And there in lays the problem Running Strong, somone should have hit the pause button at the programmes start, it was clearly overly ambitious, thus impossible to accurately cost and very poorly managed from the top to the bottom.RunningStrong wrote: ↑17 Sep 2022, 20:08It's hardly a replacement, Morpheous EvO is more an iteration of the BCIP5.6 hardware. Regardless, it's still a comprehensive installation if we want a digital recce platform with the ability to communicate in a secure digital network.
Until about 12 months ago when CV90 mkIV was unveiled as a demonstrator, there wasn't a single platform available for the level of C4I and ISTAR equipment that AJAX has on board. That requires significant amounts of power, cooling, weight increase etc etcmrclark303 wrote: ↑17 Sep 2022, 19:54 Digital integrated aside, there is no reason they couldn't have adapted a known vehicle, they didn't, the Ajax hull is far removed from the original design via redesign, it's caused a large number of new problems all of its own.
How many MBT, let alone AFV/IFV, were equipped with commander and gunner sights of equal performance? How many have been fielded with all around digital camera systems? How many have been fielded with that and a medium calibre weapon with programmable rounds?
Yes, the MoD could have bought and Off the Shelf solution, but nothing out there was anywhere near at the time of contracting, and right now I'm not aware of anything, at a paper/top-trumps level, that surpasses AJAX's capabilities.
That's not to say it's better than everything else, because clearly to win the fight you have to be in the fight first, and secondly, gold-plating rarely wins wars.
Even down to the Spanish built Ajax hulls requiring rework on arrival in the UK due to poor quality welding.
The fact they passed numerous factory line inspections, plus final inspection and shipping, only to be found sub standard on arrival, shows what a ridiculous mess the whole programme has descended into!
If it's going to be a technical first and the best of its type in the world, then it's going to be ferociously expensive and with past experience, we knew damn well it would be a programme full of problems and delays, so double your original ferociously expensive price tag and double the development time frame.
We will probably end up with Scimitar pulling a trailer full of stacked Ajax equipment, powered by dasiy chained car batteries