GDLS-UK unveils proposal for Ajax armed overwatch variant in partnership with MBDA

General Dynamics Land Systems-UK (GDLS-UK) announced in a press release on 26 April an armed overwatch variant of the Ajax tracked reconnaissance vehicle family designed to provide beyond-visual-range precision strike capabilities for the UK’s Heavy Brigade and Deep Recce Strike Combat Teams.

GDLS-UK and MBDA’s proposal, a vehicle externally resembling the Ares APC, for the UK’s armed overwatch requirement. (GDLS-UK)

The vehicle is based on the Ares armoured personnel carrier (APC) variant of the Ajax family and armed with an MBDA Brimstone guided missile launcher installed at the rear of the vehicle. The launcher carries four Brimstone missiles, the range of which in the ground-launched configuration is unknown. It has a millimetre-wave radar and semi-active-laser seeker enabling the missile to engage static and mobile targets and is fitted with a tandem high-explosive anti-tank warhead and weighs 50 kg.

The UK’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) revealed its preliminary requirements for what it termed the Battlegroup Organic Anti-armour capability, a British Army project to replace its current anti-tank armour capabilities, during a 3 February presentation at the 2021 International Armoured Vehicles conference. The GDLS-UK-MBDA proposal aims to provide the Mounted Close Combat Overwatch (MCCO) capability of the British Army project, which DSTL said would require a 50 kg effector with a range exceeding 10 km and the ability to defeat any armoured platform, including main battle tanks (MBTs), within the next 10–20-year timeframe.

DSTL indicated that platform survivability requirements would need to account for artillery fragments as well as air attacks from unmanned aerial vehicles, adding that the vehicle would likely need to resemble the Ajax or Boxer armoured vehicles externally to aid in survivability. DSTL gave 2030 as the in-service date for the MCCO requirement.