Ajax

[An Ajax armoured vehicle on the training range at Bovington Camp in Dorset on Wednesday © Ben Birchall/PA]

I read at reference 1 that we are about to start paying General Dynamics for the troubled procurement of Ajax fighting vehicles, the various problems looking to have been dealt with. That said, someone is muttering about mitigation rather than solution, but that strikes me as a bit mean. Designs of complicated contraptions are going to involve trade-offs between competing - not to say conflicting - requirements and such trade-offs are usually going to be visible, the designers of genius who can hide such things away being fairly thin on the ground.

For those curious about what all these billions are being spent on, say £10m each for 500 vehicles, General Dynamics offer the glossy at reference 2, undated, but possibly now a little long in the tooth and including a shot of then Prince of Wales, now King Charles III. From which I learn that these vehicles occupy the space between the foot-slogger and the main battle tank, attracting no less than nine different roles, just one of which is moving the foot sloggers about in battlefield conditions. I liked the explanatory file name. Turned up by Bing.

A matter last noticed in a postscript to reference 3.

PS: by way of comparison, Bing tells me that you can spend up to $1m or so on a large new bulldozer from John Deere or Caterpillar. Should the AJAX people have made one of those two the main contractor...

References

Reference 1: British army’s troubled Ajax armoured vehicle back on track: Defence secretary says long-delayed £5.5bn programme has ‘turned a corner’ and deliveries could start in 18 months - Sylvia Pfeifer, Financial Times - 2023.

Reference 2: AJAX: The Future of Armoured Fighting Vehicles for the British Army - General Dynamics, United Kingdom Ltd - 2015? Filename: GDUK2962 - AJAX Super Photo diary.

Reference 3: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/01/leatherhead.html.

Reference 4: https://benbirchall.picfair.com/about. A photographer with plenty of Internet footprint, but no fancy website of his own. At least, Bing did not turn one up. Looks to be more into buildings than people.

Reference 5: https://www.picfair.com/. The picture shop.