BOFORS 20mm AUTOMATIC GUN for ARMORED PERSONNEL CARRIERS 49114

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This promotional film for the Bofors 20 mm L/70 automatic gun shows the popular weapon mounted in an armored vehicle. This gun was a belt fed evolution of their previous 20 mm L/70 anti air gun, which was based on their classic 40 mm L/60 anti air gun. The weapon can be used as an anti-aircraft gun (used against helicopters and recon aircraft) and as an anti-personnel weapon.



As noted above, the weapon is a distant relative of the famous Bofors 40 mm L/60 anti air gun, often referred to simply as the Bofors gun. The 40 mm L/60 is an anti-aircraft/multi-purpose autocannon designed in the 1930s by the Swedish arms manufacturer AB Bofors. It was one of the most popular medium-weight anti-aircraft systems during World War II, used by most of the western Allies as well as by the Axis powers. A small number of these weapons remain in service to this day, and saw action as late as the Gulf War.



The history on the 20 mm cannon is this: during World War II, the Swedish air force lacked a belt fed 20 mm cannon. Bofors responded to this by developing the 20 mm L/70 automatic gun, in Swedish service known as the 20 mm autocannon m/45. This used the 20x110 Hispano Suiza cartridge and had a cyclic rate of fire of 725 rpm in aircraft configuration. The gun came too late to serve in the war but was used on the Saab 21 fighter aircraft past the A-1 model. The gun was very reliable and had a good rate of fire.

After the Saab 21 had left service Bofors bought up all remaining guns from the Swedish air force and developed an armored gun mount around it for use on armored vehicles. In this configuration the gun's rate of fire was reduced to 300 rpm to allow continiues fire on the ground without overheating. The 20 mm armored gun mount saw service in the Swedish army on the Pbv 301 infantry fighting vehicle, as featured in the video. The mount was also planned for the Swedish S-tank during its early development.

In this video the gun's fire rate has been restored to 725 rounds per minute as a selling point. The two projectiles types shown in the video are Bofors designs originally developed for the Swedish air force.

The high explosive projectile had the Swedish designation "20 mm mingranat m/52" (short: 20 mm mgr m/52) or "20 mm mine shell m/52" in English. It featured a 14 gram high explosive incendiary charge. Interestingly it was never fielded to the Swedish army for use on their Pbv 302 and is only featured in the video since Bofors owned the design.

The armored piercing projectile had the Swedish designation 20 mm spårljuspansarprojektil m/68 (short: 20 mm slpprj m/68) or 20 mm tracer armor projectile m/68 in English.


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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com