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- By Matthew Phenix
The Ajax of Greek mythology was no pushover. He was the warrior's warrior: an enormous, fearless brute of a man, but also the most agile and cunning of fighters. It's no wonder whyGeneral Dynamics UK took his name for its new tank. Created for the British Army and unveiled on 15 September at the 2015 Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) show in London, the turreted prototype arrives to replace the UK's long-serving FV107 Scimitar. And just as the US military's new JLTV is to the ageing Humvee it retires, the Ajax tank promises dramatically greater firepower, manoeuverability and survivability than its predecessor — a tank that entered service in 1971 with a 195-horsepower six-cylinder engine from Jaguar.
The Ajax moniker will apply to a family of tracked vehicles, each named for a figure from ancient mythology. The turreted model you see here will be the most common version but, like the vehicles in Gerry Anderson's old Thunderbirds TV programme, there will be five non-turreted Ajax variants, each with different armoured body work and specialised battlefield role — including a repair and tow vehicle, a mobile front-line headquarters, and a plough-equipped engineering recon vehicle.
General Dynamics UK, the British arm of the US-based defence and aerospace company, last year won a £3.5b contract to build 589 Ajax tanks for the British Army (245 of which will be the turrented model). The company will start delivering the vehicles in 2017, with the last of them rolling down the production line in 2024.
15 Sept: General Dynamics unveils the Ajax at DESI 2015 in London (Credit: General Dynamics UK)
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BBC - Autos - Meet Ajax, the British Army's new war machine
