“CRAZY” plans to axe the Army’s Warrior infantry fighting vehicle have been scrapped in a £1.4billion U-turn.
The 720-strong tracked fleet, with turret-mounted guns, is now due to stay until 2030 and beyond.
Top Brass said the war in Ukraine had “blown holes” in ministers’ arguments that the Army didn’t need them.
The Warriors were designed to get infantry troops into battle alongside Challenger tanks.
Defence Secretary Ben Wallace hoped to retire them by 2025 and replace them with wheeled Boxer vehicles. Only two have been delivered.
General Sir Richard Shirreff, once Deputy Supreme Allied Commander of Nato, said: “It was crazy to cancel Warrior and absolutely right to reinstate it.
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“As soon as we see state-on-state high intensity warfare, such as we are seeing in Ukraine, we recognise that we need armour that can move at the same pace as tanks.”
Extending the Warrior’s service will cost at least £1.4billion — the same as a planned upgrade programme axed in 2021.
The Ministry of Defence spent £430million testing new parts but it was cancelled before a single vehicle upgrade.
A source said: “This is a classic procurement f***-up. We get the same old vehicles we have had since 1983, and the same £1.4billion bill.”
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The MoD rejected the claims as “inaccurate speculation”. A 2021 MoD blueprint on the future of the Army, known as a Command Paper, stated Boxer would replace Warrior “by the middle of the decade”.
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