The Origins

The EMIL project didn't start until 1951 but the designs before it started in 1945, but these weren't directly related to the project. This being the Strv Leo which was cancelled in 1947. Work by Landsverk continued and in 1948 a design for the Strv Lancen (which was essentially a smaller, less armoured Strv Leo with a 75mm gun) was offered. Another, even lighter version was also offered called the Strv Pilen. During this time a tank was proposed but never designed to have 150mm of frontal armor, 25mm at the side and 20mm at the rear while being armed with a 105mm L/50 Lvkan m/42 gun and was estimated to weigh 34tons. This remained an idea in 1950.

In 1951 the first design for what would become known as the EMIL Project was offered as a means to replacing the obsolete Strv m/42. The previous designs were considered too light for modern battlefield and thus ignored. The first design was based around the ideas previously mentioned, with the thinking that a modern tank would need to be heavier, better armed and protected then initially thought. The main role of the tank was to function as both an infantry support vehicle and a tank destroyer. To achieve this, the armament was to be a 12cm L/40 rifled gun fed by an autoloader with the main round of choice being HEAT and HE.

1951 EMIL armed with 10.5cm TK 105-9 in-game

The requirements for the project made it clear that more armour would be required than any previous Swedish project, this was brought about by the concerned raised by the appearance of the Soviet IS-3 with its 122mm gun. Because the turret front was to be 200mm thick at the gun-mantlet and 150 to 125mm of sloped armor on the rest of the turret. The thick frontal armour on an oscillating turret was due to the turret been split into two parts with the front acting as "shield" allowing the gun to depress 14 degrees. The rest of the turret was 35mm on the side of the with 30mm towards the back of the side, with the rear of the turret being only 20mm thick. The hull was to be 20mm thick on the side and 30mm at the rear.

Armour layout of the EMIL



The size was also very small standing at only 2.35m tall giving it a lower profile then the Soviet T-44 (2.45m) and the IS-3 (2.45m). This small size and thin side/ rear armour resulted in an initial estimated weight of 28 ton, though later calculations put it closer to 32 ton. Coupled with the SFA 8 cyl boxer engine producing 550hp, giving it an estimated power to weight of 17.18hp/t with a top speed of 55km/h. This meant the tank was considered more of a medium than a true heavy tank.

The suspension was based on the Lvkv 44 SPAA developed by Bofors, meaning the tank would have hydraulic springs that would later be used on the Strv S. The hull was designed by Landsverk whil the turret was designed by Bofors . In 1952 the project advanced into a more heavy tank design as the fear for the IS-3 grew.

Emil 1 mounting the 1951 EMIL turret and the turret found on the Emil 2 and 3. The gun represented is again the 10.5cm TK 105-9

In 1952, the project was reworked into a functional designs from a set of basic requirements. While the initial designs were based around the French and German tank designs; more specifically the AMX 13 oscillating turret and autoloader and the German Panther hulls, but the later designs chose to instead adopt the Soviet pike-nose design for the hull to further increase the effective thickness of the already well sloped armour.

Three variants were considered. The first was the E1 which was to correspond to the initial EMIL design but with the new pike-nose and an American engine. The weight range was estimated to be between 31 to 35 tons. The E2 was the mid range model. It was bigger in size and would allow for a 15cm gun to be mounted over the 12cm on the E1. The increased size meant that the weight range was increased to 34 to 39 ton. The E3 was the high-end model with a weight range of 36 to 42 ton and powered by an American engine.