The chair of the Defence Committee said the Army’s troubled armoured vehicle programmes now amount to “an absolute shambles”, as MPs pressed ministers over fresh injuries sustained during Ajax trials and wider concerns about land readiness.
Speaking in the Commons, Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi MP criticised the state of key Army platforms after more than 30 soldiers reported sickness and hearing issues during an exercise on 22 November involving the Ajax reconnaissance vehicle. He argued that the renewed problems raise questions about whether the programme is viable at all.
He highlighted multiple pressures across the Army’s fleet, pointing to delays in the Boxer mechanised infantry vehicle and issues with the MAN support vehicle fleet. He asked whether “a wider systemic problem with land vehicle procurement and sustainment” now exists and what that means for Army readiness at a time of heightened international tension.
Defence minister Luke Pollard said he shared MPs’ concern, stressing that he would not speculate until three separate investigations report on the cause of the noise and vibration injuries. “It is not good enough for our service personnel to sustain injuries in this fashion on a platform that they were reassured was safe. Getting to the bottom of this issue is a priority for me,” he said.
Pollard told MPs he had ordered external expertise to be brought in, stating that the Ministry of Defence is assembling “a team of experts from a number of organisations outside the usual GD production line to add expertise and external challenge”. He confirmed that General Dynamics had apologised for a staff member who publicly mocked injured soldiers.
Addressing the broader concerns raised by the committee, the minister said the MAN SV issue was being handled through standard processes for an ageing fleet, with rectification work under way and full capability expected early in the new year. He nevertheless acknowledged shortcomings in how land equipment has been procured and sustained. “The defence procurement system we inherited is in need of quite significant reform. We have started that process already, but there is more work to be done,” he said.
Pollard added that moving the entire force to a warfighting footing will require resolving “significant issues with a number of platforms”. The department expects to provide a further update in a written ministerial statement before the Christmas recess.
No fears… The Germans will defend us…. If not what about using horses??
Brilliant idea! Why could our politicians think of that? Oh wait!
Brilliant idea! Why could our politicians not think of that? Oh wait!
I was hoping we could get the Germans to run the health service first.
It’s across the board, a total lack of planning to fight a long peer war.. even as everyone says we will be fighting one… army formations and vehicles, navy mass, airforce mass..even the basics of civil defe
Rusi’s Hamish Mundell said it best…”Medical capacity is limited. Reserve regeneration pipelines are slow… The British plan for mass casualty outcomes appears to be based on not taking casualties.” With classic British understatement, he says: “This could be considered an optimistic planning assumption.” From the BBC ( who are really turn on the war talk).
Completely agree Jonathan, it’s absolute madness, it’s hard to even get an idea of just how bad things really are.
To be clear, this is not just the result of poor investment and planning, a lot of it is to do with the “no-fail/make do” attitude and a general unwillingness to pass bad news up the CoC. I think as a result we end up with the worst of the officers going to the top these days, as the ones with more integrity punch out.
I remember years ago reading about how the Kursk submarine crew might have been saved if the personnel who received the reports from those who had initially detected the explosions had raised the alarm to the senior leadership, but they didn’t because of an attitude that it might affect their career prospects. I read this before I joined and thought “at least we’re not like that”, then I did my ten years and realised it was exactly like that here too.
To be fair it’s been a problem with British military since year dot. Over reliance on toffs back in the day caused us to be totally unprepared for two world wars. A country that had an empire that spanned half the world should have had zero issues with dealing with both wars but issues/warnings were ignored and lessons weren’t learnt.
It’s easy to see the likes of Boris being a general in days of past, too busy partying and coming from a life without consequneces for mistakes, to actually do the job.
Steve, do you really think that poor preparation for world wars is solely down to senior officer toffs who all failed in their duty… and that light forces configured for colonial policing & security against zero or low grade threats would be ready (and could be redeployed to Europe?) for mass warfare against peer European opponents in the age of the machine?
