David Moyes

https://www.shephardmedia.com/news/landwarfareintl/british-army-demos-new-challenger-2-urban-operatio/

 
 

Challenger 2 Streetfighter Concept Demonstrator



External Storage for Breaching Tools
External Storage for dismounted equipment
Turret mounted Mortar
Commanders GPMG and Loaders HMG
Enhanced Situation Awareness (Fixed Cameras, and Panoramic 360 Thermal)
Barrel cameras to see left and right at junctions without exposing the platform
Camera Feeds streamed to Dismounts Soldier Systems

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6476755319853764608

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-defence-equipment-plan-2018

Ajax is £25m under-budget and 6 months ahead of schedule.

Warrior upgrade is £231m over-budget and 4.4 years behind schedule.
If you include the original planning then it's actually about £700m and 11 years for double the vehicles.
Even if it hits current targets then it will only have a service life of about 15 years.
 

MTIP 2 (Manned Turret Integration Programme)
Created by BAE for Uk's WCSP and FRES SV. I doubt there's been any work on it since 2010.

Enhance...

Concept vehicle for NGCV.

Concept vehicle for NGCV.

Concept vehicle for NGCV.

http://defencetechnologyreview.realviewdigital.com/#folio=1

Ajax IFV - New 2-man turret by GD themselves

Recently an Ares with a driver's hatch that opens at an angle has been photo'd:




Switching to this new hatch might be the hold up.
Otherwise it is hard to think of an issue that could be GD/Ajax related and not simply the MOD being dumb.
 

Matthew has also mentioned:
 
 

Naked:
 

Base Armour (Spaced Steel?):
 

Expanded Armour (Composite?) & Blocks
 

Barracuda camo:
 

Testing Ballast Weights:
 
 

Naked:
 

Base Armour (Spaced Steel?):
 

Expanded Armour (Composite?) & Blocks
 

Barracuda camo:
 

Testing Ballast Weights:
 
 

Naked:
 

Base Armour (Spaced Steel?):
 

Expanded Armour (Composite?) & Blocks
 

Barracuda camo:
 

Testing Ballast Weights:
 
 

The limitations of 8x8s, issusess that come from mixing tracks and wheels are well known about and discussed within the Army. However Gen. Carter, former Chief of the General Staff and current Chief of the Defence Staff is obsessed with acquiring an 8x8. Believing it necessary for any expeditionary force and inspired by the French intervention in Mali (despite most of the vehicles being VABs).
He is the architect of the much maligned "Army 2020", a scheme so bad that practically everything has either been changed, cancelled or reversed multiple times.
The original plan saw the main war-fighting division made up of 3 Armoured Brigades consisting of:

1 x Recce (CVRT > Ajax)
1 x MBT (CR2 mk.1 > mk.2)
2 x IFV (Warrior > WCSP)
1 x Heavy Protected Mobility (Mastiff > 8x8/Boxer)

To justify an 8x8 purchase and a budget cut looming this was changed to 2 Armoured Brigades of:

1 x MBT (CR2 mk.1 > mk.2)
2 x IFV (Warrior > WCSP)
2 x Light Infantry

and 2 "Strike Brigades":

1 x Recce (Ajax)
1 x Direct Fire (Ajax acting as a "Medium Tank)
2 x Mechanised Infantry (Boxer APC)
 

Simply a mess. Early feedback is not good:



Recently, the acknowledgement of Russia rearming and politicising of military cuts has resulted in the cancelling of any further cuts and a pledge for more funding from the Government. However the UK Gov. is an even bigger disaster so no one really knows what's going on.

https://ted.europa.eu/TED/notice/udl?uri=TED:NOTICE:314073-2018:TEXT:EN:HTML&src=0

400-600 Boxers procured through OCCAR.
+900 option. Possible total 1500.
4 variants plus driver training vehicles.

Rumours:
Initial variants are Command, APC, Ambulance and Mortar. 120mm mortars being evaluated.
Repair & Recovery planned but could be dropped to save money. This could also happen to Ajax (Atlas + Apollo).
If WCSP is cancelled then Boxer IFV is option. LMUK's 40mm turret has been fitted to Boxer and test fired, both cannon and Javelin.


 

Horstman InArm:
https://horstmangroup.com/horstman-products/horstman-inarm/

Used on Puma and many in-development/prototype AFVs.
 

Related?
http://www.horstmaninc.com/news/horstman-acquires-l-3-communications-electronic-systems-suspension-unit