British Army to receive 128 Ajax-series armoured vehicles in 2025
The UK’s armoured cavalry programme will deliver a further 55 Ajax-series armoured vehicles between July 2025 and December 2025, for a total of 128 units delivered over the course of the year, according to new official figures.
Detailed in a parliamentary response on 1 September, the UK Ministry of Defence stated it was further anticipated that 110 platforms would be delivered in 2026, with the remaining 297 units deliverable by 2028.
This tallies with the plan to deliver 180 Ajax-series armoured vehicles by the end of 2025, with 152 having been manufactured in 2024.
As the lead variant, the majority of deliveries through the remainder of 2025 will be the turreted reconnaissance Ajax armoured fighting vehicle (AFV), equipped with a 40mm CTA main gun.
Other variants to be delivered include the Ares protected troops transport (five), the Apollo repair platform (one), the Atlas recovery vehicle (ten), and the command and control (C2) Athena (13).
There will be no deliveries of the Argus armoured engineer variant through the rest of 2025.
“The programme remains on track to deliver all 589 vehicles by September 2029 as contracted,” stated Maria Eagle, UK Minister for Defence Procurement.
Given the planned timeline, the final two delivery years will have to average nearly 150 units per year, a rate last seen in 2024.
Of note, a separate 1 September parliamentary statement in response to a question from Conservative MP Mark Francois regarding media invites to the Ajax test site in Bovington, stated “there have been no Ajax-specific events to which to invite journalists” since 1 February 2025.
“Journalists are routinely present at events where Ajax is demonstrated and/or discussed,” stated Eagle.
The Ajax programme had to be paused in 2021 following revelations that crews training on early-build iterations had experiencing significant medical issues related to excessive noise and vibration.
Tracked structure of the future British Army
Earlier, in mid-2024, the UK government had stated that the British Army’s Ajax armoured cavalry programme would not reach initial operating capability (IOC) until December 2025.
The IOC standard vehicle is known as Capability Drop 3 and forms the deployable standard ahead of the spiral development and integration of Capability Drop 4, or Full Operating Capability (FOC).
British Army officials disclosed in September 2024 that the service had received its first Capability Drop 3 Athena command post vehicle.
The Ajax AFV and armoured variants will form a central role of the British Army’s future combat structure, under the so-called Brigade Combat Teams (BCT), a term lifted straight from the lexicon of the US Army.
Situated in Armoured BCT formations, the Ajax AFV would complement the current Challenger 2 and future Challenger 3 main battle tanks in providing the British Army’s lead heavy armour formations.
