General Dynamics U.K. unveils the Ajax Infantry Fighting Vehicle at DSEI 2025

This is Jaroslav Adamovski with Defence News. I'm here today at the DSEI show in London with Scott

Mill from General Dynamics Land Systems UK and we are here to talk about the new Ajax variant

the IFV version of the vehicle and what it brings to the table in terms of new features and capabilities

Scott, could you please tell me what are the main features of the Ajax IFV version

Okay, absolutely. So Ajax IFV is the missing variant from the Ajax family

So we've delivered 147 vehicles of Ajax into the British Army and now we're looking to the future

And we've developed the Ajax IFV, which is what we're looking at today. So the Ajax IFV, the main changes and different features compared to the current family is

the IFV is designed around the crew, the dismounts. So the vehicle can accommodate eight dismounts with a crew of three so that a driver a commander and a gunner We changed the rear door to enable it a ramp door to enable easy ingress and egress from the vehicle and we integrated a remote turret So it a turret from Lockheed Martin which is based on the current

Ajax turret design. It's a repackaging of existing proven mature LRUs to enable

rapid development to get the production ready capability. So the turret system

includes, integrates the CT-40 cannon system, the case telescope ammunition from VA systems at Nexer, or KNDS

And we have integrated also a modular integrated protection system from the being developed in the UK

which is the iron fist effector and the trophy sensors. We've taken the latest generation of sighting system from TALIS

we've got a panoramic sight, which gives us full 360 degree capability, similar to what the current Ajax has, but it's a more modern sensor TI

We're leveraging the electronic architecture from the existing Ajax design. So Ajax is the most digitally advanced armoured flying vehicle in the world today

and we've leveraged that into the areas at Ajax IFV. The only difference you'll

see when you look inside is the gunner and commander are located in the hull rather than the turret but we reusing the same equipment The benefits of Ajax are ported across without any change to the development of the vehicle

So the survivability solution of which we've mine blast tested Ajax many times and in every

blast the soldier has survived or the instrumented test dummy has survived

That survivability solution is ported across to this design. So yesterday was the unveiling and we've had a huge interest from export customers and domestic also

So it's something I look forward to bringing to the market, built here in South Wales in our factory in Merthyr Tidbils

You mentioned that there are different export markets that you are exploring

Could you give a few examples of the potential foreign destinations in which you are interested

countries in Europe and beyond? So I think there's a quite an addressable market for the infantry

flying vehicle is quite significant today. For example, Poland is a customer we are very interested in growing and are continuing

a relationship with and that an area we active in To other regions Estonia we have ASKOD already in Latvia so it a Boeing market

And in terms of survivability, which is very important for defense ministries across Europe

are you also planning to continue to work on improving the capabilities of this variant

basing this on the experiences of militaries in conflicts in different parts of the world, including the war in Ukraine

Absolutely. So the Ajax design has got growth designed in from the start

And I was always acutely aware that the threat is ever-changing. So the armour system is fully modular in design

So as the threat changes we can change the armour without changing the base architecture of the vehicle

Obviously we're focusing on the active protection systems as the current step

but the change in the passive protection system is easy to do with the Ajax vehicle architecture

Thank you very much Scott. Okay, thank you