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AJAX - the ‘NOT the CR2 upgrade’ thread

. . . Unless we genuinely think we're going to be willing to shed 10,000s of lives to defend the Suwalki Gap - but that's not a policy argument anyone (including CGS or SoS) has made.
It was explained to me, by a Lithuanian (female) Captain with very nice eyes, that this is actually the Suwalki Corridor, because NATO is trying to keep it open rather than cross it. Unfortunately I didn't get any further than that.
 
I'm playing devil's advocate regarding the role of the media, which has been execrable.

Tusa's got a bone to gnaw and some limelight. But the responses from the MOD/GD have been very poor. The story in the Daily Mail was laughable.

On we go.
Again what was your last trip, jolly in a service tracked vehicle? For balance?
.So many detractors of how the military is run, are those with less than recent experience in said military.

Opinions are great, but claiming you are the fountain of all knowledge on IFV, Heavy armour. Is over the mark. Perhaps frame responses in, “my experience” is? Then add the relevant dates?

The armour in the army is in a shit state, it's not getting better any time soon, maybe those whose last jolly in a IFV wa dearly.90’s should look at why the army ended up here?

Why the current strategy is light mobile forces with lots of CAS, with zero assets to extract them.

All that being said no one is going to invade the UK, or western Europe, as they would get nuked, vlad knows the rules, he pushes some, we push back other ways, Germaby will be better served once Angela leaves.
 
It was explained to me, by a Lithuanian (female) Captain with very nice eyes, that this is actually the Suwalki Corridor, because NATO is trying to keep it open rather than cross it. Unfortunately I didn't get any further than that.

The substantial Russian forces based in Kaliningrad will ensure it is a gap.
 
But is is not being challenged by anyone credible in any credible forums.

We can bump our gums/tap keyboards here but the level of debate in the mainstream is non-existent.

Well what can we do?

Short of one of us getting made Minister of Defence, about the only thing I can think of a letter, signed by a lot of people* submitted to a lot of local MP's, who will then pass that on to the minister of defence.

*and by that I mean knowledgeable people who have a proven record.
 
Well what can we do?

Short of one of us getting made Minister of Defence, about the only thing I can think of a letter, signed by a lot of people* submitted to a lot of local MP's, who will then pass that on to the minister of defence.

*and by that I mean knowledgeable people who have a proven record.
Well, that doesn’t include me as I haven’t been inside any of the current fleet of AFVs for some years.

;-)
 
Again what was your last trip, jolly in a service tracked vehicle? For balance?
So many detractors of how the military is run, are those with less than recent experience in said military.

Opinions are great, but claiming you are the fountain of all knowledge on IFV, Heavy armour. Is over the mark. Perhaps frame responses in, “my experience” is? Then add the relevant dates?

The armour in the army is in a shit state, it's not getting better any time soon, maybe those whose last jolly in a IFV wa dearly.90’s should look at why the army ended up here?

Why the current strategy is light mobile forces with lots of CAS, with zero assets to extract them.

All that being said no one is going to invade the UK, or western Europe, as they would get nuked, vlad knows the rules, he pushes some, we push back other ways, Germaby will be better served once Angela leaves.
Last paragraph

Since you seem to be the one true Oracle of truth who truly knows.
What's next week's winning lottery numbers as I fancy buying a new house.

You must know them so don't be shy..
 
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No-one has got vibration white finger from AJAX either. The Surgeon General was quite clear that said condition is a long term problem and no-one has used the vehicle for that long yet. While there have been reports of vibration induced injury no case has lasted long enough to present to a doctor the following day.
This.

All the stuff about vibration white finger was the Tubster conflating his "understanding" of the issue with his background "knowledge" of industrial injuries. Likewise, this :

Ear injuries occurred due to problems with the comms system. Not good by any measure, but not insoluble.

