Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to the Written Statement of 20 March 2023 on Ajax Payments Update, HCWS652, how many Ajax vehicles will comprise a deployable squadron.

A deployable combined arms squadron will consist of 27 Ajax vehicles, a mix of all variants.

Achieving Initial Operating Capability requires 50 vehicles to be delivered in total. In addition to the 27 identified for the deployable squadron, the remaining 23 will be used by the Army to train crews and maintainers. Initial Operating Capability will be declared when a squadron is trained, equipped and ready to deploy and be sustained for six months.