UK Defence Forum

That’s turreted, at Bovington, and three months ago.

I think there are a number of prototype/ trials versions. I think it's just that the "final production" version hasn't been delivered yet. I would not be at all surprised if that was a "customer changing his mind" problem, as much as a "production issue" problem.

Mind you - weren't the first 100 or so supposed to be produced in Spain? What happened to them?

Edit: Oops - sorry Bobp, should have hit refresh first - didn't see your post

An article I found in Janes from the beginning of June 2020.
https://www.janes.com/defence-news/news ... a41a7aa603

Caribbean wrote:Edit: Oops - sorry Bobp

No worries i am as curious as anyone, for sure they are making show in recent months, but I do not think the Household Cav has any quantity yet to make a Squadrons worth.

Lord Jim wrote:An article I found in Janes from the beginning of June 2020

I did hear somewhere it had something to do with a quality issue in the Spanish production plant. That article implies the Household Cavalry should have had some for training by the end of 2019,well maybe they have one of the pre production ones.

https://battle-updates.com/gdls-gives-a ... ettlefold/

The link above is slightly newer than Janes

Maybe there is a faint glimmer of hope with this sentence from the article;
"The AJAX programme includes six variants, with more under consideration".

Lord Jim wrote:with more under consideration

Maybe one with a 105mm/120mm gun and ATGM for the ones with RWS.

bobp wrote:
No worries i am as curious as anyone, for sure they are making show in recent months, but I do not think the Household Cav has any quantity yet to make a Squadrons worth.

Anyway, they should commission more vids from the same team (I guess it was a recruitment piece... using conviction in the 'right' arena?)

In this briefing summary I guess Joint Fires has been lumped under the other totals? Could be good news as we need more; change within existing total first... and revisit later (if "all the money is [NOT] gone" by then):
The AJAX programme includes six variants, with more under consideration: AJAX, (Scout/ISTAR), 245 vehicles, ARES (specialist troop transport), 93 vehicles, APOLLO, (Recovery vehicle with crane) 50 vehicles, ATHENA, (Commander’s C4ISTAR vehicle)112 vehicles, ATLAS, (Recovery vehicle) 38 vehicles and ARGUS, (engineer vehicle) 51 vehicles.

ArmChairCivvy wrote:Anyway, they should commission more vids from the same team

Yes I agree with regards the videos. Beginning to think (Some wishful) maybe there is some light at the end of a long tunnel. More firepower needed in the right places is a must along with the ammunition of course.

bobp wrote:

Caribbean wrote:Edit: Oops - sorry Bobp

No worries i am as curious as anyone, for sure they are making show in recent months, but I do not think the Household Cav has any quantity yet to make a Squadrons worth.

Bob, the photo I published was from a Household Cavalry twitter post on Wednesday so I assumed new news but later I saw the same photo in their (online) magazine from some months ago so now I have no idea what prompted the Wed post. You can see it here https://twitter.com/HCav1660/status/1273193825503268870

Ron5 wrote:now I have no idea what prompted the Wed post

Recruitment possibly looking at some of the twitter links. The Household Cavalry were supposed to have quite a few of them by now, but there was some delay, now it looks like at least one has reached them for training. Your original picture is very high resolution and you can zoom in and see a lot of detail. So well found.

Ares joins the Household Cavalry Regiment

The Armchair Soldier wrote:Ares joins the Household Cavalry Regiment

I seem to remember a AJAX being with them about a month back, so this is good news.

Must be a geek, I enjoyed seeing the tractor trailer just as much Oshkosh right? I'm no expert.

But still no "Turreted" Ajax arriving! There is definitely a bottleneck somewhere.

Update on that video of the ARES arriving.

There was six of them (ARES) delivered.

https://www.army.mod.uk/news-and-events ... -the-army/

What exactly are they for?

What will they do?

Cant fight tanks, but can't self deploy.

Army procurement makes RN and RAF look like paragons of virtue.

Zero Gravitas wrote:What exactly are they for?

Rushing around with dash and elan

What will they do?

Take up large chunks of equipment budget, rush around with dash and elan, burn nicely.

Cant fight tanks, but can't self deploy.

It can fight tanks, but it’s likely to lose. It can self deploy, but it’ll be hard work and expensive. On the plus side it’s unlikely to outrun its logistics chain, which is what Strike seems to aim for.

Army procurement makes RN and RAF look like paragons of virtue.

It’s got a fair way to go yet. After all, MRA4 cost more than the Ajax programme and the Army is getting something out of their expenditure.

Quite why the role needed its own set of vehicles in the weight class its at is beyond me.

mr.fred wrote: It can fight tanks, but it’s likely to lose. It can self deploy, but it’ll be hard work and expensive. On the plus side it’s unlikely to outrun its logistics chain, which is what Strike seems to aim for.

Army procurement makes RN and RAF look like paragons of virtue.

It’s got a fair way to go yet. After all, MRA4 cost more than the Ajax programme and the Army is getting something out of their expenditure

True, but personally I prefer a cock up that I understand the requirement for (MR4) over a slightly better managed cock up that has no clear role at all!

It did have one before, but then the program was cut, many of its variants cut, and then the eventual formation it was supposed to fit into completely changed after the point at which it had already built steam.

Carter has a big role to play in this issue.

The early roll-out plan (when the recce rgmnts were still the apple of the pie) was to have one Ajax sqdrn to every 2 light recce sqdrns
- still a valid plan for formations other than Strike?

RetroSicotte wrote:It did have one before, but then the program was cut, many of its variants cut, and then the eventual formation it was supposed to fit into completely changed after the point at which it had already built steam..

I think at the point that it was clear that the requirements called for something the size and weight of an IFV, it should have been put on hold and reconsidered with the IFV and potentially the MBT requirement. Granted that’s with a bit of hindsight regarding world events and other programme progress.

If the Army had its head screwed on, and a set of balls (Male service personnel only) it would bit the bullet and cancel the Ajax or at least offer it up for cancellation. If it did so out of the £3.5Bn production contract its could save at least £2.5Bn which could be spent on things the Army actually needs. Not issuing a production contract of the Warrior could save up to £0.5Bn as well.