EXCLUSIVE: As senior military leaders warn the UK to prepare for war, the British Army is currently without a vital capability as the Ajax programme continues to falter.
Military leaders have warned the UK to prepare for war. (Image: Getty)
The UK’s £6 billion Ajax programme has left the British Army with no armoured reconnaissance capabilities, as the country prepares for a potential conflict with Russia. The Ajax armoured vehicle was due to come into service in 2017, providing the British Army with a state-of-the-art reconnaissance platform, capable of recceing enemy positions from up to five miles away.
However, the programme faced severe delays before it finally came into service in November. Less than a fortnight later, Defence Minister Luke Pollard was forced to issue a “do not use” notice after 31 soldiers fell ill with hearing and vibration-related symptoms after spending time inside it. Tests designed to ascertain the cause of the injuries were forced to be halted after another soldier was injured due to the £10million platform. Confirming the glaring capability gap, Pollard said in a written parliamentary question: “There are no other platforms within the Army’s armoured fleet which can fulfil the armoured reconnaissance role; Ajax has been specifically designed for this purpose.”
The revelation comes as Britain is warned to prepare for the possibility of war on the scale of those fought in the 20th century.
Earlier this month, Minister of State for the Armed Forces Al Carns said the “shadow of war is knocking on Europe’s door” as he confirmed that the UK is “rapidly developing” plans to prepare the whole country for the possible outbreak of conflict.
This week, Britain’s most senior military officer, Chief of the Defence Staff Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton, described the current threat facing the country as “more dangerous than I have known during my career” as he warned “sons and daughters. Colleagues. Veterans… will all have a part to play,” in any war.
The Ajax programme was launched in 2010, at a time when the UK was largely focused on smaller-scale interventions against non-state actors, predominantly in Afghanistan.
At the time of its inception, battlefields across the world looked fundamentally different to those of the modern day, with the evolution of drone warfare, accelerated since the outbreak of full-scale war in Ukraine, having irreversibly changed the war in which wars are fought and reconnaissance is conducted.
Sir Richard Knighton, the most senior British military officer, called for a whole nation approach. (Image: Getty)
Investigations are continuing into the cause of injuries to soldiers whilst using the armoured platform, but some military experts have called for the project to be scrapped over fears that it will no longer be cutting-edge tech if and when it re-enters service.
Others fear that the time taken to rectify longstanding issues is time that could be spent investing in cheaper and higher quantities of unmanned assets.
Shadow Defence Secretary James Cartlidge urged the Government to consider the possibilities offered by drones.
He said: “It is time to fix (Ajax) or fail. They will have to make that decision based on the feedback they get from the investigations.”
He added: “You wait years for this perfect thing to come off the production line, but what you need to do is develop at pace and at scale, developing it continuously whilst it is in service.”
Tom Redman, CEO at Evolve Dynamics, a British drone company that has supplied reconnaissance drones to Ukraine, told the Daily Express that drones were now capable of monitoring enemy movements and locations and short and long distances.
He said: “What we see in Ukraine is there are brigades that are using around 200 uncrewed aerial system assets every single month to form their intelligence bubble.
Currently, these are critically held assets, but they should be organic assets held by each soldier in the way that boots and water bottles are, and we are engaging with paratroopers, marines and infanteers who want to have an eye in the sky that is affordable, rugged and resilient.
A serving cavalry officer with experience of armoured reconnaissance cautioned against blindly relying on drones in any future conflict.
He said: “Drones are a force multiplier and allow us to do so much with little training or investment.
“But we still need an armoured capability, they provide a human element to recce, they dominate the ground or can lie in place allowing troops to dismount and ultimately give commanders greater flexibility when used with drones.”
