Lots of snow and very freezing temperatures made the Winter Meet very wintry.

Background - how and why a new Swedish Tank Museum

A new Swedish Tank museum is being projected in Strangnas. Here the collections of Strangnas, Axvall and Malmkoping will be shown together in functional displays. It will be a modern, interactive museum with its roots in the 400-year history of the local Tank Regiment (disbanded in 2005).

Building a large Tank Museum in Strangnas starts

The idea is to combine the collections of Axvall, Malmkoping and Strangnas on the location of the former Tank Regiment P10. This site is located approx. 50 miles from Stockholm. The vehicles will be only a part (albeit an important part) of the new museum, which will also have displays showing civilian life in conjunction with the Regiment and Army life, with the aim of being interesting not only for the Tank enthusiast but for the entire family. The New Tank Museum project is a cooperation between the Swedish Army, the Army Museum, the local community and regional business partners. The work of volunteers is also of paramount importance.

In December 2007 a major milestone was reached as the Parliament voted to grant the budgetary increase to the Department of Culture that will enable the National Museums of Military History to realise the nationwide project of a network of some 30 museums covering Sweden's military heritage.

Another milestone was reached in November 2008 when the local council agreed to the combined purchase and lease agreement for the land where the museum will be built.

Ceremonial ground breaking took place on 28th of August 2009. Construction begins this autumn (2009) and the inauguration is planned for 2011.

News and current information

Some more information on recent or upcoming events can be found here or on the events page.

New images from the Czech Tankette AH-VI restoration
Read about the restoration of a 70 year old tankette in the Czech Republic. This page has been updated with new pictures in January 2010.

Construction work has started
The ground works for the museum hall began on the 12th of October.

The Axvall collection is relocated
See images from the relocation here.
To go directly to pictures added later, click here!

New images from the Czech Tankette AH-VI restoration
Read about the restoration of a 70 year old tankette in the Czech Republic. This page has been updated with new pictures in September 2009.

Axvall Tank Museum 40 year anniversary
There were more visitors than ever when the Swedish Tank Museum celebrated its 40 year anniversary in Axvall. The historic Axvall era was concluded with a great success. Photos from the day.
Jan Johanssons photos from the event
A film on YouTube, taken by one of the visitors.

Restoration of the old countryside avenue
On the land now owned by the foundation is an old countryside avenue, lined with trees ("allé"). The trees are now getting professional care by certified arborist James Synnestvedt who started the work in mid August and will restore and then maintain our "allé". More pictures here.

Archeological survey
Two archeologist from the Swedish National Heritage Board were, during week 23 on the site to perform a survey in order to investigate whether there are any remains on the location of the, but none were found, which means that the project can go ahead according to plan.
Together with Kilenkrysset AB we are now planning to start building in the late summer 2009.

Close to the building site interesting archeological finds have been made previously.

Military Vehicle Auction in Strangnas
SFHM hosts a military vehicle auction in Strangnas on 15th May.

The Arsenalen logotype now displays the lesser national coat of arms
Inspired by Sweden's First Military Antiquarian, the foundation applied with the Swedish Patent and Registration Office to be allowed to use the lesser national coat of arms in the Arsenalen logotype. In the beginning of January the foundation received the permission.

The land issue is settled
In november 2008 the local council took the decision to agree to the combined purchase and lease deal which allows the museum construction to begin in 2009. Read more on our press information page.

Read about the restoration of a 70 year old tankette in the Czech Republic. This page has been updated with new pictures in December 2008.

Another load has arrived
During a hectic summer week approximately 200 items and some vehicles were transported from Axvall to Strangnas. More information can be found on our press information page.

The Army Museum has commenced the move from Axvall
During April, a couple of shipments of material have been completed. This is vehicles and items which are not on display and which have been stored outdoors due to lack of space at Axvall. Among this one BMP-1 ("prototype" for the Swedish APC designated Pbv 501) and one Bandvagn 202. Some pictures can be found here.

