UK Defence Integrated Review ~ Farewell To Warrior

A typical Warrior Infantry Fighting Vehicle guarding NATO's vulnerable north-east flank in Estonia in 2019 [©Bob Morrison]

The British Army’s Warrior family of tracked Infantry Fighting Vehicles is one of the victims of the UK’s 2021 Defence Integrated Review.

From the 2021 UK Defence Integrated Review restructuring, entitled Defence in a Competitive Age, published today, it is clear that the FV510 Warrior family of tracked Infantry Fighting Vehicles will not be upgraded (even though £400K has already been invested in the Capability Sustainment Programme) but will be cast instead.

Library image of Warrior Mechanised Infantry Fighting Vehicles advancing through Copehill Down
[© Bob Morrison]

Under the forthcoming Brigade Combat Team system, a reduced fleet of 148 upgraded Challenger 2 main battle tanks will be supported by the Boxer 8×8 Mechanised Infantry Vehicle rather than by the Warrior. The revised structure of the British Army is planned to include: two Heavy Brigade Combat Teams with Ajax, Challenger and Boxer; two Light Brigade Combat Teams; a Deep Recce Strike Brigade Combat Team; an Air Manoeuvre Brigade Combat Team; and an Aviation Brigade Combat Team.

We now have a full copy of Defence in a Competitive Age, which runs out to 76 pages, and will prepare a feature on what we see as its implications once we have had sufficient time to read it in depth and work out what is substance and what is spin.
For those interested in troop numbers, the already seriously understrength British Army’s trained total will be reduced from its current 76,000 to 72,500 by 2025.
The last of the RAF’s C-130 Hercules transport aircraft fleet will be withdrawn from service in 2023.