Hägglunds Bv 206

The Hägglunds Bv 206 is an amphibious, articulated all-terrain tracked carrier developed in Sweden to replace the Volvo Bv 202 used by the Swedish Army in the 1960s and early 1970s. In 1974 the Swedish defence materiel administration awarded the development contract to Hägglunds & Söner, which built several batches of prototypes between 1976 and 1978; a pre-production batch followed in 1980.

Design

The vehicle consists of two small waterproof cars, each running on rubber tracks, with all four tracks driven. The front car, which carries the engine, holds the driver and four passengers; the rear car has two side benches for up to eleven troops with packs, or a weapon system. The bodies are glass-fibre reinforced plastic with foam insulation. Steering is by hydraulic articulation of the two units, but the driver uses an ordinary steering wheel and pedals, much like a car. Heaters and bilge pumps are fitted in both cars.

Early vehicles used a 2.8-litre Ford V6 petrol engine with a four-speed Mercedes automatic gearbox and a two-speed transfer box. A diesel version offered for sale in the UK had a 3.0-litre Mercedes-Benz OM 603 engine of 136 hp, giving over 50 km/h on the road, about 4 km/h in the water and a road range of 330 km; it could climb 45-degree slopes on hard ground and operate from -40 to +46 C. In total it seats 17 people and carries about 2.2 tonnes.

Service and variants

Sweden bought more than 4,000, Norway ordered 220 in 1981 and a further 2,004 in 1985, and total orders passed 10,000. Users included the British Army and Royal Marines, the US Army (as the M973 Small Unit Support Vehicle), Spain, France, Canada, Germany, Brazil, Chile, China, the Netherlands, Italy, Pakistan and Singapore. Variants include command vehicles, open vehicles carrying the Bill anti-tank missile, RBS 70 and RBS 90 air-defence and radar carriers, mortar carriers, ambulances, recovery and fire-fighting versions. The Bv 206S is a fully armoured version with a modified rear car, and the Bv 209 an improved armoured development. Ex-military Bv 206s have also become popular civilian vehicles; several road-registered examples were sold in the UK in 2003-2004.