Kyiv’s Next-Gen CV90 Infantry Fighting Vehicle Might Be The War’s Best

With reporting by Gabriel Silveira.

Sweden and Denmark have announced the joint production of 35 new CV9035NL Mid-Life Update infantry fighting vehicles for Ukraine. Denmark will pay, Sweden will build.

It’s the same version of the 37-ton, 11-person CV90 The Netherlands has acquired.

This $9-million, tracked IFV is set to be the only IFV in Ukrainian service that offers its commander stabilized thermal vision. This is important. But it’s not the new CV90’s only high-tech feature.

The commander’s sight in the CV9035NL MLU features a third-generation thermal vision system and laser rangefinder with a range of up to six miles. The gunner also has a third-gen thermal vision system with a laser rangefinder. This means both the commander and gunner independently can search for targets, day or night and with high resolution.

The vehicle also has warning system that alerts the crew when an enemy vehicle is sparkling the vehicle with a laser rangefinder or laser-guided missile. This should give the crew a chance to pop smoke or lay down suppressing fire.

To increase protection in the Dutch version of the CV90, Swedish vehicle-maker BAE Systems Hägglunds acquired, from Israel, the Iron Fist active protection system. Iron Fist detects and intercepts—with a tiny projectile—enemy missiles and high-explosive rounds. It’s unclear whether the Ukrainian version of the will receive these protection systems, however.

To protect the three crew and eight passengers from the shock resulting from mine-strikes, the CV90’s seats are fixed to the roof and sides. There’s a spall-liner that reduces the chances of shrapnel injuring the occupants. The new vehicle’s turret boasts a new armor composition, but it’s exact formulation is a secret.

Where the older CV9040, at least 50 of which Ukraine already has received from Sweden, has a 40-millimeter Bofors auto-cannon, the new CV9035NL MLU is armed with a 35-millimeter Bushmaster Mk. III.

The Bushmaster can fire armor-piercing, fragmentation and sabot rounds, but it’s the smaller size of the round—which translates into a larger ammunition load-out—that’s the main benefit.

On the right side of the turret there’s a launcher for two Spike LR fire-and-forget top-attack anti-tank missiles ranging up to three miles. A CV90 crew can halt, fire a missile and immediately move out—unlike the crew of a Ukrainian M-2 IFV, whose own TOW anti-tank missile requires the M-2 to remain stationary as the crew guides the missile the entire duration of its flight.

Ukraine never got the Israeli-made Spike LRs for its old CV90s, however, so it’s unclear whether it will get the missiles for the new CV90s.

Even so, the CV9035NL MLU with its high-end sights and armor and heavy armament could be most advanced IFV of Russia’s wider war on Ukraine, once it enters service potentially next year.

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