The British Army has outlined projected retirement dates for several of its armoured fighting vehicles, according to a recent response from the Ministry of Defence.
In a written question, James Cartlidge MP inquired about the out of service dates (OSD) for the Jackal 2 reconnaissance vehicle and the Viking personnel armoured vehicle. Responding on behalf of the Ministry of Defence, Minister of State Maria Eagle provided a table detailing the expected withdrawal dates for several key vehicles.
The Jackal 2 reconnaissance vehicle is set to remain in service until 2030, while the Viking personnel armoured vehicle is expected to be retired a year earlier, in 2029. Other vehicles listed include the Bulldog Armoured Personnel Carrier, with an OSD of 2030, and the Warrior Infantry Fighting Vehicle (IFV), which is expected to leave service in 2027.
These dates indicate that the British Army will continue to rely on a mixed fleet of legacy armoured vehicles over the next decade, even as modernisation efforts continue. The phased retirement of these vehicles, say the MOD, will align with the introduction of newer platforms, ensuring ‘continuity of capability as the Army adapts to evolving operational requirements’.
Most Warriors should be retained in the war reserve for at least ten years. This would provide a useful fallback in case of a serious national emergency, and the vehicle would be a solid and dependable asset. To scrap such an asset would be crass.
Maurice, we never keep equipment in war reserve once it has been declared Obsolete and then superseded by a replacement. Many reasons.
There is no spare space in the only UK vehicle depot we have left (MoD Ashchurch is quite small), there is not enough depot staff to maintain obsolete vehicles in addition to in-service depot stock, there is no money to keep obsolete equipment ‘on the books’ (happy to explain all the various elements), and if ever issued there would not be crews and maintainers who would be ‘current’ on that old equipment.
In the case of Warrior, shamefully it was never seriously upgraded in service (the only piecemeal uogrades I can think of in nearly 40 years was Bowmanisation and fitting of BGTI many moons ago). So you are suggesting keeping in storage an essentially unmodernised late-1980s vehicle far into the future – if issued out in time of war in many years time they would lack modern capability (protection, mobility, firepower would be low and digitisation non-existent)…and would be very difficult to support, many spares being unobtainable and possibly 30mm ammo might be hard to source?
Of course policies can change, and the current policy has been debated internally within MoD. But some seriously big cash would have to be found to keep superseded vehicles on the books in our small vehicle depot for use in General War. That might mean less money for new equipment.
On reflection, why not retain CH2 in war reserve too!
Virtually all of the economically serviceable ones will be converted. The rest won’t be of much use.
C2 is being used as the base for c3 however I be,Eve they will keep some for parts namely the hull the rest isn’t much use as to warrior I wish they would have followed through with the new turret every single conflict in the past 30 years has shown how useful warrior type vehicles are be it Bradley or even the ancient German one but knowing our government they will melt them or sell them for way below value just like the 2 assault ships that apparently 9 million a year to mothball is far to much money but 4 million A DAY for hotels for boat people is ok
We should send all warriors to Ukraine now.
I know that they updated the FV430 series and called it Bulldog, but when it’s OSD comes around iit will be able to retire to a shed in Ashchurch and immediately start drawing its old age pension 😀😀😀
Mark, my first posting was to the LAD of a mech inf bn with FV432 in 1975 and it was only 13 years since ISD.
When OSD comes around it will have been 68 years since the introduction of the Mk1s!! No point sending them to Ashchurch – the knackers yard has been waiting for some years now.
No, they’ll go to the ZSU in all probability. They already operate 432s, and will happily take delivery of any that have had one careful owner.
All well and good provided new vehicles are in service. I’m not holding my breath.
As the latest OSD is 2030, and it’s currently 2025, the army is only going to rely on this mixed fleet for 5 more years and not “the next decade” as stated in the article.
If Bulldog is being end of serviced by 2030 what are they being replaced with? They are extensively used by the support arms, Ambulances, recovery, signals? (still?), command and control, and such activities as mortar platforms. According to Wiki we have 744 bulldogs and are replacing them with 200 Ajax variants. Seems a bit underwhelming.
I thought the Bulldog replacement is Boxer.
As Paul said: virtually no bulldogs are being replaced with Ajax. Ajax is a CVRT family replacement, Bulldog is mostly being replaced with Boxer variants. Also it’s 589 Ajax variants, not 200.
Warrior by 2027?
So will 4 Battalions be outfitted with Boxer by then?
I’m sceptical.
‘The phased retirement of these vehicles, say the MOD, will align with the introduction of newer platforms, ensuring ‘continuity of capability as the Army adapts to evolving operational requirements’.
That should be the policy for all vehicles, and every other type of equipment.
Why then did the MOD retire all the AS-90s before the introduction of its successor, Boxer RCH-155?
So Sunak could grandstand that we’d given them to Ukraine.
Politics trumps all.
Of course, much of the fleet had already been cut since around 2007 onwards.