British Army details Ajax plans
An Ajax armoured reconnaissance vehicle in firing trials in Sweden to evaluate it for extreme cold conditions. (Photo: UK Ministry of Defence/Crown Copyright)
Of the six variants in the Ajax programme – reconnaissance (Ajax), reconnaissance support (Ares), C2 (Athena), equipment repair (Apollo), equipment recovery (Atlas) and engineering reconnaissance (Argus) – the Ajax reconnaissance version is now entering service.
The British Army Royal Armoured Corps (RAC) has outlined plans for which units will be the first converted to the General Dynamics UK Ajax tracked armoured reconnaissance vehicle (ARV).
In January, the British Army said it expected to achieve Initial Operating Capability (IOC) for the Ajax ARV/joint fires observer vehicle (FOV) in the second half of 2025. This is defined as one squadron capable of being deployed with six months back up.
Full Operational Capability (FOC), which is all units converted to Ajax, will be October 2028 to September 2029. Training is already underway with earlier production Ajax FOV released
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