Page 8 - Australian Defence Magazine Sep 2021

8 NEWS REVIEW INDUSTRY UPDATE
SEPTEMBER 2021 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
AJAX RUNS INTO TROUBLE
high and excessive noise and vibration. These led to trials being halted for four months late last year following complaints that crews were suffering from temporary hearing loss and aching joints.
The trials were resumed in March. UK Defence Procurement Minister Jeremy Quin told Parliament on 8 June the vi- bration issue was serious, and had been detected by Ministry of Defence (MoD) specialists rather than the manufacturer.
Regarding other reported performance issues, Quin commented “we should not read into them that the vehicle is incapa- ble either of firing on the move or of go- ing above 32 kph. That is not the case; it is simply that that is not what it is certified to do at the moment.” However, on 30 June all Ajax trials were again suspended.
Ajax had missed its 30 June Initial Oper- ating Capability milestone and no indica- tions could be given of a new timeline for the vehicles’ entry into service, the MoD said.
No details of the new technical problems that prompted the second pause were re- leased, although a GDLS spokesman said the company was confident in its vehicle design and stood behind Ajax.
ABOVE LEFT: Problems have continued with the turret and the 40mm case telescoped gun of the main Ajax vehicle.
the ability to mitigate certain risks that our Australian Defence personnel face in CBRN environments whilst increasing the efficiency and accuracy of CBRN de- tection and sensing,” Managing Director Charles Murphy said. “I am proud of our Stealth team, the AxV Autonomous Plat- form is gaining significant credibility and trust amongst some very serious players looking for autonomous solutions. We see significant commercial opportunities to build its value across multiple sectors such as security, defence, mining and logistics.”
JULIAN KERR | SYDNEY
THE Ajax that was unsuccessfully proposed by General Dynamics Land Systems for the ADF’s Project Land 400 Phase 3 is facing serious problems in meeting the re- quirements of the UK’s £5.5 billion (A$10 billion) armoured vehicle program.
The UK signed a contract for 589 of the tracked Ajax platforms in six variants in
2014 but after expenditure to date of £3.7 billion only 14 vehicles have been deliv- ered for trial – in this instance the Ares troop-carrying reconnaissance variant.
According to a leaked report by the gov- ernment’s Infrastructure and Projects Au- thority quoted by the BBC, problems have continued with the turret and the 40mm case telescoped gun of the main Ajax vehicle.
Other issues included the inability to reverse over an obstacle more than 20cm
WA COMPANY TO DEVELOP AUTONOMOUS CBRN VEHICLE FOR DEFENCE
STRATEGIC Elements’ subsidiary Stealth Technologies says it will design and deliv- er an autonomous drone carrying vehicle that automates detection and sensing of chemical, biological, radiological and nu- clear (CBRN) agents.
The company will collaborate with Defence Science Technology Group (DSTG) and the University of WA to build the solution and conduct a live demonstration to Army.
The WA Defence Science Centre has agreed to part fund the collaborative work. The company says the autonomous ve- hicle will carry drones and sensors into a target environment keeping humans at a safe distance, and will rapidly traverse the target area using sensors to map and/
or monitor the location of CBRN sources. The collaboration will result in a live dem- onstration of the autonomous CBRN vehicle to Defence (both DSTG and Army) and in- vestigate advanced manufacturing capabili-
ties and facilities for production in WA. Other outcomes include the potential to leverage the autonomous capability to other ADF problems – for example other resupply, intelligence, surveillance, and
reconnaissance use cases.
“The Autonomous CBRN Vehicle has
RIGHT: Stealth Technologies says it will design and deliver an autonomous drone with CBRN detection capabilities.
STEALTH TECHNOLOGIES
GDLS