Saab has launched a new high-explosive anti-tank (HEAT) round for its Carl-Gustaf 84 mm recoilless rifle, announcing the development during a live-fire customer demonstration at the Bofors Test Center in Karlskoga, Sweden, on 5 May 2026.

Designated the HEAT 758, the new round has been designed with a tandem warhead and a non-initiating precursor to defeat main battle tanks (MBTs) and other heavy AFVs equipped with explosive reactive armour (ERA), with Saab officials noting that the HEAT 758 round has been optimised to defeat the Russian Kontakt-1, Kontakt-5 and Relikt ERA systems.

Briefing a select cadre of journalists in Karlskoga, Mikael Lindgren Nylander, Saab’s product manager for the Carl-Gustaf system, noted that this was a particular challenge because those three Russian ERA systems have different designs.

While Saab officials declined to discuss specifically how the HEAT 758 round’s non-initiating precursor works (that is, how the round attacks the target without initiating the explosive in its ERA panels), Nylander noted that Saab had used artificial intelligence/machine learning to explore something like 50,000 different designs of precursor to find the best solution. Michael Höglund, head of Saab’s Ground Combat business unit, added that Saab “saved a lot of time and energy using this machine learning simulation and to get the best design for the warheads”, although he noted that Saab still conducted more than 500 live firings to qualify the new round.

The Carl-Gustaf system’s current HEAT 751 round uses a precursor charge to disrupt ERA and allow its main shaped charge to follow through and penetrate the underlying tank armour, with Saab claiming this round can penetrate armour to a depth of 500 mm from a range of up to 500 m. However, Saab was prompted to begin thinking about a successor to this round around a decade ago as threat main battle tanks and their ERA systems evolved and, by the time of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, work on the HEAT 758 round was well advanced – although data from the engagement of Russian tanks during the Ukraine conflict was also fed into development of the new round.

Compared to the HEAT 751 round, the HEAT 758 has greater penetration – 700 mm compared to the 751’s 500 mm – and has an effective range of 600 m as opposed to 500 m for the 751. The new round thus increases a Carl-Gustaf crew’s chances of scoring a first-round kill – including, for example, from oblique attack angles – and also allows them to engage further away from the target.

Interestingly, the new capability does not come with a weight penalty, with the HEAT 758 round slightly lighter than its predecessor.

Meanwhile, the Carl-Gustaf weapon system itself has also become much easier to employ. The original system, which entered service in 1948, weighed around 15 kg and was 1.13 m long, whereas the latest Carl-Gustaf M4 weighs around 7 kg and is less than 1 m long.

While the HEAT 758 round is backwards compatible with the older Carl-Gustaf weapons, it features Saab’s new Firebolt programmable ammunition system that can be exploited by the latest Carl-Gustaf M4 weapon and the Fire Control Device 558 used to aim it. The Firebolt system recognises the round being fired and automatically determines the correct ballistic profile for firing it, with the firer simply having to dial in the range to the target.

Saab’s Carl-Gustaf ammunition portfolio currently comprises a dozen different types (including the HEAT 758 but not training rounds), ranging from anti-armour rounds to anti-structure and anti-personnel rounds as well as those for smoke and illumination. All of the legacy rounds, Nylander explained, will also receive the Firebolt technology, including training, sub-calibre and drill rounds.

The armed forces of more than 40 countries have adopted the Carl-Gustaf, with India the largest individual user country, while 28 countries use or have ordered the latest M4 weapon.

The new HEAT 758 round will be publicly presented for the first time at the Eurosatory 2026 defence exhibition in Paris in June.