I dispute that we were totally unprepared for war in 1939. Within months of Hitler’s rise to power (in October 1933) the Defence Requirements Sub-Committee (DRC) was appointed and in its first full meeting on 14/11/33 re-assessed the threat to the UK (and British interests) as being primarily from Germany and secondly from Italy and Japan.
They went on to identify capability gaps in Britain’s armed forces, caused by post-1918 disarmament that had extended into the early ’30s. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Neville Chamberlain (1931-37), strongly argued for prioritisation of the RAF for modernisation, recognising the dangers of mass enemy air attack on the homeland and also that most of the RAF still had biplanes. Largely thanks to him the RAF had the funding for developing and manufacturing Spitfires and Hurricanes for the Battle of Britain; we would have lost the Battle without those and might then have been invaded.
As a consequence of rearmament activity from November 1933 other activity happened: shadow factories for war work were created (9 new ones and extensions to other existing factories); defence expenditure climbed from 2.7% of GDP (in 1933/34) to 8.9% by FY 1938/39; the RN ordered 5 new battleships (including HMS PoW) and modernised many more, ordered the Illustrious class of aircraft carriers and a fleet of battle cruisers…and Singapore naval base was built in a record 3.5 years (target was 5 years).
The home-based army was very largely modernised and the BEF deployed to France with all-modern equipment from tanks to new howitzers and uniforms, webbing and mess tins.
All this work aided and executed by ‘toff officers’, but the real praise goes to the clear-eyed politicians of the day.
The only General that I personally knew who ‘liked to party’ was General Sir Mike Jackson – he was also amazingly good at his job, unlike Boris.
There are always good examples but there is plenty of bad ones. Lions led by donkeys wasn’t invented for no reason.
Life is never simple enough to say one reason only was the cause as we know a lot in the political class of the day sided with Germany but certainly military intelligence being so incompetent and not rising the alarm bells to Germany massive military expansion was a factor in it.
The British Army was the best trained Army in the world at the start of both wars. They were even pretty well equipped. At the start of both wars the French collapsed and the BEF held the line. The only REAL problem with the BEF at the start of both wars was size and numbers. This was due to decisions made by Politicians. Sound familiar?
The french did not calapse in either war, check your history. Dunkirk would not have happened if the French hadn’t held the line.
Oh I dunno, admittedly open to some interpretation, but the French got trounced in the Alsace-Lorraine and at the battle of Charleroi. The BEF engaged the Germany Army at the first Battle of the Mons and proceeded, despite being outnumbered 3:1, to provide a clinical lesson in musketry. That was until the French 5th Army decided to go home and retreated all the way to Paris in the Grande Retreat leaving the BEF’s right flank wide open and exposed.
In WW2 I am aware that French Units formed the rearguard on the last day to allow the BEF to escape and many French units fought heroically, but I think it can be fairly safe to say the French Army collapsed in 1940.
But that is all by the by as my point was that neither BEF were an ill equipped, poorly led rabble. They were a well equipped and professional force lacking only in numbers due to decisions made outside of their control.
Fisher, As a former army officer of 34 years service, I read your post with interest. The only person who seems to be under-briefed or perhaps more accurately, badly briefed, until recently is the Minister, Luke Pollard himself! I see no lack of communications going up the CoC. Famously the CO of ATDU delivered a blistering report on Ajax up the CoC many years ago.
However what on earth was CGS doing in supposedly unreservedly endorsing Ajax as perfectly safe to Pollard? I am not sure he dug into the detail.
Best not to just blame just ‘officers’ which I presume you to mean army officers. This project has had many parties to failure: many in Industry, both at GDUK Merthyr Tydfil and GDELS Madrid; civil servants probably across many grades; Ministers.
In your Kursk example, I am sure that many middle-ranking and senior Russian naval officers could be faulted for their failing to pass up reports in a timely fashion (and possibly minimising the seriousness of the situation) – although we will never really know due to secrecy within a Police state …but blame rests firmly on Putin’s shoulders, who refused offers of international support whilst failing to break his dacha holiday.
