine:
Scania V8 DSI 14 making 550 hp

Gearbox:
Perkins X-300-5N

4 forward gears
2 reverse gears

Speed:

70 km/h forward
45 km/h backward

Mass:
The weight of the vehicle should be almost identical to that of the Strf 9040C in-game. There would only be some minor weight difference depending on what set of secondaries it would be represented with in-game.