British 'Ajax' Tracked Fighting Vehicle

Nilgiri

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Vid description (by matsimus):

The Ajax, formerly known as the Scout SV (Specialist Vehicle), is a family of armoured fighting vehicles being developed by General Dynamics UK for the British Army.

The Ajax is a development of the ASCOD armoured fighting vehicle used by the Spanish and Austrian armed forces. The family was originally developed by Steyr-Daimler-Puch Spezialfahrzeug and Santa Bárbara Sistemas in the early 1990s.

Both companies were purchased by General Dynamics in the early 2000s. In 2010, General Dynamics UK was selected as the winner of the Future Rapid Effect System contract with the ASCOD Common Base Platform, beating BAE Systems' CV90 proposal. The Ajax family will be procured in a number of variants, initially planned to be in blocks, with the first vehicles planned to be delivered in 2017. Delays meant that as of January 2020, initial operating capability was expected in July 2020. By Spring 2021, this had still not been achieved. An internal leaked government report also raises serious doubts as to whether the £5.5bn Ajax Armoured Vehicle programme will be delivered on time and within budget.

Problems include excessive vibration and noise.The Ministry of Defence signed a contract for 589 of the Ajax armoured vehicles in 2014. An investigation by the government's Infrastructure and Projects Authority says the "successful delivery of the programme to time, cost and quality appears to be unachievable". The BBC had seen extracts of the leaked report. It states that compelling evidence was found that the programme will not deliver the planned number of Ajax family armoure
d fighting vehicles to the British Army for planned operational deployments in 2023/24.

The MoD and the Army have said they remained committed to the Ajax programme.


 

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