Thanks for your response Graham, I completely agree with all your points for what it is worth. The rot runs very deep, until the lower to mid level leadership is willing to stand up and speak truth to power then nothing is going to change.
Jonathan, had you heard that the MoD has no plan for the defence of the UK home base? Revealed last week.
GM,
Please provide additional detail re your post. Reasonably certain USAF would be disconcerted to learn their largest MOB in European theater had already been occupied by the opposition. Damned inconvenient, that. 🤔😱
Ha! Pretty much the only plan seems to be hoping that you guys quickly deploy your GBAD systems to Lakenheath, Mildenhall, Fairford, and Feltwell in time.
With a russian asset in the shitehouse that’s one thing that is guaranteed to not happen!
What “GBAD” systems other than SkySabre and Stormer for the Army? What about the rest of the country, naval ports and key infrastructure!? And any upgrade to Shorad capabilities?
I was making a joke that there is no plan apart from hoping the US moves Patriots, etc., to US-run bases in the UK. If you read the comments again, you’ll see I’m agreeing that we don’t have sufficient GBAD in SkySabre.
Greg,
Have actually suggested MoD/RAF/(BA?) pursue such a deployment by the US, on a permanent basis. Confident the request would be honored, eventually. Uncle Sugar has substantially valued assets at equal risk as the UK. Others on forum have stated UK national pride would preclude such a request. Dunno, personally would remain flexible…🤔
I wouldn’t mind our national pride taking a bit of a dent if it meant people woke up to the fact that our current GBAD systems aren’t sufficient for homeland security. I’m sure the Pentagon has a plan in place to quickly move systems here and to other US bases if needed.
Greg, ‘Pretty much the only plan seems to be hoping that you guys quickly deploy your GBAD systems to Lakenheath, Mildenhall, Fairford, and Feltwell in time’
That would be great if we had any GBAD to deploy, but I think you know that! The army’s GBAD is for the expeditionary deployed army, so it will all be either in the Falklands but mostly ‘east of Berlin’! The RAF Regiment gave up GBAD decades ago. The Navy might be able to spare one or two Type 45s to moor in the Thames to ‘save London (ie Westminster)’.
Graham, I’m British. When I said ‘you guys quickly deploy your GBAD systems to Lakenheath, Mildenhall, Fairford and Feltwell in time’, I meant ‘you guys’ as in the Americans. I’m assuming Former USAF is ex–United States Air Force.
Hi F/USAF, source is BBC News website of 19th Nov, which reads:
Brian Wheeler
Political reporter
Published
19 November 2025
The UK lacks a plan to defend itself and overseas territories from a military attack, a report by MPs has found.
In a highly critical assessment, external, the defence committee said the UK is “nowhere near” where it needs to be to defend itself and allies, especially at a time when security threats to Europe are “significant”.
The report found that the UK is failing to meet its Nato obligations, and falling “far short of its claimed leadership position”.
The report was published as the Ministry of Defence (MoD) identified prospective locations for six new munitions factories, part of a strategy to ramp up domestic defence production.
In June, Defence Secretary John Healey announced plans to move the UK to “war-fighting readiness,” including £1.5bn to support the construction of new munitions factories, which will be built by private contractors.
But after an 11-month inquiry, the defence committee warned the UK and its European Nato allies remained too reliant on the US and is not spending enough on its own defences.
Committee chair Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi said: “Putin’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, unrelenting disinformation campaigns, and repeated incursions into European airspace mean that we cannot afford to bury our heads in the sand.”
He said the committee had “repeatedly heard concerns about the UK’s ability to defend itself from attack”.
The specific recommendations of the committee’s report included a call for the government to accelerate the speed of industrial change, and make “readiness” a key objective.
Europe’s heavy reliance on the US in critical areas such as “intel, satellites, transportation of troops and air-to-air refuelling” was also subject to critique in the report.
It noted that the UK had “next to nothing” when it came to integrated air and missile defences, and pointed to recent drones encroaching on airspace across Europe as a way new technologies can threaten civilian populations in addition to military targets.
