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British Army tests Ajax Armoured Fighting Vehicle in urban trials on Salisbury Plain.
The British Army has released new imagery of Ajax vehicles navigating an urban zone on Salisbury Plain during advanced training trials. The activity reflects how the UK is reshaping its armoured capabilities for a battlefield shaped by drones, precision weapons and complex urban terrain.
On Monday, 17 November 2025, imagery released by the Royal British Armoured Corps showing an Ajax Armoured Fighting Vehicle crew manoeuvring through an urban environment on Salisbury Plain Training Area offers more than just a snapshot of routine training; it signals how the British Army is trying to adapt its armoured forces to the realities of drone-saturated, missile-heavy modern warfare. After years of delays, cost overruns and technical controversy surrounding noise and vibration, Ajax is now entering a phase where it must prove its value in the most demanding terrain: dense urban areas shaped by lessons from Ukraine and Gaza. The choice of Salisbury Plain, with its growing network of purpose-built villages and upgraded facilities, underlines the site’s role as a strategic laboratory for NATO armoured doctrine and joint fires. This latest training activity, as reported by the Royal Armoured Corps, therefore carries tactical, technological and political weight that goes well beyond a single exercise.
The image of an Ajax crew navigating a sector of Salisbury Plain’s urban terrain encapsulates a broader shift in Western land warfare (Royal British Armoured Corps)
Developed by General Dynamics UK under a programme launched in 2010, Ajax is designed as the core reconnaissance platform for the British Army’s future Armoured Brigade Combat Teams and Deep Reconnaissance Strike Brigade, integrating a 40 mm cannon, advanced sensors and a fully digital architecture to detect, track and share targets at significant stand-off ranges. Eight years behind its original schedule and long associated with crew health issues linked to noise and vibration, the vehicle has nonetheless moved into formal service, with the first batch of around 50 platforms now accepted and a broader fleet of nearly 600 planned by the end of the decade. Recent months have seen progressive steps in live-fire and tactical training, from gunnery phases at Lulworth to increasingly complex manoeuvre and urban drills for Royal Armoured Corps crews, aimed at validating both the platform and the concepts of employment that will underpin its operational use on NATO’s eastern flank.
The decision to put Ajax “through its paces” in an urban setting on Salisbury Plain speaks directly to the evolution of the battlefield. Recent conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza have demonstrated that armoured vehicles are now most often committed in congested towns, suburbs and industrial zones where civilian infrastructure, verticality and narrow streets magnify vulnerability to drones, anti-tank guided missiles and improvised explosive devices. Small commercial quadcopters used for observation or as first-person-view attack systems, loitering munitions striking from above, and well-prepared anti-tank ambushes at street corners have collectively reshaped the risk calculus for every armoured commander. In this context, Ajax’s promise lies in its suite of thermal imagers, panoramic sights and networked battle management systems, which are intended to give crews a more complete picture of the immediate urban environment, coordinate closely with dismounted infantry and artillery, and reduce exposure by minimising the time spent stationary or blind in confined spaces. The urban training lanes on Salisbury Plain allow instructors to test whether this promise translates into actual survival and effectiveness when crews are forced to negotiate choke points, limited lines of sight and simulated top-attack threats that mirror what NATO observes on today’s frontlines.
Salisbury Plain itself has been steadily transformed from a traditional manoeuvre area into a strategic hub for complex, multi-domain training. New and upgraded facilities such as the urban fighting site at Rollestone Camp and the enhanced Copehill Down village provide configurable streets, multi-storey buildings and integrated audio-visual systems for real-time monitoring and after-action review. These environments are used not only by British units but also by allies preparing for deployments and large-scale exercises, with formations based at Bulford on the edge of the Plain playing a central role in NATO activities such as Steadfast Defender and other multinational drills focused on heavy forces and high-intensity operations. For the Royal Armoured Corps, running Ajax and its Ares variant through these urban networks allows planners to study how a digital reconnaissance vehicle interacts with infantry, drones, engineers and long-range fires within a realistic NATO battle rhythm, and how quickly information gathered at street level can be injected into higher-echelon command systems to shape decisions across a brigade combat team.
The trials proceed against a backdrop of the programme’s troubled history: past investigations into noise and vibration required compensation and medical follow‑up for early test crews, and some personnel reported persistent hearing issues during summer 2025 training. The Ministry of Defence maintains that systemic faults have been addressed and that seating and protective measures are in place. Commanders face a dual task: demonstrate Ajax is safe and sustainable for prolonged operations, and prove its systems materially enhance survivability and lethality in urban combat rather than merely adding an expensive, vulnerable platform. Ajax’s performance in Salisbury Plain’s urban test environment will shape UK procurement debates and influence allied and adversary perceptions of Britain’s armoured reconnaissance contribution to NATO.
Strategically, the image of an Ajax crew navigating a sector of Salisbury Plain’s urban terrain encapsulates a broader shift in Western land warfare. It suggests a British Army seeking to move away from linear, attritional concepts toward a model where highly connected armoured sensors probe contested towns, feed targeting data into long-range fires, and operate alongside swarms of friendly drones in environments dominated by cameras, commercial UAVs and networked shooters. If Ajax can meet expectations in this setting, delivering reliable situational awareness, integrating seamlessly into joint fires, and protecting its crews against the noise, shock and threat profile of urban battle, it will strengthen the UK’s ability to field a credible warfighting division and reassure NATO partners on the eastern flank. If it cannot, these same streets on Salisbury Plain will become the place where the limits of legacy procurement choices are exposed, reinforcing the urgency of rethinking how Europe designs, tests and fields armoured systems for the drone age.
Written by Teoman S. Nicanci – Defense Analyst, Army Recognition Group
Teoman S. Nicanci holds degrees in Political Science, Comparative and International Politics, and International Relations and Diplomacy from leading Belgian universities, with research focused on Russian strategic behavior, defense technology, and modern warfare. He is a defense analyst at Army Recognition, specializing in the global defense industry, military armament, and emerging defense technologies.