page_title: Warrior tracked armoured vehicle
section_title: Warrior Capability Sustainment Programme
hierarchical_section_title: Warrior tracked armoured vehicle / Warrior Capability Sustainment Programme
caption_attribution_description: FV513 Mechanised Recovery Vehicle (Repair), Company C, 1st Battalion, The Staffordshire Regiment (1st [UK] Armoured Division) live fire training exercise, 6 January 1991. XVIII Airborne Corps History Office photograph by SPC Randall R. Anderson, DS-F-106-12.
context_page_description: The Warrior tracked vehicle family is a series of British armoured vehicles, originally developed to replace the older FV430 series of 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 then-current FV432 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. GKN Defence was purchased by BAE Systems, via Alvis plc.
  A total of 789 FV510 and variants were manufactured for the British Army, and 254 of a modified version were produced for the Kuwaiti Army.
context_section_description: Upgrades already fitted to Warriors in British Army service included the Bowman Communications System and Thales Battle Group Thermal Imaging (BGTI) night sights. However the British Army determined that a bigger upgrade programme was required to extend its service life to 2040.
  The Warrior Capability Sustainment Program (WCSP) will involve upgrading 380 Warriors with the Warrior Modular Protection System (WMPS) and Warrior Enhanced Electronic Architecture (WEEA). Within that group, 245 vehicles will also be fitted with a new turret and weapon system under the Warrior Fightability Lethality Improvement Program (WFLIP). The remainder, which will be designated as Armoured Battlefield Support Vehicles (ABSV), will lack turrets and carry out field repair and recovery roles using a winch and crane attachments.
  BAE Systems and Lockheed Martin competed for the WCSP contracts. Lockheed Martin's WFLIP upgrade was based on the existing Warrior turret. BAE Systems designed a new turret. In March 2011, it was announced that Lockheed Martin had effectively won the competition to develop both the WFLIP and the FRES turrets. Severe budgetary pressures made it uncertain whether these defence projects were to be delayed or curtailed, but it was announced in October 2011 that the Warrior upgrades would proceed at a cost of £1bn, extending the service life of the Warrior to 2040 and beyond. The scheduled in-service date for upgraded Warriors was 2018. 
  Under the WFLI program, the present turret mounting the RARDEN cannon, which lacks stabilisation and is manually loaded with three-round clips, will be replaced by a turret that will mount a stabilised 40 mm weapon developed by the Anglo-French firm CTA International and firing Cased telescoped ammunition. This weapon will also equip the Ajax armoured vehicle.
  As of March 2020, Warrior CSP is the "demonstration phase", demonstrating capability for a range of military missions set by the MoD. A total of £430m has been spent so far. No in-service date has been set, but the demonstration phase is due to finish in 2021. In June 2020 the House of Commons Defence Select Committee described the project as running over three years late and £227 million over budget.
caption: FV513 Mechanised Recovery Vehicle (Repair) in a live-fire training exercise, 6 January 1991.
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