The report was also particularly critical of what it calls the “glacial pace” of promised improvements to civil defence and resilience, saying the UK may be failing to meet its Nato Article 3 obligations, external to “maintain and develop individual and collective capacity to resist armed attack”.
Dhesi says the government also needed to deliver on its promise to better communicate with the public about “the level of threat we face and what to expect in the event of conflict”.
“Wars aren’t won just by generals, but by the whole of the population getting behind the Armed Forces and playing our part,” he added.
The government announced earlier this year that UK defence spending would rise to 3% of GDP by 2034 at the latest.
In a speech on Wednesday, Healey is expected to announce plans to restart the production of energetics – explosives, pyrotechnics and propellants – in the UK, after two decades of sourcing these materials from overseas.
The MoD is scoping out 13 sites where it believes the new factories could be built and has named the areas of the UK where they are located.
There are three potential sites in Scotland – in Dumfriesshire, Ayrshire and at Grangemouth, in Stirlingshire.
In England, a total of eight sites have been earmarked – in Teesside, Cumbria, Shropshire, Cheshire, Derbyshire, Essex, Worcestershire and Hampshire – and there are two in Wales – in Monmouthshire and Milford Haven, in Pembrokeshire.
The government wants at least six new factories to be operational by the next election in 2029, and hopes work will begin on the first of these next year.
Healey is also expected to announce the opening of two new drone factories this week in Plymouth and Swindon.
“We are making defence an engine for growth, unambiguously backing British jobs and British skills as we make the UK better ready to fight and better able to deter future conflicts,” the defence secretary will say.
“This is the path that delivers national and economic security.
Hi F/USAF, hopefully my longer post will be ‘cleared’. We certainly had excellent plans to defend against invasion and air attack in WW2, and also in the Cold War. Not so sure now, based on the BBC report which quotes a HoC committee, probably HCDC. Very surprising if accurate that MoD has no plans to defend our island home. (Does the US have such plans for CONUS? I hope that ‘War Plan Red’, aka the ‘Atlantic Strategic War Plan’ has been updated!)
I know of no Military Home Defence exercises at scale since those in the mid-80s, especially Ex BRAVE DEFENDER of Sep 1985, one small aspect of which was the first exercising of the Home Service Force (HSF), created specifically to guard Key Points/Installations. Sad to say that the HSF (ex-TA and ex-regulars aged 18 to 60) was disbanded in 1992/93 due to the Peace Dividend.
I am sure you know that many cities and towns in the UK were attacked by 10,000 cruise missiles/drones (V-1) from 13th June 1944 and 3,000 ballistic missiles with 1 ton warheads (V-2) from 8th Sep 1944. Toegther they killed 9,000 civilians, wounded nearly 25,000 and destroyed over 30,000 houses and damaged 250,000. Attacks ceased on 29/3/45 (V-1) and 27/3/45 (V-2) respectively.
Still in 2025 we have no defence against similar but more deadly weapons – over 80 years of government inaction.
All our Civil Defences were largely dismantled as part of the Peace Dividend in the very early 90s.
GM,
Thanks for your responses. Thought provoking. Have largely failed to understand the British perspective re the rearmament process, given the UK’s role during the interwar years, and especially the deadly onslaught endured by the general population during WWII. One might therefore assume that homeland self-defense capability would be a reasonably high priority. However, one could also prove to be dead (😉) wrong in embracing such an assumption.
F/USAF, regarding the onslaught endured by the British civilian poulation, my stats only covered that caused by V-1 and V-2 attacks. You have to add in the death and destruction caused by the aerial bombing in the Blitz and the Baedecker raids.
GM,
Have studied the London Blitz air campaign, but frankly did not remember the Baedeker Blitz/Raids. Thanks! 🤔
Literally as we all suspected 🫣
Are you serious? Aren’t the Reservists used for home defence? Why can’t they get organised? If they need some idea’s, take cues from European-Scandinavian countries that are.
