Introduction

Just as the introduction the book alludes to the Modern Swedish Army is not something you think about when your thoughts turn to Sweden. When thinking about Sweden you think of glorious countryside and some of you maybe even au pairs, however Sweden has a reasonable full time army numbering 16,000 and 22,000 reservists which is not bad for a country with a population of 9.4 million. That said Sweden has also greatly reduced its standing army as in the year 2000 the standing army numbered 35,000 and 42,000 reservists.

Here is the book introduction written by Tankograd Publishing:
"The motor pool of the Swedish Army has changed drastically in the past decades. While in the Cold War domestic products such as the S-Tank were dominant, this changed in the 1990s when large quantities of ex-East German Army vehicles were purchased. In the new millennium this change became even more effective with the purchase of state-of-the-art weapons technology making the Swedish Army today one of the best-equipped in Europe. This publication shows the current motor pool of the Swedish Army, ranging from light tactical vehicles, via wheeled armor, artillery and air-defense systems to the most powerful tracked armor such as the Leopard-2-based Strv 122."

Contents

The book consists of 64 high quality paper pages and has 135 color pictures.
Author Clemens Niener.
Pictures Clemens Niener unless otherwise stated
Translation Carl Schultze

Review

The book starts with 9 pages of text under the headings:

The Swedish concept of total defense
Development of the Swedish Army
The Swedish Army today
Combat vehicles of the Swedish Army
Quo Vadis Armen

The written introduction ends with a map of Sweden indicating the military bases around the country. The written portion of this book is very informative considering the small portion of the book it takes up and is a very worthy inclusion to the book. The coverage of the transitions that have taken place in Swedish Army since the end of the Cold War were a surprise to me and made for an interesting read. Carl Schultze has done a very good job of translating the book into English and managing to keep he text readable, by this I mean that the text flows.

The pictorial section of the book starts with a selection of light tactical vehicle featuring 6 images of vans and the Swedish equivalents of the British land R over in the form of the Toyota Land cruiser and Mercedes Benz 270. Also in this section is a nice picture of a Polaris ranger 800 (6x6) Ultra Light Vehicle.

The next section of the book looks at the tactical trucks employed by Swedish Forces and which starts by looking at the light trucks such as the Volvo C303 and 304 and then carries on through to the Scania tank transporters. If trucks are your model of choice this section should meet your needs and is also a great ref for camouflage patterns.

Wheeled armored vehicles are looked at next and starts with a couple of armored trucks and armored cars such as the RG 32M. we then get a look at the Swedish Armies wheeled armored personnel carriers in the form of the Patgh 203A which is shown in a number of configurations and performing a number of roles.

Engineer and recovery vehicles; this section of the book caught me out as I expected it to be quite short and instead it contains a host of vehicles both large and small. I have to admit to having a soft spot for the Engineering vehicles and this section did not disappoint with pictorial offerings of the Bgbv 120 Herakles and Ingbv AEV based on the STRV 121 amongst others.

The next section looks at the Artillery and air defense in the Swedish Army; the air defense aspect of the book is quite good showing free standing, vehicle mounted rockets, and rapid fire turret mounted guns. The LvKy 90 which is covered in a couple of pictures makes for one of those vehicles I would love to build and the radar systems is use are also covered. The artillery in this section is limited to a man portable 12cm mortar, 155mm 77A field howitzer which is going out of service, and the 155mm Archer system which I have to say looks impressive.

The last section of the book is dedicated to tracked vehicles ranging from the Bandvagn 206 which is similar to the British Viking through to the STRV 121 and 122. The Stridsvagn (Strv) 121 and 122 are both modified Leopards which are the Leopard 2A4 and 2A5 respectively. The Stridsfordon 9040 is also well represented here and displays some great camouflage and display options for the modeller.

Conclusion

There is a great selection of Swedish military hardware represented in this book which will be of great benefit to the modeller. The text is also very worthy of mention and goes someway to making this book a worthy addition to your library. The pictures included in the book are all of good quality, being both clearly defined and close to the camera. This book is a must for any fan of Swedish modern military vehicles to whom I highly recommend this title.