UK Completes AJAX Live Firing Tests

The UK Army’s new Armored Fighting Vehicle, ‘AJAX’ has completed its early live firing test program.\

This early live firing involved testing the main 40mm stabilised cannon and chain gun while the vehicle was static, and is being used to de-risk the formal firing programme that will take place later this year. This is the first time the weapon system has been fired while fitted to the AJAX platform and is a significant event in the delivery program, the UK Ministry of Defense said in a statement Tuesday.

Throughout the test, AJAX had a huge amount of instrumentation filled to record all aspects of the firing, from recoil and blast stresses to fall of shot. The next test firing is planned for later this year, and once again will involve a fully instrumented vehicle and be used to gather further evidence before progressing to manned firing in early 2017. The test was conducted by General Dynamics-UK and Lockheed Martin-UK with the MOD observing.

The AJAX platforms, consisting of six variants, are a new fleet of 589 armoured vehicles being developed for the British Army that will start being delivered to the Army in 2017. This capability will be at the heart of the Army’s new Strike Brigades, and represents a step change in the ability to conduct sustained, expeditionary, full-spectrum and network-enabled operations with a reduced logistics footprint.