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France put its version of "robotic mass" on display at the National Day of the Infantry in Draguignan on Oct. 14-15. The exhibit in question was not a clean-sheet drone program. It was REFURBOT, a 36-ton tracked robot built from a retired tank hull, presented by KNDS France and S2M Equipment. The industry pitch is simple: the cheapest way to field large numbers of armed unmanned ground vehicles may be to convert existing Cold War metal into remote-controlled combat machines. This report was filed on Oct. 16, 2024.
REFURBOT first broke cover at Eurosatory in June, where it was introduced as a concept. The Draguignan appearance was a chance to bring the prototype close to the French Army's daily reality - the base is home to the service's infantry school. The robot is not part of any army acquisition scheme. It remains an industrial offer, one that deliberately leverages a past generation of armor to answer a modern shortage: affordable mass.
France produced 3,571 AMX-30 main battle tanks from 1966 to 1994. The design anchored French armored divisions and several export fleets, including Spain, Greece and Saudi Arabia. The type left front-line service with France long ago, but the hulls are still around. Many are stored, some were sold abroad, and a handful still operate at the CENZUB urban training center in Sissonne, playing the opposing force. REFURBOT's logic rests on that surplus: a hull stack is a robot stack.
The demonstrator, fittingly, is built on something even rarer. Underneath the conversion is an AMX-32 chassis, a 1970s export-oriented prototype that never reached series production. Only two AMX-32 hulls are believed to survive; one of them now carries REFURBOT. The AMX-32's own development wandered from the AMX-30's 105mm gun to a 120mm smoothbore turret. REFURBOT keeps none of that. The original turret is gone, replaced by a much lighter weapons module.
The logistics angle might be as attractive as the robotics. AMX-30-family parts remain available through civilian and military channels, and mechanics who know the platform still exist in several countries. An army adopting REFURBOT would not need a completely new supply chain; it would add an autonomy kit and a turret to a vehicle it may already own. That is exactly the kind of shortcut procurement officials look for when budgets are tight.
In place of the original turret sits KNDS's ARX 25, a compact turret armed with the 25M811 automatic cannon. It fires standard 25x137mm ammunition, the same round family used in the VBCI infantry fighting vehicle. A dual-feed magazine holds 280 rounds, and the operator can shift between armor-piercing, armor-piercing incendiary, and high-explosive fragmentation ammunition without stopping. That dual-feed detail matters in practice: an operator can keep a mixed load ready and respond to a target without a lengthy reconfiguration. The effective range reaches 2,500 meters - not main-battle-tank firepower, but a solid, all-purpose combat range.
The UGV conversion relies on KNDS's TOXO kit. The package includes sensor modules mounted at the front and rear, drive-by-wire electronics, and software that handles basic navigation. A remote operator supervises driving and firing. The prototype also keeps its driver seat and original controls, so REFURBOT works as an optionally-manned vehicle - a detail that makes testing, training and integration considerably easier.
What would an army actually do with a 25mm robot tank? The mundane jobs are the most likely ones: perimeter security on forward bases, convoy escort on exposed roads, overwatch of routes and breaches, and sentry duty in dense urban terrain. Weight brings advantages here. A 36-ton tracked base is tough to disable with small arms or rough ground, and the stripped hull has room for more sensors, more armor and more ammunition than any light robotic competitor.
Recycling old hulls is not a new thought. Warrior hulls have been used as British UGV testbeds, and M113s have served in American and Australian experiments. REFURBOT, though, pushes the idea closer to a product line. The starting platform is a full tank, not a light personnel carrier; the finished vehicle keeps a road speed of roughly 65 km/h and carries a stabilized, proven weapons station. The drivetrain and running gear were in production for decades, so spare parts and repair know-how already exist in many armies.
The concept is worth watching from Washington, too. The Pentagon's Robotic Combat Vehicle program has bounced between payload limits and unit cost for years; a light robot cannot carry much, and a heavy custom platform can carry a price tag to match. Reusing hulls that have already fully depreciated is a middle path. For allied armies that still hold AMX-30-family hulls, the same logic could put a capable UGV into service without a decade-long development program. Even the U.S. M113 experiments point in the same direction: strip the crew, add remote control, accept a lower unit cost.
KNDS and S2M say the approach can be adapted in different ways: the same conversion would work on other hull types, and a purpose-designed hull could eventually be developed from scratch. None of that has a contract yet. As of this week, the French Army has not formally requested REFURBOT. The companies are lobbying by demonstration, betting that the next generation of ground robotics will be measured less by how advanced the platform is and more by how quickly it can be delivered in numbers. For industry, there is a business advantage too: every converted hull is a new production line without a new factory. The heavy manufacturing was done decades ago; the remaining work is software, sensors and integration.
That calculus has gained ground in European armies as the war in Ukraine has shown both the utility of drones and the cost of armored attrition. Robots built on old tanks will not replace purpose-designed UGVs on every mission, but they can cover the dull, dangerous and repetitive tasks. The conversation has shifted from whether old tanks can be automated to how quickly armies can trust them. REFURBOT has already made that point - in Draguignan, on the French Army's own ground.
