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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.

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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  • The last of the RAF’s C-130 Hercules transport aircraft fleet will be withdrawn from service in 2023.

¤ See also:- UK Defence Secretary Statement on Defence Command Paper

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