Quentin, the Volunteer Reserve is a general pool of manpower to support and reinforce the deployed regular army. Maybe one or two battalions could be held back, roled and trained for defence of the homeland? We don’t even have personnel to defend Key Points and Installations (the HSF was dsbanded in 1992/93), let alone defend villages, towns and cities.
In WW2 two brigades defended Arundel alone.
Still complete lack of detail on how we ended up with the mess and who’s heads have rolled because of it.
If there is massive corruption, I would also like to see people in prison.
Just vague statements about fixing things isn’t useful. We need details of what went wrong and why.
How many times over the last few decades have we heard PM say they are fixing things but yet the issues just continue. Just nonsense that a public enquiry hasn’t been held.
Agreed.
Staged payments for delivery milestones clearly did not have and quality factor attached. The fixed price contract which Cameron was so proud of means each change is a drop in profit, in a corporate bonus culture a 1 billion suspension and track change would be career ending ?
I’m sure that added to the problems but it’s not the answer. MOD staff were monitoring the program from the start, it was there job to ring the alarm bells when things started going badly. That’s the issue with such large procurements, the issues will be many and diverse, allowing people to get away with it.
We Sihk answers.
Well done Halfwit
We can only cry laughing at what a dire position most of our defence forces find themselves in
Underfunded under armed and unundermanned
I hope the specific defence plan spending which is overdue as winter is upon us will enlighten us
Ha Ha Ha What bet we see see lots of BS
The Treasury say no We have to pay for our master’s pet projects
Chagos deal £5 billion plus Nationalisation? Welfare plus? etc etc etc
Ajax is going to put a match to the current state of the British Army. If I were in a position of influence, I’d be looking for an urgent alternative to be ordered within six months and be capable of regimental strength within three years. Whether it’s from a European source or elsewhere doesn’t concern me greatly; the Army needs the best mobile armoured kit available. The prospect of the US detuning its forces in Europe is now a real one, and that will require the remaining NATO members to make up the shortfall. Sadly, for the UK Treasury, the costs will have to come from the taxpayer; however, as the smoke clears and the realisation that we in Europe are without US clout will help to get the seriousness of the situation over to the public.
Trouble is we can ‘order’ what we like but then we will join a long queue for anything that we do! The prospect of getting AFVs through tests and more tests and in service in 3 yrs will be impossible😟
Jacko, you are correct about demand for AFVs, but the UK is in a hole and can’t hope for a timely transition from one piece of kit to another as Europe moves inexorably toward conflict with Russia. What is required are wartime procedures that bypass peacetime practices and get industry moving. One possible route could be acquiring Bradleys from the USA, but they would be early MKs, as updated versions are on order for their forces. Another route could be financing a plant in the UK to build either South Korean or German designs from an established product. Once the short-term issues are addressed, then a ‘Build In The UK’ policy needs to be established, so we can determine our future kit without too much reliance on foreign designs.
Yep Bradleys are already built and sitting in the sun,could we actually put any trust in trump to deliver though? All his ramblings are oriented towards pootin so who knows🤔
M2A3 at todays prices approx $5.8m.
Why settle for the M2A3 when you could have the M2A4E1 at £4.46 million? 🤷🏼♂️
Purely on waiting time,A4s are now being converted for the US Army would they allow us to get any ahead of them?A3s are sitting there in stock so to speak.
Maurice, if Ajax is canned, your idea to obtain used Bradleys from the US is reasonable, but they would have to be the M3 Cavalry Fightng Vehicle type.
Also, with Warrior upgrade binned in early 2021 and Warrior set to wither on the vine unmodernised before being pensioned off we may as well also ask the Americans for used M2 Bradley IFVs.
Hopefully the price for both procurements will be low, as there is likely to be little funding for either acquisition.
Graham, there appaers to be more to the Ajax story than we the public has been told. A whistleblower video shows a shoddily built Ajax with flooded compartments and badly fitting body trim! Rubber tracks must be on the list of possible solutions. Bradley had a poor reputation until deployed in Ukraine where they have shown many a Russian tank how to fight. The key question now is, will Trump allow Bradleys to be leased to the UK? His current mood is very odd and he may choose not to cross Putin by allowing the UK a 1000 or more Bradley’s?
