Ikv 72

Ikv 72

Sav m/43 (1944)

Ikv 72

Sav m/43 (1944)

Sweden

I Rank

Battle rating:

AB	RB	SB
1.7	1.7	1.7

Class:

Tank destroyer

Research:2 900

Purchase:700

Description

The Infanterikanonvagn 72 is a rank I Swedish tank destroyer with a battle rating of 1.7 (AB/RB/SB). It was introduced in Update 1.97 "Viking Fury".

General info

Survivability and armour

With a maximum frontal armour thickness of 18.5 mm, the Ikv 72 has nearly no armour to speak of. The side armour is almost negligible, and can be penetrated by even rifle-caliber machine guns at point blank ranges. Aircraft are particularly deadly, as the vehicle has an open-topped crew compartment, and what little roof armour there is is only 5 mm thick at most.

The crew compartment is very cramped, and any hit by a large shell is liable to disable multiple crew members, if not all of them, simultaneously.

Mobility

Game Mode	Max Speed (km/h)		Weight (tons)	Engine power (horsepower)		Power-to-weight ratio (hp/ton)
	Forward	Reverse		Stock	Upgraded	Stock	Upgraded
Arcade	62	9	8	206	277	25.75	34.63
Realistic	57	8		128	145	16	18.13

The Ikv 72 trades armour for mobility, boasting an excellent power/weight ratio and a high top speed of around 60 km/h. This allows it to easily get to good positions where it can put its powerful gun to best use. A high reverse speed also allows it to easily back off, and is particularly valuable when fighting in hull-down positions, where it can use its excellent gun depression to its advantage.

Armaments

Main armament

The Ikv 72 is armed with the 7,5 cm kan m/41, a rather conventional quick-firing 75 mm field gun. It starts off with the unremarkable slpprj m/40 uncapped AP shot, which is adequate against most opposition it may encounter but tends to suffer ricochets against sloped armour. However, once upgraded, the gun may fire the slpgr m/39 uncapped APHE shell and the slpprj m/40B APBC shot. The former round has a very lethal 260 g TNT filler but tends to ricochet more and has less penetration, while the latter has better penetration and ricochets less, and is thus more useful in uptiers. It is recommended to carry a mixture of both APHE and APBC unless the Ikv 72 is top tier, in which case the APHE alone is sufficient.

The gun also has an outstanding +/-20 degrees of gun elevation, allowing the Ikv 72 to take advantage of hull down positions that most other tanks cannot.

Additional armament

None.

Machine guns

None.

Usage in battles

The Ikv 72 excels at fighting from hull down positions, using its outstanding 20 degrees of gun depression and high reverse speed to limit exposure when taking shots. The high reverse speed also helps in city fighting when it has to quickly retreat after taking a shot. It is fast enough to keep up with even light tanks and can use this to take up unexpected positions from which to strike at the enemy.

Pros and cons

Pros:

• Outstanding gun depression.
• Relatively fast rate-of-fire.
• Excellent forward and reverse speeds.
• Highly effective APHE shell with a large explosive filler.
• Small target size, especially at long range.

Cons:

• Extremely vulnerable to aircraft.
• Nearly no armour to speak of.
• Must choose between high penetration APBC or high damage APHE.
• Cramped crew compartment.

History

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Media

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See also

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• reference to the series of the vehicles;
• links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.

External links

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• topic on the official game forum;
• encyclopedia page on the tank;
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Sweden tank destroyers
Strv m/41 derivatives	Spj fm/43-44 · Sav m/43 (1944) · Sav m/43 (1946) · Pvkv II · Pvkv III
Ikv 72/103	Ikv 72 · Ikv 103
Pvkv m/43	Pvkv m/43 (1946) · Pvkv m/43 (1963)
ATGM	UDES 33 · Pbv 302 (BILL) · Pvrbv 551
Other	SAV 20.12.48 · Bkan 1C
Norway	VIDAR