The Ministry of Defence has refused to say when each of the seventy-eight Warrior infantry fighting vehicles removed from the fleet in the past year was disposed of, according to an answer given in Parliament.
Ben Obese-Jecty, the Conservative member for Huntingdon, asked for the dates on which each vehicle was disposed of, following an answer of 7 September.
Luke Pollard, the Minister for Defence Readiness and Industry, said: “The answer to Question 23452 explained that the seventy-eight Warrior Infantry Fighting Vehicles removed from the reported fleet between 2025 and 2026 have been disposed of in accordance with Defence disposal policy. It would be inappropriate for me to provide exact disposal details, such as dates or variants as to do so could, or would be likely to, prejudice the capability of our Armed Forces.”
The number leaving the fleet has been confirmed, but not when they went or which variants they were, so the rate at which Warrior is being drawn down cannot be read from the published record.
The FV510 Warrior entered service in 1988 as the British Army tracked infantry fighting vehicle, carrying a section of dismounted infantry behind a two man turret armed with the 30mm RARDEN cannon.
A programme to rebuild the fleet around a stabilised 40mm cased telescoped cannon, the Warrior Capability Sustainment Programme, was cancelled in March 2021 after more than a decade of development and around £430 million of spending, and the vehicle has been running down since.
instead of disposal, couldn’t they be recycled as a platform for unmanned systems?
aren’t we supposed to recycle to preserve our planet?
Why would we dispose of such systems instead of keeping them in storage. By Russian armoured vehicle standards they are practically new.
Security grounds? Like allowing the army to fall apart in front of their eyes. What a bunch.
If we were serious about defence they’d be mothballed as an attrition reserve. But we aren’t serious are we.
The same Generals on TV telling me we are at a state of near war and we need massive spending cuts and tax rises to pay for their new massive army are the same Generals that are disposing of these vehicles 🧐
Kind of sums it all up.
I assume the old 30mm Rarden has no effective ability against UAS so not useful for there?
How about putting a Company’s worth at Mount Pleasant in a hanger, can the REME element there or contractors not maintain them?
Spad and SPTA I assume have enough training targets, I wonder how many will be kept and put to some use?
Didn’t it say they’d spent £430 million on upgrading them, including fitting with the 40mm, before cancelling the program? |That’s a lot of potential anti drone units.
That was the money spent on 2 prototypes ( I think there were 2 ) the earlier R&D on the programme, and buying a couple of hundred new cannons, now homeless as not fitted, not actually upgrading the actual remaining vehicles.
I’d read that existing Warriors received new rear facing cameras but not aware of any other upgrades, I think the vehicles remain as is otherwise.
So expanding, could those new Cannons be used in some fixed CUAS capacity?
I’m guessing that these will now be fitted to Ajax.
Ajax ( Scout ) turreted variants are but a part of the overall Ajax buy, so I’d think for what we’re paying they have their own turret and CTA40 already.
Maybe spares? Seems such a waste for a useful bit of advanced firepower.
Brain dead time again at the MOD. With Ajax still in the wings and Boxer modularity being trimmed, you would be mistaken to believe we are living in a peaceful period in our history. In no way should the Warrior be replaced until such time as the new kit is up to the mark. We must remember the lives of our troops are at stake and that should be written large on the walls of Whitehall.
It’ll be gone soon, the IFV capability gone and the “replacement” not fully established.
It’s no replacement no matter how HMG spin it, some of us have long memories and know full well the role of HMG and General Carter in proceedings, from the original A2020 plan, changed to the A2020 Refine plan, which was to see Boxer and Ajax in separate roles but somehow complementing the other, to the botch job now which sees Boxer as the default “replacement” as there’s bugger all else and no money either.
And CAVS is meant to fill in the gaps.
Meanwhile, in France and Italy, they HAD A PLAN AND STUCK TO IT, buying IFV, VBCI and Freccia, for combat roles, and cheaper supporting roles fulfilled by other types.
Here, one cock up after the other as they attempt to put square pegs in round holes.
£430 million just wasted when we keep losing force capabilities & running down way beyond safe levels even for the quietest peacetime levels. Keep them in storage as a reserve or finish the job updating them. Better to have something to defend free society for a rainy day when the storm is imminent.
What is this insane fetish with providing UK forces with the weakest glass jaw imaginable?
No you can’t have any money to provide what is vital to the civilised running or protection of the nation, but the super rich can continue to rape our economy & take all the wealth offshore taxed at levels anyone else can only dream of.
I do love how every difficult question is answered with we can’t answer, national security. It feels to me that hiding all this info is doing more to damage our national security than disclosing it.
Stock response to hide embarrassment, incompetence, and cuts of HMG own making.
The sooner Defence has a proper Strategic plan ring fenced, and agreed at all levels with full Parliamentary scrutiny the better.
As it is, there’s nothing Strategic about any of these reviews, they just resort the pieces that remain after the latest cuts.