Luke Pollard, recently promoted to Minister for Defence Readiness and Industry, must have looked forward to visiting General Dynamics UK in Merthyr Tydfil at the beginning of the month. The facility in south Wales builds the Ajax armoured fighting vehicle and its five variants (Ares, Athena, Apollo, Atlas, Argus: alliteration pays well in the defence sector), of which the British army has ordered a total of 589. The visit marked the vehicle’s initial operating capability (IOC), the development stage at which it is available in minimum, usefully deployable form.

This was especially significant for Ajax because the platform has endured a torrid birth and evolution. When the army decided to replace its 1960s-vintage combat vehicle reconnaissance (tracked) – CVR(T) – family of Scorpion, Scimitar and others, it went through nearly 15 years of false starts and dead ends, before eventually awarding a contract for a new platform in 2010. General Dynamics saw off competition from the BAE Systems CV90, and trials of the new vehicle were expected to begin in 2013.

That was a dozen years ago. Scout SV, now renamed Ajax, was delayed again and again; the only reason it does not stand out as a uniquely mishandled procurement project is that the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has........

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