They’d have to look to make under licence in the UK and make sure there’s a darn good QA department doing their job on every vehicle.
They are already made mate they are stockpiled in the desert sunbathing😀
For a near instant fix maybe the Bradley’s not a bad choice and better value for money. Paint a 🇬🇧 on it and away we go!
I think first up we need to see what and if any fix the government is actually going to do. The level of bungling here is appalling. Why doesn’t GDUK man up a bit and if it’s worth saving say they’ll put in to fix it and the government does the same?
There’s a big old factory in Merthyr Tydfil that’s about to be redundant. Maybe it can be repurposed?
Could it be that some hostile power has infiltrated our defence procurement process and sabotaged it?
Thinking a bit the same. Such gross carelessness almost seems deliberate. Maybe as a stop gap now they should proceed with the Warrior upgrade including rebuilding any surplus chassis’?
I have watched this develop for decades. Pass the buck is the practice, no accountability see. From the Mod, to politicians to industry. All a shower of shit.
And the worst aspect? We feed the MIC with taxpayers money for no visible results. Lobbying and corruption.
Someone else here who sees the power of the MIC and how they profit over the misery of the military…
Aye Daniele, started with SA80 trials for me. We told them it had serious shortfalls and we were ignored. So failures happened on ops that could have cost lives. Same in the US, look at Booker recently. They knew about Ajax years ago so no excuses, the list is endless and its carry on as normal.
No one EVER gets held to account, and yes men in the military are to blame. Those that will not pass it up and those at the top who do not want to hear it. This is what weak leadership does. Keep quite get a better CR and crap on up any one below who says any thing. That is the real Army the one lots know about but few ever talk about.
Once upon a time the army trained with broomsticks but it was a long time ago…wasn’t it?
“Who do you think you’re kidding Mr —— ” ?
Lol, broomsticks is all we could manage back then, things never change.
roomsticks….and not a Pike to be seen between them.
A snowball effect of decades of incompetence, u turns, and lack of money due to a pause in most replacement programs, carried out by Labour no less when they were last in power, which resulted in the Army needing to replace several types as they aged at the same time rather than a staggered, sensible approach where one issue is dealt with then the next.
This goes all the way back to Blair and Brown, at least the blasted Tories started replacement programs, albeit maybe not the right ones.
On the military side, I believe the Army themselves dropped TRACER, then pissed a billion up the wall on FRES ( the MIC keeps the money of course ) then settled on Ajax and look how we are getting on here. How many decades is it now they have been trying to replace CVRT?
And posters here complain about the RN’s Carriers….
Hi M8, As someone who was fomally involved with part of the UK MIC since 1979 I just need to correct you about the History some of us had to actually live through !
It wasn’t Blair or Brown who started this process they just continued it and also completely screwed UK NATO forces due to their Sand Box Wars sucking the living daylights out of what was left by Major.
It all goes back to the First Post “End of the Cold War” Defence review in 1990 which started the process of “The Peace Dividend” it was actually instigated by the Rt Hon Margaret Thatcher and then delivered by John Major when he took over ! You may want to have a read of “Options for Change 1990” which was then followed up in 1994 by “Front line First” those 2 are the First 2 Tombstone Blue Prints for every other cut that followed.
TORY 2 (inc 1 Banker), LABOUR 2 (1 murdering deluded intervensionist), TORY (Lost count but all useless), LABOUR 1 (useless so far !)
Hi mate.
I was referring specifically to land systems regards Blair and Brown, so 97 to 2010, not cuts in general!
Yep, well aware of OFC91 and FLF in 94, with Portollo at the helm.
The Sandbox wars caused cancellations galore in the Land domain as not needed for COIN.
All post Front line First.
Overall, I agree.
