Hanwha and Lockheed Martin unveil new fighting vehicle at DVD 2026

Hanwha Aerospace and Lockheed Martin UK unveiled a Redback infantry fighting vehicle armed with a British-built 40mm turret at the British Army’s DVD 2026 exhibition, pairing an already fielded vehicle hull with a weapons system developed for a different British Army program.

The turret carries the CTA International 40mm cannon and, for the first time, has Lockheed Martin UK’s SkyKeeper command-and-control system built directly into it. Hanwha said it chose the 40mm cannon because of the range of ammunition types available for it, which the company said gives an infantry fighting vehicle more flexibility to handle different threats. Lockheed Martin UK integrated its turret onto the Redback hull, and the companies described the pairing as a low-risk option that NATO customers could adapt to their own requirements.

The 40mm cannon and its Lockheed Martin UK turret were originally developed for the British Army’s Ajax reconnaissance vehicle and for the Warrior Capability Sustainment Programme, an effort to upgrade 245 Warrior infantry fighting vehicles with the same weapon system. The Ministry of Defence canceled the Warrior program in 2020 and 2021, leaving roughly 245 of the cannons and turrets in storage without a vehicle to mount them on. Fitting the same hardware to the Redback gives Lockheed Martin UK a way to offer that existing stock to a different customer rather than developing a new turret from scratch.

SkyKeeper is a battle management system Lockheed Martin UK designed for ground-based air defense, counter-drone and counter-rocket, artillery and mortar missions. The company holds the system’s intellectual property, meaning its export is governed only by UK regulations rather than requiring separate approval from a foreign supplier. Building SkyKeeper into the turret itself extends the Redback’s role beyond typical infantry fighting vehicle duties into short-range air and drone defense.

The Redback itself is built on Hanwha’s K21 infantry fighting vehicle lineage and has already been adopted outside the UK. Australia selected the Redback in 2023 for its LAND 400 Phase 3 program, ordering 129 vehicles with heavy involvement from Australian suppliers. South Korea has also evaluated the Redback as a possible baseline for its next-generation infantry fighting vehicle, and Hanwha has demonstrated the platform to Poland and Romania as part of separate outreach efforts.

Hanwha and Lockheed Martin UK have not identified a specific program or customer for this turret-and-hull combination, describing it instead as a demonstration of how quickly an in-service platform can be matched with new capabilities.