'Turn any tank into your next UGV': France's Foreign Legion may get thousands of XXL robot mules built from retired tanks — though the demo inconveniently sits on one of only two AMX-32s ever made

KNDS and S2M's REFURBOT show up at France's National Infantry Days as an "XXL robotic mule" for the Foreign Legion's 2nd REI, according to FOB REFURBOT uses the TOXO kit to turn retired armored vehicles into Unmanned Ground Vehicles, and was first shown in June 2026 as a 25mm-armed combat robot No payload, price, autonomy level, or contract has been published, and the vehicle remains a prototype for now France's Foreign Legion may soon be moving supplies with a tank that no longer needs a crew.

At the recent Journées nationales de l'infanterie (JNI), the French Army infantry school's showcase held at Draguignan, defense outlet Forces Operations Blog (FOB) posted a video of what it called an "XXL robotic mule for the legionnaires of the 2nd REI." The 2nd REI is the 2nd Foreign Infantry Regiment, a French Foreign Legion unit based in Nîmes.

From gun platform to pack animal in the making The machine comes from REFURBOT, a project by French SME S2M Equipment and KNDS France.

FOB described it less as a single robot and more as "a robotization kit to 'recycle' decommissioned vehicle fleets and rapidly scale up if needed," adding that it remains in the prototype stage, with other wheeled and tracked platforms under study.

When REFURBOT debuted at Eurosatory in June 2026, it was pitched as a fighter, not a porter.

The demonstrator replaced a tank's 105mm turret with KNDS's ARX25 remote weapon station, which carries a dual-feed 25M811 25mm cannon with 280 ready rounds and a coaxial 7.62mm machine gun.

MILMAG reported the company's claim that it can engage light armor, drones, hovering helicopters, and infantry beyond 2,500 meters.

TOXO is the driving package, a bolt-on robotization package whose coverage credits variously to S2M, KNDS, or both.

It pairs radar, lidar, GNSS, and a ring of cameras with drive-by-wire control, and its listed modes include leader-follower driving, route following, return-to-route, and waypoint patrol.

That toolset suits a supply carrier at least as well as a gun truck, and the company's marketing slogan, "Turn any tank into your next UGV," makes the ambition plain.

The raw material exists.

France built 3,571 AMX-30 family vehicles between 1966 and 1994, per Defence Blog , and Zone Militaire reports that the army's 12th Matériel Support Base has been dismantling about 50 AMX-30s a year since 2015.

Zone Militaire also notes that it could apply the same approach to the Leopard 1A5.

The recycling story has a wrinkle; most coverage describes the demonstrator as a converted AMX-30.