Page 66 - KRH Year of 2021 CREST

64 The Regimental Journal of The King’s Royal Hussars
After a 10 year sentence in Army Headquarters, I returned this year to Abbeywood as the Requirements Manager for Ajax:
I have 1312 different System Requirements to manage and sometimes one Requirement has adverse effects on others, often resulting in the need for compromise.
By way of illustration, the driver’s hatch needs to be much larger today than that designed in the sixties for Scimitar, to allow for a 95th percentile man to get out while wearing body armour. As the hatch is larger, the periscopes need to be in the hatch or would be too far away from the driver if fit- ted in the hull. The ‘scopes aren’t just ‘windows’, but screens with the ability to view differing camera angles around the platform, as well as a thermal imager. The hatch needs to be armoured, making it heavy. Due to the ‘scopes the hatch can’t ‘slide’ but must open vertically. If it opens sideways the driver is blindsided while head out, if it opens backwards it obscures the commander’s view, so we asked for it to open on the corner. It is a feat of engineering and the spring is so powerful it springs it up to the umbrella position... but after that it is a bench press and when the platform is 30 degrees nose down, it becomes a problem... no one wants a ‘pow- ered’ hatch, but crews must be able to get out of a stricken platform, or they won’t get in it. The plan is to use the power- ful spring and shift the umbrella position to one that allows better egress.
Is Ajax as bad as the media make out?
The hull vibrating is a real issue, not helped as the first 100 hulls were made in Spain by General Dynamics’ sister company. They are all slightly differing sizes which hasn’t helped General Dynamics in Merthyr Tydfil fit the hull com- ponents and maintain quality assurance. The ride quality would be significantly improved if fitted with rubber tracks, which has only recently become technically possible, though the Army can’t stipulate this change, or they would have to
Collecting Cars
Ajax Acceptance and Testing Team
foot the bill for changing their minds. The turret is superb (Lockheed Martin), we just need GD to produce a suitable hull to convey said turret to the battlefield. The contract is water-tight, for once, 589 platforms (6 variants) by 2025 for a fixed price of £5.5bn. It is now up to the MoD to stick to their guns and insist on the performance stipulated in the list of Requirements and GD to deliver on what they signed up to.
While no one is attending Abbeywood regularly, there are frequent trips to Merthyr to meet with the Ajax Acceptance and Testing Team, for which I am their Reporting Officer. Predominantly REME, they are lucky to have a smattering of Teeth Arms attached, which is a great way to get our AFV crews to become platform experts in short order. Sgt Buckley is our resident expert, seen here receiving his Long Service and Good Conduct medal in December.
Now living on a farm north of Bristol, there is space to pur- sue other hobbies such as collecting cars. I have formed a Cavalry and Guards team (with Lt Col Chris Sargent, Welsh Guards) and we are preparing to join the Superlative Adventure Club’s classic car rally in February completing 10,000kms around the Baltic... and what better car to do it in than an old Defender?!
A Hawk in Abbeywood
CAJVS
Ajax firing on the move