We are left to live in hope rather than absolute expectation and certainty that, following an MOD announcement on Monday afternoon, real positive progress having apparently been made, that the anticipated in-service dates to achieve Ajax Armoured Fighting Vehicle ‘Initial Operating Capability’ are by December 2025 along with ‘Full Operating Capability’ for Ajax now planned to be sometime between October 2028 and September 2029. Wow!
To achieve ‘Full Operating Capability’ requires that the Army has trained and converted a sufficient number of its forces onto Ajax in order to provide Armoured Cavalry capability to the Deep Reconnaissance Strike Brigade and its two Armoured Brigade Combat Teams, are realisable as opposed to this being yet another hope and dream.
Whatever, it seems that the MOD continues to be convinced that the much troubled and maligned General Dynamics Ajax programme of which orders for delivery of 589 units for the MOD are once again now being allowed to resume following agreement with GD that will allow the MOD to now make an initial payment of £480 million that Secretary of State for Defence, Ben Wallace announced in December 2020 was to be withheld until and of the many and varied problems in what Ajax capability had already been delivered were fully sorted.
Ajax is being assembled by General Dynamics UK, a subsidiary of the giant US General Dynamics company. The vehicle is being built from predominantly imported Spanish made components and parts (Ajax has been developed from the ASCOD armoured fighting vehicle used by Spanish and Austrian armed forces) in a former Fork-Lift factory in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales.
In Monday’s statement, the MOD confirmed that payments will now be resumed to General Dynamics and it alluded to a UK supply chain of more than 230 companies supporting 4,000 jobs throughout the UK and particularly in South Wales being involved. The latter comment is I fear being a little economical with the truth.
It is certainly true that the fully digitalised turret for Ajax has been designed and built by Lockheed Martin at Ampthill in Bedfordshire. Thales UK is responsible for building sight systems and Meggitt for the ammunition handling systems. Of course, a number of other UK built specialist components and systems are involved but the bulk of Ajax comprises foreign built components and parts. MTU in Germany are responsible for building the V8 engine that powers Ajax and Chassis and Hulls are built in Spain. So, while there are benefits to the UK supply chain let us not pretend that Ajax is real UK sovereign capability. And on that note of caution, it is worth noting that noise and vibration issues that have seriously impacted on the Ajax testing programme primarily relate to the Spanish built chassis and hull – twisting in certain conditions.
I will ignore pre-planned and agreed statements included in the MOD announcement from senior Army Officers who may have been obliged to add positive sounding remarks but I will include that part of the MOD statement that portends to show where they have got with Ajax testing:
Reliability Growth Trials continue to progress well, testing the durability of the platform and components through a series of battlefield missions.
Since starting trials, AJAX, APOLLO, ATLAS and ARES variants have driven over 2,260 kilometres through different terrains, completing a variety of representative battlefield tasks such as operating across a range of speeds and terrains, firing weapon systems, using the vehicles systems and communications and completing specialist tasks such as vehicle recoveries and repairs using the integrated crane.
Ajax will deliver a step-change in the surveillance capability for the Army, with its suite of cutting-edge sensors, enhanced 40mm cannon, modular armour, and improved cross-country
mobility. The programme will provide a world leading competitive advantage delivering 589 vehicles that will allow the Army to operate in all weathers, 24 hours a day”.
While there is a brief reference in the MOD announcement in respect of noise and vibration issues no further detail in respect of what has been done to resolve these specific and very serious issues emerged within the MOD statement on Monday. Lack of specific detail of what General Dynamics and the MOD may well have done in order to resolve the problems will do little to provide the much-needed confidence of those that will be required to use Ajax.
That Ajax which is already six years late in achieving Initial Operating Capability will need at least two more years to achieve that and another three or maybe for before Full Operating Capability might supposedly be achieved speaks volumes. Will Ajax eventually be able to do all that is says on the tin safely and without damaging the hearing of those inside it? Accepting that there is more work left to do and in the hope that important specific technology required in respect of Ajax ability to meet its planned mission requirements doesn’t get diched in order to save weight and cost, the answer is that it probably will.
But there will I suspect always be a degree of caution required and I also suspect that the cost of maintenance and future mission testing in order to ensure the vehicle conforms to the book will see overall costs of the programme increase through life.
We are where we are though and like it or not, it seems we are now stuck with Ajax for better or worse. The Ajax digitalised turret is the one aspect of Ajax that stands it out from the rest and along with other highly specialist systems and equipment that Ajax will have, on that basis I sincerely hope that eventually it will be for the better and that the Army gets what it needs and deserves.
Nevertheless, in the meantime and whilst I remain appalled at the MOD decision to prematurely withdraw Warrior which has and continues to serve us well and should better have been upgraded, I can at least say thank heavens that, albeit a wheeled rather than tracked vehicle, the MOD is at least buying Boxer.
Of course, having implied earlier in respect of the importance of maintaining sovereign based capability and which I for one, do not regard Ajax as being, I am left to wonder why, in respect of tracked capability requirement, the MOD did not go for the excellent BAE Systems Hagglunds, Swedish built and developed CV90 tracked armoured combat vehicles of which over 1,300 have already been built and that are in service I believe with four NATO member states and other nations around the world. Sometimes, it is better to buy off the shelf and in the case of the Ajax armoured vehicle procurement programme this would, as far as I am concerned, have been one such example.
CHW (London 22nd March 2023)
Howard Wheeldon FRAeS
Wheeldon Strategic Advisory Ltd,
M: +44 7710 779785
Skype: chwheeldon
@AirSeaRescue