Case Study: Ajax

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Ajax is an advanced, fully digitised, land vehicle system delivering transformational change in capability to the British Army. There are six variants in the Ajax family, all based upon a common base platform. The Ajax family has been designed to be at the heart of the British Army’s future armoured fleet, offering enhanced lethality, survivability, reliability, mobility and all-weather intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and recognition (ISTAR) capabilities through its advanced sensor suite.

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Timeline & Capability

Ajax is currently in the Demonstration and Manufacture phases of its lifecycle. Following successful Noise and Vibration trials conducted in the autumn of 2022, the platforms are now undertaking further battlefield specific trials at the Armoured Trials and Development Unit (ATDU) in Bovington, Dorset.

Platforms continued to be delivered to the Field Army in 2023, with the Household Cavalry Regiment and 6th Battalion Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME) being the first Army units to convert to Ajax.

Ajax is the first British vehicle to be fitted with the jointly (UK & FR) developed Case Telescoped 40mm Cannon (CT-40 Cannon). It will have a coaxially mounted 7.62mm L94 Chain Gun within a dual axis stabilised, two-man turret.

Cased Telescopic Ammunition (CTA) differs from conventional ammunition as the projectile is telescoped inside the cartridge case, surrounded by propellant, saving space and providing greater lethality. The cannon is designed to fire a number of different types of ammunition including High Explosive, Armour Piercing and Training rounds.



Our Role

While General Dynamics are the prime contractor for the Ajax project, Quantic Thistle’s involvement was through Lockheed Martin, who are responsible for the Turret and main armament.   Quantic Thistle is designing and manufacturing encoders for the turret position, as well as for the elevation of the main armament:

 


The Elevation Encoder

Quantic Thistle supplies both a gun elevation and turret position encoder to each turret on the General Dynamics UK Ajax programme.

The elevation encoder is a 16 bit single turn encoder that has a full anti-backlash gear that mates to a segment gear to provide the 16 bits over the arc of movement of the gun elevation.

Provided with both an RS-422 interface and a MilCAN interface to connect with vehicle systems.

The Turret Encoder

The turret encoder is a 16 bit multiturn encoder containing an internal gearbox that is matched to the turret ring gear, to give 16 bits of data over the full revolution of the turret.

Provided with both an RS-422 interface and a MilCAN interface to connect with vehicle systems.

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