Thatcher sold Royal Ordnance to British Aerospace, the think the 16 factories got reduced to about 7 and they recovered the purchase price by selling the surplus land for housing. This was the end of war capacity for munitions, a sensible Government would have mothballed them. Blair bought the Panther Jeep, by the time it was up armoured the inboard brakes overheated, bowman blocked one door, the ballistic windows prone to fogging up between layers, it had a high centre of Gravity made worse by remote gun station and wallowed off road making passengers sea sick. Armoured v floor had to be removed to grease props as no access plates. It had poor reliability due to overloaded weight. This vehicle was very expensive and better protected vehicles were available for lower cost.
Buy some Toyota pickup trucks, and mount a machine gun on the back ….
Who ever said ‘Leave this to the accountants!’?
John Major in 1990 !
Sorry, Rodders there’s no prize!
As a long time ‘sensible’ around here you might agree with me: There is no timescale in which any of our enormous defence gaps can be rectified in the face of the immanent threats. We would be better advised to help finance neighbours such as the Scandinavians who will fight (believe me) than hope Putin waits until we are ready sometime in 2035.
It’s a very old tradition of the UK to have sod all army worth writing about and then hand over a shed load of gold to whoever is actually doing the fighting.
Scrap Ajax, form a mounted horse unit with troops with LPI radios and target designators. More mobile, more covert, more servivanle – less espensive and low risk. AND the Army gets its beloved cavelry back.
Bin Ajax. Spend some short term cash on keeping Warrior and other vehicles going while we invest in CV90, 600 to 800 of them. Get some more Archers too while we are at it, but still get the Boxer RCH155.
Boxers ordered to fulfil mechanised infantry roles. Get another 100 CR3s using the hulls we now know they have.
Increase army to about 80,000 to 85,000.
Job done, move on. Even if this does take another 5 to 8 years, at least we’d know there was light at the end of the tunnel.
Hi RobW I agree with you on CV90, more Archers ,CR3s and definitely more troops but I do have a bad feeling about Boxer RCH155 .For me just buy more Archers . 👍
I said that as the MoD will want UK industrial work share, so making the RCH155 here at RBSL in Telford. It is another big risk though, so perhaps we should just stick with proven kit until the army is finally adequately equipped.
Not necessarily the thing about UK Politicians is they fundamentally neither understand or comprehend how industry works or how it can react when challenged to do so.
If they decide to buy something they will spend ages trying to form a harmonious traditional multi nation partnership where no one is in charge and no one is accountable.
If they just decided that they want say the CV90 and PDQ and asked U.K. industry to get creative about producing them I am willing to bet BAe would either put in a ridiculously silly tender knowing full well that it’s a one shot deal with no further work at the end of the contract. Or look round for a UK owned company that has existing suitable plant, infrastructure and experience and a workforce that can be adapted to build large land vehicles.
So call the company who proudly put a Big Union Jack on everything they build and ask them how they feel about using Green Paint instead of Yellow ? I think most folks forget just how massive a company JCB are and the level of expertise they have in building big mobile lumps of metal.
That’s more like it! Would it be worth giving the Warrior’s a newer turret?
Anyone in MOD trying to claim some monies back on any contract insurance for safety-warranty failures even after sign off?
Giving it a newer turret isn’t impossible, CSP was a thing for a while and uses some of the same stuff that is on Ajax, so I wonder if we would be able to find a way to keep the Ajax turret production line open and transplant them onto the warrior hull for a quick fix.
Maybe also do similar with a module for Boxer that has the Ajax turret mounted to it, so we have another more modern albeit wheeled solution (Also helps solve some of our need for an IFV variant of boxer)
I am not surprised the whole thing is a shambles…Our armed forces have been treated as a back up piggy bank for all government failure since options for change in the early 90.s..
Problem with Whitehall is too many chiefs not enough Indians. and the continual move the goal posts because this needs to be fitted no changed our minds how about this, then costs go up, then delay after delay by the time something arrives it’s not fit for purpose out of date or needs a ton more money spending to put it right.
Perfect example for one type 45
The whole procurement system is a sh?t Show
Its all just a money making scam
The personnel who need this kit are the ones I Feel sorry for .. Let down time and again with crap and defunct equipment always having to just make do
Hi Andy very well said your post is spot on. 👍
Its a pity because that Blackjax Ajax variant looked incredible.
