It doesn't make sense unless it was included as some sort of political sweetener to encourage Australian government to select Boxer in the first place. The German production line is currently in full swing but that is expected to switch to the UK, so plenty of capacity in Germany to build their boxe...

GD and BAE both submitted existing IFV designs, updated with the latest sensors, digital architecture and the CTA turret to meet the scout requirements. They where not new vehicles engineered from a blank sheet of paper. It's also fair to expect a certain amount of industry investment already taking...

Sorry wasn't suggesting it was GD covering anything up. The lack of transparency is more on the mod's side. There wasn't any mention of vibration and noise issues publicly until a few months before IOC was due to be announced in June 2020 (might have been 2021 due to COVID I can't remember). When it...

It looks like none of the variants met the mod requirements though but the issues of vibration noise etc was suppressed for years while they blamed the issues on the turret and government supplied equipment. To be honest even without the turret and ammunition feed mechanism if the MOD were constantl...

I remember being confused that all of the issues reported to the press over the years focused on the canon and ammo feed mechanism. But over half the variants didn't require a turret so why were they not delivered first, inline with the original delivery dates, that would give more time to sort out ...

Was Scout SV ever actually demonstrated prior to the contract being signed in 2014? I don't recall ever seeing a demonstration vehicle or the mod signing off that it met any requirements, maybe it was demonstrated on a power point demonstration that cost £500m. Ideally BAE and GD should have been co...

The whole procurement process was very odd. Why did the mod commit to signing a production contract before GD had demonstrated that their initial test vehicles met the armies requirements? Same with awarding LM the Warrior LEP contract without ever demonstrating that they knew how to build a turret ...

According to Ben Wallace the reliability growth trials should be completed in around 16 months. They have 100 completed hulls which they expect to be delivered to their units shortly after. So I'm guessing they are expecting an in service date of early 2025 https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/f...

I'm not in anyway an expert, but if we upgrade an extra 50 tanks even if there was no further changes in units or unit sizes, would it not still be worth having them in reserve or rotation for when tanks are under heavy maintenance. If we do go to war ourselves we can't guarantee we won't lose a few...

I agree on it not being the full story, the Ukrainians could well see similar losses of tanks if they try to retake their lost territory. It shows the importance of air superiority, if the US was fully involved with no risk of nuclear war once air superiority was guaranteed it would be a different b...

With 1,000s of tanks and ifvs destroyed in Ukraine it would be interesting to see the breakdown of how many of those where taken out by other tanks/ifvs versus man launched atgms in an ambush and from what range. With networked drones equipped with thermal imaging, all armoured vehicles are extremel...

I'm not sure Ajax or Warrior could carry an integrated ATGM in its turret as it stores it's CTA ammo on that side. Best bet would be javelin on the protector mount and then Ares and Boxer with box launched Brimstone.

Who knows, I have a feeling the Tories will go on a defense spending spree just before the election and sign contracts that cant be undone without big penalties. I'm not sure if labour will match the Tory commitment for 2.5% defense spending though.

Are the tanks in storage at risk of cannibalisation, or are they kept in a state of readiness so they can be reactivated fairly quickly?

All of this messing about is bound to put Eastern block European countries off purchasing armour from Germany again. I can't see Poland being keen to join the Franco German future tank replacement. They will either go it alone with support from South Korea or would it be worth the UK, Sweden and Pol...

I was under the impression the CMC would be replacing the VPM, but could be completely wrong. Either way the RN will adopt one of the two as we don't have the money to develop our own and deliver 7-8 subs. Seems sensible to to use the base Dreadnaught design but reduced to between 2 and 4 tubes. I'm...

Plenty of young people looking for alternatives to university debt and soulless office work. H&W will have no problem bringing in contractors from Scotland when they need them. I'm expecting H&W to use this cash injection to build up the facilities for offshore projects as well as ship build...

Thanks, makes sense now regarding the LMM reference. I had it in my head you were referring to the LMM missile mounts on the side of the DS30 cannons they where testing recently, not the Light Machine-gun Mounts that makes more sense :) I'm guessing we will always require the light machine gun mount...

Is the current 30mm cannon not remotely operated? I know they have a chair and control panel attached to the side, but I'm sure I have seen them swivel and conduct test firings with an empty chair on online video's. Some of the newer guns don't even have the chair at all, but that doesn't mean the o...

I was thinking the government would try what the French did with their Fremm frigates and sell their nearly new T31 once they find a customer (New Zealand) and order a second batch of 2 or 3 T32 to keep the production line running. I can't see the RN increasing to 16 frigates and 6 destroyers anytim...

I'm hoping there is some creative accounting going on at the mod with the assets being transferred at considerable cost to the foreign aid budget. When we know they need replaced in the next 5 years it makes sense to be generous especially if they are sitting in storage. For every unit given up puts...

I don't really trust the mail online's journalism but they are saying Ajax received the all clear yesterday. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11625545/amp/Trouble-hit-Ajax-tank-finally-given-clear-pressed-service.html I know it is still conducting reliability growth tria...

The rifles themselves cost peanuts on the grand scale of things. It's the optics and lasers that cost the big money and they get updated ad-hoc all the time. So long as they all take the same magazine why should it be one rifle that fits all? Special forces will always want to have their own choice ...

I think industry tends to bend the MOD over a barrel and say if you want to produce them in the UK you need to order X amount, while if industry was exporting from existing production lines and they are competing against other suppliers the buyer has more leverage and can get away with smaller order...

Tempest414 wrote: ↑29 Dec 2022, 16:59 The thing here is Ajax is still on so yes it may be late but it seems it will arrive

It will arrive alright there is far too much money spent on it to pull the plug now, I just hope its performance meets expectations.