In 1922 the Swedish Navy bought Vickers two-pounder pom-poms and judged the automatic cannon useful but improvable. It then contracted Bofors to develop a better weapon from that starting point. The resulting work helps explain why the Bofors 40 mm retained a family resemblance to the pom-pom while outperforming it in important respects. The episode shows Swedish procurement using imported technology as a springboard for independent design, refinement, and large-scale manufacture.
Notable Point · 10:50-11:48
How the Bofors 40 mm grew from the Vickers pom-pom
The Swedish Navy's 1922 purchase of Vickers pom-poms became the starting point for a better domestic automatic cannon.