- Yes
- No
MCV-80 IFV (C25)
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 its derivatives, such as the Stormer. Due to this competition, GKN knew they would have to offer a wide range of options in regards to role and turret capability to carve a chunk of the market for their new MCV-80 platform. On such choice was the mating of the MCV-80 chassis with the Cockerill C25 turret, which was an IFV turret complimentary to their Fire Support CM-90 turret mounting their ubiquitous Cockerill 90mm cannon.
The C25 turret though sharing some similarities with the CM-90 turret differed greatly in terms of armament, as it was fitted with a 25mm Oerlikon-Contraves KBB cannon. This cannon was capable of firing 800 rounds a minute and could fire both HE and APDS ammunition allowing it to engage both soft and moderately armoured targets. The cannon was complimented by a 7.62 GPMG coaxially mounted, along with two banks of 4 smoke grenade dischargers mounted one either side of the turret. The hull and power train of the vehicle remained unchanged from the standard MCV-80 fit, with only the turret change being a notable difference
Unfortunately for GKN, there was little interest in this variant of their MCV-80 platform, which became a running theme with the majority of their export attempts, as generally Alvis or other competing foreign designs would prove more popular on the export market, even if the Rarden equipt MCV-80 design would go on to see much success as the Warrior with over 1000 being manufactured. 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 1x 25mm Oerlikon-Contraves KBB cannon.
Secondary armament 1 x coaxial 7.62 mmmachine gun
8 x smoke dischargers
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:
- Warrior Armoured Fighting Vehicle - Think Defence (Source of first photo and basic info)
- x.com (Source of second photo)
- KBA - KBB 25 MM Cannon | PDF | Shell (Projectile) | Artillery (Indepth info about gun capabilities and mention of it being fitted in the c25 turret)