- Yes
- No
MCV-80 (CM-90)
Vehicle design history:
The Warrior family of tracked vehicles originally came into development as a replacement for the ageing FV430 family of armoured vehicles. During this initial gestation, the Warrior went by the name MCV-80, for “Mechanised Combat Vehicle for the 1980s”. The intent for the vehicle was for a series of tracked armoured vehicles capable of maintaining speed with the later cancelled MBT-80, which would later be replaced by the Challenger 1. This was due to the lack of speed of the FV432 APC, and originally started as a project within GKN Defence in 1972, with them ultimately winning the contract in 1984, with the warrior entering service that same year in November.
Of course, with this new vehicle platform, GKN were eager to explore the export market, something their competitor Alvis was doing extensively at the time with the Spartan, and later Stormer and Streaker platforms, which would go on to have moderate levels of success. Due to this competition, GKN knew they would have to offer a wide range of options in regards to turret compatibility, with one of the logical being the mating of the Cockril CM-90 turret which was proving popular on the export market at the time. This turret was fitted with the Cockrill MK.III gun which would allow second and third-world countries to field a tank with HEAT-FS capable of knocking out all expected targets in such a conflict spot, mainly ageing soviet armour and tanks like Pattons and centurions, which lacked protection from such weapons. This was achieved by moving the turret 6 inches inline, so it sat in the centre of the hull, and aside from that was unremarkable.
Unfortunately for GKN, there was little interest in this variant of their MCV-80 platform with the hole in the market being eventually filled by the more capable Scorpion 90, and other competing foreign designs, even if the main production of the Warrior was successful with over 1000 being produced during the vehicles lifetime. Ultimately GKN would be bought out by Alvis in 1998, unifying the two manufacturers and consolidating their projects into future ventures, mainly a seemingly endless stream of Warrior proof of concepts and modernizations.
Vehicle specification:
Mass 25.4 tonnes (25.0 long tons; 28.0 short tons)
Length 6.3 m (20 ft 8 in)
Width 3.03 m (9 ft 11 in)
Height 2.8 m (9 ft 2 in)
Crew 3 (commander, gunner, driver)
Armour Aluminium and appliqué
Main armament 1 x 90mm Cockerill Mk.III
Secondary armament 1 x coaxial 7.62 mm L94A1 chain gun
1 X pintle mounted 7.62 mm machine gun
Engine Perkins V-8 Condor Diesel 550 hp (410 kW)
Power/weight 22 hp/t
Suspension Torsion 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
Additional historical photo:
Sources:
- x.com (Source of second photo)
- Warrior Armoured Fighting Vehicle - Think Defence (Another mention of this obscure variant)
- MCV-80 Warrior Infantry Fighting Vehicle | MilitaryToday.com (90mm variant mentioned here)