If one listened to - and understood - the evidence (standfast that from the execrable Wilkes) there could be a relatively rational debate. Unfortunately, you've got the Tubster and Tusa egging each other on and heading inexorably for a Tornado with concrete radar narrative.

None of which is actually pertinent to the actual issue which would appear to be that the army hasn't been able to define a requirement it can live with, resulting in an ever larger, heavier vehicle with concomitant impact on the engineering.
 
If one were being unkind, one could note that decades-old experience would still qualify as current in terms of vehicles.
That made me chuckle. Indeed.

However, it also remains current in that the laws of physics endure.

And although it's a long time since I wore predominantly green, I've spent a considerable proportion of the last few decades reporting on automotive/vehicular developments. That includes working on/for publications and events that were specifically targeted at propulsion technology, vehicle dynamics, tyres and vehicular testing. It's involved a lot of time in the company of engineers at test facilities.

Developments tend to be iterative, rather than dramatic. Arguably, the next big step change in terms of AFVs is going to be electrification. Other than that it's been small step changes. Digital architectures, okay, they're new(-ish) but they are more about the information side of warfare, rather than the shifting-of-a-large-amount-of-metal-around-the-battlefield bit of it.

The latter still involves that large chunk of metal itself, and sufficient motive capability. None of that is wholly new - far from it. Okay, again, throw in some signature management and emissions constraints but those are universal, not AFV-specific (yes, even signature management).

But, hey, because I wasn't living out of a doss bag in the back of a Spartan the year before last, I simply haven't a clue.
 
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The armour in the army is in a shit state, it's not getting better any time soon, maybe those whose last jolly in a IFV wa dearly.90’s should look at why the army ended up here?
That's pretty straightforward.
Successive cuts driven by a weak army board bought into the refrain that "heavy armour is passe" - quite an achievement given that this was at the time of Gulf War 1 which was predominantly heavy armour IIRC.

Add to that the redundancy selection process which rooted out much of the talent, the ease with which high calibre armoured officers find gainful employment in pinstripes, the accounting master stroke of WFM and you end up with an Army run largely by those only capable of warfare at 3mph.

Throw in Iraq (opening stages would have been heavy armour, but we went our mythical 4 ton GS based air assault brigade so the Paras could get some medals. Turn that into a clusterfuck with the joyous Snatch debacle (remember, Snatch was banned from West Belfast for precisely the reasons that Saddam's guys exploited - with the the CDS would have known had he not spent his time in Hereford and assorted London barracks).

Toss in Afghanistan where an Army that had, with an level of incompetency brilliance heretofore constrained to officer cadets at RMAS, decided to focus on that campaign - without tanks unlike most other major contributors - a bizzare UOR programme and you're not going to be far away from the current shitshow.

Yes @Himmler74 my last ride in a panzer was 1993. So what? I spend late 90s and early 00s leading OA on various programmes, and have taken the trouble to keep myself informed. Back in the 1990s the mechanised/armoured bit of the Army could just about do mission command. the pedestrian NI street pounders could not.

The selection for Staff College changed back to cap badge and CR base as the (brilliantly impartial) Staff Selection Test was binned as it was career limiting for the dullards. These chaps then, predictably, learned the wrong lessons (if any) while utterly failing to explain two key points to their policical masters. These are (1) you can't ramp up am army overnight and (2) ground warfare is messy. If you can't take the casualties don't fecking start the war. (Yes Blair, that's you - you tw*t).

What can be done. Find a Cardwell (hint, he/she won't be in House of Commons or Ministry of Defence) and let rip. I would anticipate that Cardwell #2 would change career paths over rank of Lt Col, bin Ajax, expand CR2 fleet (i.e. empty Donnington or wherever they are hiding),develop either a full div orbat or, more likely, reinvent independent brigades and have 3 of them, scrap light role infantry, by necessary tubes/missiles and comms off the shelf as required and go and say Shalom to IDF.

Returning to thread more; Ajax is not capable of performing reconnaissance role. see https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/37846/html/
 
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