Ron5 wrote:Navy Lookout says there an inter department war over competing budgets that's holding it up.

Ron5 wrote: That wouldn't surprise me at all. Why can ministers not just make a bloody decision they are bloody useless

When you see how the taliban still had plenty of trucks with machine guns mounted despite being at war with the US for 20 years, there is a lot to be said for heavily armed, highly mobile and highly dispersed small vehicles with decent mine protection. And F35 or Typhoon would obliterate a heavily a...

6x6 think will be £1m. The eagle 6x6 will cost that. Bushmaster if its coming it at 500k is it really up to the job other than a battlefield ambulance with mine protection.

Patria 6x6 could cover all of the above roles, I think the base vehicle is under £1m as well which prob means it will never happen. Its even amphibious too from memory. It would probably struggle with direct fire if it required a 120mm Canon, but could mount an unmanned 30 or 40mm turret I would hav...

Or just stop pissing away so much money in failed procurement. We've burnt through 7bn with little to show for it. Had we stuck with boxer and selected cv90 both programs would have been delivered by now. Warrior LEP never should have seen the light of day. Refurbing aluminium hulls after 30 years a...

Paams is still an excellent system, but considering we where by far the largest initial customer how did we end up with no industrial participation. Wasn't it all an Mbda product? The UK got completely screwed over on the T45/horizon/European frigate program.

How can France pile pressure onto Greece when Greece hold all the cards when making a decision. France will want to save face after losing the sub deal. I always felt T31 was really just being considered to bring the price down on the FTI Frigates. France will be under pressure to offer an even more...

It's not like the French don't have a long and repeated history of pulling out of joint defense programmes when it doesn't fit their national interests. As others have said Germany and Sweden where both openly pushing Australia to cancel in favour of their AIP subs. The only ones giving the French t...

We will prob hear in 18 months unless the army think our hearing is damaged to. The problem with canceling is the 3.5bn will not be reimbursed its gone, which means if we order Cv90 or Lynx we will need to cut mrvp, Indirect fire or puma replacement. I don't get the impression the army want Ajax any...

I have a feeling the UK will pull an Australia and back out of JLTV. I wonder if the US will withdraw their ambassador :lol: I thought the whole point was to order them straight off the US production line and paint them green to get the US economies of scale. Is the hold up now because the UK doesn'...

Work should already be underway for the UK astute replacement even if we cannot order it yet so timing is actually very good for us. The Virginia will be too large and expensive for Australia, but considering how closely the UK and US working on the ssbn replacements I can see the same thing for fut...

I think Indonesia will order more and reduce their Fremm order from the Italians. I'm not sure how many UK components will actually be in the ships. I would expect a lot of it to come from Denmark and Germany. The sensors and cms are mostly European but I'm sure the UK and Babcock will get a decent ...

I'm surprised GDUK never tried to push a 6 wheel or an economy varient of foxhound using steel instead of composites. It offers excellent mine protection and if it uses the same power train as other vehicles I'm not sure why wouldn't be as reliable as the rest. I'm guessing they must wanted to push ...

Imagine placing an order for an upgraded turret in 2021 and achieving IOC just 3 years later. How LM won the Warrior contract in 2011 is beyond me, but when they could not demonstrate a reliable turret design by 2012 when BAE already had one the contract should have been torn up and awarded back to ...

It does look a bit bolted on last minute for the exhibition. From the post yesterday I thought the forward and rear facing panels where all mounted on the large ear pod things on the turret. I'm sure the final design will he more refined. Thanks for the photos though.

Interesting choice on the 81mm mortar. I'd assumed if it was mounted on a boxer the army would have gone for a 120mm option.

Considering its a brand new turret I would have thought Reinmettal would have had something more integrated in mind like on the Lynx. Having said that this looks like it could easily be replaced and swapped onto and Ajax or Warrior turret, not that we will need that feature in the future

It can't be as simple as the head sets amplifying the noise from the engine into the crews ears. I would like to think they all had the brains to stop testing or at least turn them down before their hearing was damaged. It also could have been fixed immediately by testing different noise cancelling ...

Maybe there is some hope for a solution if the Spanish made hulls can be stripped and scrapped at GD's expense and new hulls made in Wales, I think the latter models where meant to have the hulls manufactured in Wales anyway.
I still think there is more to come on the turret though so who knows.

It looks like the plug could be pulled on Ajax altogether. I honestly don't think the MOD can be trusted to purchase the groceries. From the news leaking out they have known about these fundamental problems for nearly 10 years but continued to sign contracts and piss away time and money.