Warrior tracked armoured vehicle

FV 510 Warrior
FV510 Warrior Infantry Section Vehicle
TypeInfantry fighting vehicle
Place of originUnited Kingdom
Service history
In service1987–present
Production history
DesignerGKN Sankey / GKN Defence
Designed1972–1980
ManufacturerGKN Sankey/BAE Systems
Produced1986-present[citation needed]
No. built1,043 (total) (as of 1995)[1]
Specifications
Mass25.4 tonnes (25.0 long tons; 28.0 short tons)
Length6.3 m (20 ft 8 in)
Width3.03 m (9 ft 11 in)
Height2.8 m (9 ft 2 in)
Crew3 (commander, gunner, driver) + 7 troops or full section 10 troops

ArmourAluminium and appliqué
Main
armament
30 mm L21A1 RARDEN cannon
Secondary
armament
coaxial 7.62 mm L94A1 chain gun
2x4 66mm smoke grenades [2]
EnginePerkins V-8 Condor Diesel
550 hp (410 kW)
Power/weight22 hp/t
SuspensionTorsion bar with hydraulic damper
Operational
range
410 miles (660 km)
Maximum speed 46 mph (75 km/h) on road, 31 mph (50 km/h) off road[3]

The Warrior tracked vehicle family is a series of British armoured vehicles, originally developed to replace FV430 series armoured vehicles. The Warrior started life as the MCV-80, "Mechanised Combat Vehicle for the 1980s". One of the requirements of the new vehicle was a top speed able to keep up with the projected new MBT, the MBT-80 – later cancelled and replaced by what became the Challenger 1 – which the FV432 armoured personnel carrier could not. The project was begun in 1972; GKN Defence won the production contract in 1984 and the Warrior was accepted for service with the British Army in November 1984. Production commenced in January 1986 at Telford, with the first vehicles completed in December that year. GKN Defence was purchased by BAE Systems, via Alvis plc.

The first production vehicle was handed over to the British Army in May 1987 to 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards and from 1988 to 1990 four more armoured infantry battalions in the British Army of the Rhine were converted to the new vehicle.[4] A total of 789 FV510 and variants were manufactured for the British Army and 254 of a modified version (Desert Warrior) were produced for the Kuwaiti Army.

  1. ^ "Warrior tracked armoured vehicle".
  2. ^ "Warrior".
  3. ^ "British Army Vehicles and Equipment" (PDF). Defence Public Relations (Army). Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 November 2010. Retrieved 30 October 2014.
  4. ^ Foss, Christopher F. (1994). Warrior mechanised combat vehicle, 1987-1994. London: Osprey. p. 18. ISBN 1855323796.