Its just a mock up though. Supposedly has rubber tracks to help with noise and vibration but who knows whether that is enough. It would be another very expensive risk, when we could order the proven CV90 instead. A good number of IFV MKIVs, recce variants, and Armadillos in various variants i.e. mortar, APC, C&C, Ambulance, Recovery.
We have to de-risk the next big purchase. Buy existing variants that work, with a future program to add capability in conjunction with BAE so we do not make it too heavy…again.
Ajax should be cancelled immediately. Any finished vehicles should be converted to remote control and sent to Ukraine.
When Ben Wallace was in government they was a crunch time wether to carry on with Ajax or Scrap it he took the gamble to continue but unfortunately looking like it’s not paid off .This Ajax surely must stop now ,has hard has it is with Vechels coming off the production line and money spent .BAe CV90 looking like to he Answer . 😟 🤔
Videos on BFBS news showing brand new Ajax with bits hanging off and believe it or not WATER in the bottom of the hull😡
Leaks as well? Return to sender! Maybe Mr Pollard needs to have a face to face visit with GDUK.
Cheers Jacko , I took a look at the Video very depressing .Where do the Army go from here I really don’t know.
I did write to Wallace and told him the suspension needed changing and rubber tracks, no doubt never got past his admin team
😂
Ditch the turreted Ajax. Re-institute the WCSP. Restore 200 Warriors to reconnaissance spec and 250 to IFV spec. Fix the issues in the lighter vehicles in the family – Ares, Athena etc.
Ajax should be scrapped. replace with CV90. the problem lies with the MOD and the changes in procurement specifications of what is required. That extra top 5-10% in spec costs money and delays.
There is a lot of money sunk in Ajax, which we won’t get back because some idiot somewhere – probably at DE&S, because they handle procurement – signed off the various stages, culminating in the IOC green light.
I I think Pollard is doing close to the right thing here, which is calling in industry experts to have a detailed look at the design and construction. Their findings will inform whether the thing can be made good or is in fact a pup that needs scrapped.
Putting a 38-42 tonne load on a chassis designed for 26 was always going to be a challenge. GD redesigned the suspension system in 2015 but it doesn’t appear to have worked any better than the previous one. Suspect this is primarily a suspension and drive train issue or set of issues, and a switch to rubber tracks may assist the handling.
If so, It can be fixed with a bit of time and money. The Warriors being used in the recce role can do the job pro tem.
However, there is also the issue of build quality. About two-thirds of those tested by ATDU were OK, the rest had noise and vibration issues. The latter applied to 3 of the variants, don’t know which three, nor do we know the circumstances of the fails, was it off-road, .gradient, gear changing, etc. It all sounds like their are random variations.in build quality.
We know that the initial batch built in Spain were not up to scratch, with non-parallel sides and whatever else. I wonder too where GD UK found its workforce for the Welsh production line, as they had to start from scratch? Basically, do they have a sufficiently well-trained workforce to produce modern armoured vehicles or are they learning on the job?
If the ‘experts’ think the main problems can be resolved, the best way forward would be to switch the rest of the contract to an established armoured vehicle manufacturer, ideally Rheinmetall/BAE if they have the capacity.
Any that fail ATDU should go back to GD to be stripped down and re-built to the new standard – or we could just write them off.and get rid of GDUK.
We can’t really write the whole project off, if there is deemed a good likelihood of being able to solve the issues. Just scrapping the whole Ajax project would send out a dismal signal to worldwide markets that the UK is just not up to manufacturing AFVs any more.
Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi MP (Labour), known to colleagues informally as ‘Tan’, Chair of the House of Commons Defence Committee (HCDC), succeeded Tobias Ellwood in the role.
Tan is excellent in my view. I have watched many of his committee meetings on BBC Parliament. The great pity is that HCDC has no ‘teeth’ and cannot issue Directives.
Should have gone with CV90 when we had the chance in 1995 and again in 2001.