Lucy Fisher, Sylvia Pfeifer and Charles Clover in London Published September 16 2026 A US defence giant and a German military start-up are joining forces to deploy autonomous land drones aimed at transforming the British Army's Ajax armoured fighting vehicles. The UK arms of General Dynamics and ARX Robotics will unveil a plan to integrate robotic vehicles to operate around the Ajax platforms as wingmen in war zones. The project remains at concept development stage and has yet to be costed, but sources told the Financial Times it involves no Ministry of Defence funding at this stage.

Launched in 2014 and originally scheduled for delivery in 2017, the Ajax programme has suffered multiple delays. Last year the MoD temporarily paused use of the vehicles after dozens of soldiers were diagnosed with hearing problems in a training exercise. The projected lifetime cost of the vehicles was expected to rise by £1bn, sparking criticism following the programme's cost and timetable overruns.

The new land drones fit into a vision outlined by Roly Walker, chief of the UK General Staff, known as the 20-40-40 doctrine. Under that plan, the army would consist of 20 per cent survivable equipment, 40 per cent attritable uncrewed systems, and 40 per cent consumable weapons. The ARX vehicles would sit in the middle 40, with defence chiefs signalling they were keen to develop new kinds of drones in the land domain.

Rupert Pearce, the government's new National Armaments Director, told an industry audience it was important for the UK to prepare for conflict and establish a new level of readiness.