The museum now has a name!
The name of the museum will be Arsenalen This domain; arsenalen.se, is our new home.
Arsenalen - the arsenal in English - is an old designation for a military store and workshop. It exists in many teutonic languages. The word comes via French from Italian, and it is said to have its origins in the Arabic words for "house" and "craft".
The arsenal in Stockholm was until 1793 located approximately where the royal opera house is now located.
The most famous arsenal is probably the one in Venice, mentioned in Dante's Inferno.
A curiosity concerning this word is that the famous English football club has its name from "The Woolwich Arsenal Armament Factory" which was just that - an arsenal.
Our ambition is of course that the largest Swedish arsenal ever shall open in Strangnas in a few years time.

A military version of Volvo PV 544 at a fair in Germany
The fair Techno Classica 2008, open 26-30 March in Essen, is one of the world's largest fairs for classic cars.
This year, Volvo displays cars in public service. We appreciate that Volvo lent an army car (from the Army Museum collection in Strangnas) to display among ambulances, police cars, cars used for tele maintenance and others. The defence exists for the public good too, even if it is hardly mentioned nowadays.
Read more about the car and about the show.

Relocation of vehicles from Malmkoping to Strangnas complete!
In August 2007, the undertaking to move the vehicles owned by the National Swedish Defence Museums, SFHM, was started. The first vehicle to be moved to its new home in Strangnas was a WWII US Army tank transporter and recovery vehicle, the Pacific Car & Foundry M26A1. Please enjoy some photos from the event!
During the autumn, several more transports have been carried out, in cooperation with the Army Museum and the heavy transport platoon of the Royal Lifeguards.
The Army Museum photographer took a series of pictures of the loading of an experimental vehicle.

The Military Vehicle Museum in Malmkoping is now closed
Since the vehicles have been moved to Strangnas, the Military Vehicle Museum has ceased operation. The founders of that museum work closely together with the foundation to make the new museum become a reality.
We wish to convey our sincerest gratitude to all those who visited, and bid previous as well as new visitors welcome to the new museum.

The Model 37 displayed to an international audience.
During a couple of days in June, we displayed our Model 37 tankette at the National Defence College, a very short article here.

We delivered an original AH-IV-S to its origin. Read about our trip to Prague.

Armoured car and tankette salvaged from shooting range outside Gavle.

We took part in the Swedish Rail 150 year anniversary - Krylbo (May 12-14)

A brief resume from our participation in the army manoeuvre "Combined Challenge -06".

Military Vehicles in Sweden

(To top of page)
There are several fine collections of military vehicles of all kinds in Sweden, some which even rank very high on an international scale. Many vehicles are in running condition, and often the ambition is to show them in the condition as used in their service life.

The largest collections are found in these locations:

In Axvall , close to the city of Skara, the largest collection of armoured vehicles can be found. Almost all of the armoured vehicles ever used by the Swedish Army can be seen there. The oldest is the German LK II and the newest is the modern Leopard II. Several foreign makes brought to Sweden only for testing purposes are also on display. The collection also contains several display engines, gearboxes and other components. Unfortunately, the buildings are rather old, and the collection has long since outgrown them, so the displays are getting increasingly cramped as new additions to the collection are made.

Malmkoping, 20 miles south of Strangnas, is the home of an interesting collection of wheeled vehicles, mostly used by the Swedish Army. The majority of the vehicles are in running order, but due to lack of space only a part of the collection is shown.

The collection in Strangnas is very interesting. Most vehicles are in running condition, as used by the old Regiment. The ambition is to have at least one running example of every tank that the Swedish Army has ever used. With a handful exceptions this is already so. Many of the exhibits are displayed at public events from time to time.

In the north of Sweden, in the city of Boden, there is another large museum of mainly Swedish Army tanks and other vehicles, most of them in running order.

In Hassleholm (in the south of Sweden), there is a museum with tanks and other vehicles. This museum also has other historical sections, e.g. on the local history of the region, from pre-historic ages.