Army

All the latest kit shown off as Army prepares for the fight it hopes will never come

18th September 2026 at 4:09pm

Its full title is the less-than-snappy Defence Vehicle Dynamics exhibition, but to everyone in the trade it's known simply as DVD.

For hundreds of defence contractors, this biennial event is a chance to show off their products and get the attention of military decision-makers – the people who will ultimately spend the cash and use the kit.

It's held at UTAC Millbrook in Bedfordshire, a huge 700-acre vehicle testing site where manufacturers bring their prototypes to be evaluated.

Off come the wraps – for two days

Ordinarily, filming is restricted because this is the place where you'll often see those mysterious cars wrapped in zebra-pattern camouflage – prototypes their makers want to keep under wraps.

There are 70 kilometres of test tracks and off-road trails, including ridiculously steep hills and deep wading ponds to see how well vehicles cope with driving through water.

Members of the BBC Top Gear team were frequent visitors, and it was also the place where some of the vehicle stunts for the 2006 James Bond film Casino Royale were filmed.

But for two days, Millbrook opens its gates to the world of defence – a chance for the suits and the soldiers to mix.

Challenger 3 and Ajax should put the Army in a supremely strong position should they be called upon to fight in any future war (Picture: BFBS)

Army kitting itself out for the win

I've been to DVD a few times before, but this year definitely had a bigger and more focused feel.

The event is sponsored by the National Armaments Director Group and Army Headquarters, and it's all about land warfare capabilities, so the British Army comes in strength.

On display this year was a Challenger 3 tank, an Ajax fighting vehicle, plus half a dozen variants of Boxer, the modular eight-wheel armoured fighting vehicle the British Army is buying to replace its Mastiff and Warrior fleets.

One of the beauties of DVD is the chance to ride aboard some of these vehicles, and the queue for a trip in the back of a Boxer was definitely the longest all day.

Just a few years ago, screens like these would have been used to protect against RPGs, but this Boxer MIV is being protected against drones (Picture: BFBS)

A tale of two halves

The show is split into two distinct zones. In the concept area, we saw Jaguar Land Rover literally unveil its new Defender Wolf Series II, a militarised version of the Defender platform that it hopes will win the contract to replace the UK military's ageing fleet of 5,000 Land Rovers.

Next month, JLR and the other contenders will hand over their demonstration vehicles to the MOD for testing, and it's very likely they'll be brought here to Millbrook for evaluation.

The MOD's Light Mobility Vehicle contract is worth an estimated £2bn, so JLR faces stiff competition.

Ford was also at Millbrook showing off its Ranger, as was Babcock with its offering – a variant of the Toyota Land Cruiser.

Everywhere you looked, there seemed to be another vehicle in the mix, from Rheinmetall's G-Wagon to Fering, a British firm that makes hybrid vehicles with a staggering range of 7,000 kilometres.

Unsurprisingly, drones – and how to counter them – was another theme that dominated this year.

The UK's Nyan one-way effector, recently launched at sea by the Royal Navy, was on show, as were countless other UAVs, interceptors and counter-UAS systems.

There was even an Apache attack helicopter parked up in the British Army zone.

MSI shows off counter-UAV system at DVD exhibition

Up to the challenge

Leonardo's Falcon Shield, which is being used by the RAF Regiment in Cyprus and across the Middle East, was on display, as was Supacat's drone "coop" – a kind of UAV vending machine that can be bolted onto the back of an off-road vehicle, allowing soldiers to pick what sort of drone they want to deploy.

What struck me more than anything else this year was the sheer depth of engineering expertise that exists in Britain's defence industries.

One of the firms that exemplified that was MSI Defence Systems, a Norfolk-based company that began making military equipment in the 1930s.

Nearly a century on, it's still supporting the Armed Forces, providing the 30mm cannon that HMS Diamond used to shoot down a Houthi drone in the Red Sea.

If the UK is to re-arm and dramatically strengthen its defence sector, then these are the firms that will be asked to do it, the 200 companies exhibiting at DVD2026 sending a message that they are ready and willing to take on that challenge.