Expensive, noisy and eight years late, but the British Army finally has a new armoured fighting vehicle that troops could deploy to Ukraine in the event of any peace deal.
The nearly £10m Ajax – weighing more than 40 tonnes – is as heavy as a Russian tank and potentially vulnerable to cheap Russian drones.
Yet it is being billed by the UK as a “next generation” fighting machine, equipped with cameras, protective armour and a 40mm gun, with bullets that can rip through concrete.
Luke Pollard, the defence procurement minister, talked up the fleet’s potential while acknowledging that the £5.5bn procurement has had its issues.
This includes excessive noise and vibrations coming from the vehicles that left 17 soldiers requiring treatment for hearing loss.
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“It is an incredible platform. It has got the ability to perform tasks that its predecessors could not,” the minister said, having just gone for a spin in an Ajax during a visit to a General Dynamics factory in Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales, where the vehicles are being assembled.
“After all the problems it may have had in the past, we have put those to bed now.”
The Ministry of Defence on Thursday declared what is known as initial operating capability for Ajax has been met.
It defined this as the ability to deploy a squadron of 27 vehicles on operations from a pool of 50. The total number of delivered Ajax vehicles is 165.
They come in six variants, with the main type designed for reconnaissance and fighting.
The army has ordered a total of 589 of the various models, which it expects to receive by 2030.
Launched more than a decade and a half ago, the Ajax programme was meant to achieve its initial operating milestone in 2017, but this date has been repeatedly pushed back.
The most serious delay occurred when testing was paused after soldiers suffered hearing and other injuries because of loud noise and vibrations coming from the vehicles.
It is why anyone who uses Ajax today must wear specially secure hearing protection.
So, what’s it like?
Sky News was among a group of journalists that were invited to ride around on one of the vehicles at a test track on the factory grounds.
The vehicle is very loud – though soldiers said this would not impact its ability to conduct its primary mission of reconnaissance.
They said Ajax is fitted with clever cameras and sensors that can spot a target up to 5 miles (8km) away.
However, there is clearly the potential for enemy drones to detect the Ajax in return if it were pushing towards enemy territory in a warzone like Ukraine.
The vehicle’s armour is designed to protect against such a threat. But officials said the fleet has yet to be fitted with electronic countermeasures, even though this kind of equipment is fundamental for any operation in Ukraine to help jam enemy drones.
When could it be deployed to Ukraine?
The UK, France and a coalition of more than 30 allies have pledged to deploy to Ukraine to help secure the peace if Kyiv and Moscow agree to some kind of ceasefire – a goal Donald Trump has been trying to achieve, but one that seems vanishingly unlikely for now.
However, Mr Pollard signalled that Ajax could be in the mix of any British offering to the mission.
“We’re not yet setting out precisely what capabilities we would deploy to Ukraine in the event of peace, largely because we don’t know when that peace will come, and we keep our military units at a state of readiness, and we rotate through them,” he told Sky News.
“But when we have the ability to deploy incredibly capable platforms like Ajax and the brilliant men and women trained to use it to its fullest effect.
“There’s a clear opportunity for us to be able to enhance NATO’s capabilities on the eastern flank and any coalition of the willing deployment potentially in the future.”
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Lance Corporal of Horse Andrew Rawlinson, 32, of the Household Cavalry Regiment, who is an Ajax commander, said he would be happy to deploy to Ukraine if asked.
“The squadron that I work in, they’re all good to go,” he said.
“We’ve been training on it now non-stop pretty much for a good two years to get to the IOC [initial operating capability] level and I think everyone’s content, knows their jobs and would be happy to roll out.”
Asked whether Russia should be worried, he said: “Yeah, sure.”
