UK to turn MCV-80 Warrior fighting vehicles into autonomous mine-breaching vehicles under Project Atilla.

On August 21, 2025, the British Ministry of Defence announced Project Atilla, a program to convert retired MCV-80 Warrior infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) into remotely operated and later autonomous unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) for minefield breaching tasks. The initiative is based on a formal procurement notice and follows earlier government decisions not to send surplus Warriors to Ukraine. The plan aims to retain value from these vehicles, avoid disposal costs, and provide the British Army with an attritable capability for high-risk engineering roles.
Follow Army Recognition on Google News at this link

Developed by DSTL with Pearson Engineering, the MCV-80-based Weevil prototype shows how the Warrior hull can host remote breaching kits, allowing a single operator to work from several miles away using ruggedized controls. (Picture source: British MoD)

The contract under Project Atilla is divided into two phases, but is awarded under one framework. In Phase 1, a Minimum Deployable Capability will be created by converting up to six Warrior vehicles into optionally crewed systems fitted with front-end breaching equipment such as mine ploughs or rollers. These vehicles will provide battlegroup-level breaching capacity either with a crew or under remote control. Phase 2 will focus on further development and iteration to move from remote to autonomous operations and refine requirements for future heavy UGV procurement. Suppliers must demonstrate they can provide six functional systems able to generate safe lanes equivalent to current engineering platforms in order to qualify, and this pass/fail requirement will determine entry to the competition.

The planned contract is valued at £12 million excluding VAT and £15 million including VAT. The baseline contract will run from 1 January 2026 to 31 March 2028, with the option of a one-year extension at the discretion of the Ministry. The procurement process will be conducted through the Defence Sourcing Portal, with the publication of the full notice expected on 1 September 2025, a deadline for requests to participate on 26 September 2025, and a projected award decision on 18 November 2025. Payment will be handled through EXOSTAR and CP&F; submissions may be made electronically in English, and small and medium-sized enterprises are explicitly eligible to participate. The CPV classification is 34113200 for all-terrain vehicles, and the contracting authority is Army Headquarters at Marlborough Lines, Andover. The contract also includes options for additional purchases while it remains valid.

The Warrior infantry fighting vehicle, originally developed under the MCV-80 program, entered British Army service in 1987 after design work that began in the 1970s to replace the FV430 series. It was built by GKN Defence, later part of BAE Systems, and in its FV510 Infantry Section Vehicle form carried a three-person crew and up to seven dismounts. The vehicle weighed 25.4 tonnes, was powered by a 550-horsepower Perkins V-8 Condor diesel engine, and could reach 75 km/h on the road with a range of 660 km. Its primary armament was a non-stabilized 30 mm RARDEN cannon paired with a coaxial 7.62 mm chain gun, and it carried clusters of smoke grenade launchers. Armour was aluminium with appliqué options, later upgraded to cage armour and Wrap Two packages for operations, and most vehicles were eventually equipped with Bowman radios and Thales thermal imaging sights. The Warrior family expanded into command, repair, recovery, and artillery observation variants, with 789 vehicles produced for the UK and 254 Desert Warrior versions exported to Kuwait with an M242 Bushmaster and TOW missile launchers.

Procurement history and upgrade programs defined the Warrior’s career. Attempts to modernize, including the Warrior 2000 proposal for Switzerland, were unsuccessful, and the Warrior Capability Sustainment Programme to extend service into the 2040s was cancelled in 2021 on cost grounds. That program had intended to fit 380 vehicles with modular protection and electronic upgrades, and 245 of them with new turrets and 40 mm CTA guns. After cancellation, the British Army confirmed Warrior would be retired and replaced by Boxer wheeled vehicles and Ajax tracked vehicles under the Future Soldier plan. By mid-2024, 632 Warriors remained in service with at least 80 set for disposal, while Rheinmetall was contracted to install reversing cameras on 359 vehicles. In July 2025, Defence Minister Luke Pollard reiterated that donating small numbers to Ukraine would impose unnecessary training and logistics burdens without meaningful capability gains, explaining the decision to retain them for alternative uses.

The recent Weevil prototype demonstrated how Warrior hulls could be repurposed for uncrewed roles. Built by the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) with Pearson Engineering, it used a Warrior chassis stripped of its turret and fitted with a full-width mine plough. The system integrated camera arrays, sensors, and Pearson’s BEACON remote-control suite, allowing a single engineer to operate it from several kilometres away using a ruggedized tablet. Trials took place on a surrogate minefield near Newcastle and showed that the platform could generate safe lanes without a crew on board. This demonstrator directly informed Project Atilla, with the six planned conversions expected to act as both operational vehicles and testbeds for doctrine, technology, and autonomy. The Ministry has linked this effort to a broader commitment to spend at least 10 percent of equipment procurement budgets from 2025 to 2026 on novel technologies such as AI-enabled and uncrewed systems.

Japan has pursued a similar approach with the Type 89 infantry fighting vehicle, first fielded in 1989 by the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force. At DSEI Japan 2025, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries presented a modernization concept where the troop compartment was replaced with eight launch tubes for Switchblade 600 loitering munitions while retaining a 30 mm KDE cannon turret. The Type 89, weighing 26.5 tonnes and powered by a 600-horsepower Mitsubishi diesel, was originally designed to complement the Type 90 main battle tank and could carry seven infantry. The Switchblade 600 proposed for integration has a loiter time of over 40 minutes, a range of 60 km extendable beyond 90 km, and a warhead based on Javelin technology. This repurposing eliminates the troop transport role and instead converts the Type 89 into a long-range precision strike unmanned ground vehicle, although the concept remains in its early stages.

Russia has developed the BMP-3 Sinitsa, equipped with the Prometheus remote-control system created by Rostec’s Signal Research Institute, to allow operation without a human crew or under remote command. Public demonstrations at Army-2022 and subsequent trials have shown driver and gunner functions automated, with options for remote operation via tablet or control point. The BMP-3 retains its armament of a 100 mm cannon capable of firing missiles, a 30 mm coaxial cannon, and three 7.62 mm machine guns, along with its aluminium armour, 500-horsepower engine, amphibious mobility, and ability to carry seven dismounts. Statements from Rostec emphasize route-following, obstacle negotiation, and technical vision features, and the Sinitsa module adds a panoramic thermal sight to extend detection range. The development is linked to Russia’s broader robotic efforts, including the T-72-based Shturm project and remote mine-clearing vehicles. In the United States, BAE Systems’ Black Knight prototype and Textron’s Ripsaw M5 have been tested as unmanned combat vehicles, with the latter entering the Army’s Robotic Combat Vehicle-Medium trials before the program was paused in 2025. Finland has also experimented with the remote operation of its Patria AMV XP over 5G networks in collaboration with Telia. These projects together show that converting or designing heavy unmanned ground vehicles has become a shared focus among major armies.