MOWAG Piranha, Switzerland

Warrior MCV

The tracked IFV known to the British Army as the Warrior was originally known as MCV-80. Intended to replace the old FV432 APC, the vehicles was developed via a series of pre-production prototypes from 1980 onwards, with production by GKN Defence commencing during 1986.

The Warrior has been in British Army service since 1988, seeing combat in the Gulf in 1991. The original order was for over 1,000 units but Army reorganisations reduced that to 789 of all types, sufficient to equip seven Mechanised Infantry battalions.

The base model is the Warrior Section Vehicle armed with a 30 mm HARDEN cannon and a 7,62 mm Chain Gun in a twoman turret. The seven troops carried enter through a door in the hull rear; once they are inside there are sufficient combat supplies carried to maintain them in action for at least 48 hours.

Vehicles in the Gulf were provided with extra passive armour panels but these are not normally carried during peacetime operations.

The British Army also operates a Warrior Mechanised Artillery Observation Vehicle (MAOV) on which the only turret armament is a 7,62 mm Chain Gun and a dummy cannon barrel. There are two repair and recovery vehicles, the Warrior Mechanised Recovery Vehicle (Repair) (MCV(R)) and Mechanised Combat Repair Vehicle (MCRV), both armed with a single 7.62 mm Chain Gun and equipped for their roles with winches, cranes and other equipment.

A Warrior Command Vehicle is produced in four sub-variants (one for the artillery), all outwardly identical to the Section Vehicle.

Warriors may be fitted with dozer blades or light mine-clearing ploughs and an ATGW Warrior carrying MILAN or (eventually) TRIGAT is entering service.

Several trial armament installations have been tested on Warrior including one with a 90 mm gun turret.

A special hot weather version known as Desert Warrior, or Fahris, has been ordered by Kuwait - this model has a 25 mm cannon main armament.

Warrior MCV

Specification

(Section Vehicle, fully armoured) Crew: 3 Seating: 7 Weight: (combat) 25,700 kg Length: 6.34 m Width: 3.034 m Height: (hull top) 1.93 m Ground clearance: 0.49 m Track: approx 2.6 m Max speed: (road) 75 km/h Fuel capacity: 770 litres Range: 660 km Fording: 1.3m Vertical obstacle: 0.75 m Engine: Perkins CV-8 TCA diesel Power output: 550 hp Suspension: torsion bar Armament: 1 x 30 mm cannon; 1 x 7.62 mm Chain Gun Variants: Many, see text

A Warrior IFV lacking the 'full combat' additional side armour as used in The Gulf.