Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to the written statement entitled Ajax Payments Update, UIN HCWS652, made by the Minister for Defence Procurement on 20 March 2023, how many (a) operational AJAX vehicles and (b) trained personnel will comprise the trained and deployable squadron to meet initial operating capability.

As laid out in my response to Question 169217, achieving Initial Operating Capability (IOC) 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.

It is anticipated that circa 115 trained, deployable personnel will be required at IOC as crew, however the precise breakdown will be determined closer to the time depending on operational requirements.