Ajax In Numbers: How Many Vehicles Have Been Produced So Far?

A total of 107 Ajax vehicles had been produced as of the end of May 2021, defence minister Jeremy Quin said.

Answering a written question by Labour MP Kevan Jones, the Minister for Defence Procurement also said General Dynamics has so far completed 263 hulls and 58 turrets have been manufactured under a sub-contract with Lockheed Martin.

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) has spent almost £3bn on procuring the British Army's new Ajax vehicles since 2010/11.

There are seven variants in the Ajax family of vehicles and they all are being designed to be the British Army's 'eyes and ears' of the battlefield.

The Integrated Review and Defence Command Paper published earlier this year set out the future of the Army's tanks and armoured vehicles.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said Third Division would "remain the heart" of the UK's warfighting capability and would be built around a "modern armoured nucleus" – including Ajax.

The Ajax programme has faced criticism from some defence experts, with the Government admitting troops involved with the testing had raised concerns over noise and vibration levels, with some personnel "receiving ongoing medical attention".

It recently emerged that there were "anecdotal reports of vibration" after soldiers took part in pre-trials training on prototype variants of the Ajax vehicles in 2019.

Cover image: MOD.