Expensive, noisy and eight years late, but the British Army finally has a new armoured fighting vehicle that troops could deploy to Ukraine in the event of any peace deal.

The nearly £10m Ajax - weighing more than 40 tonnes - is as heavy as a Russian tank and potentially vulnerable to cheap Russian drones.

Yet it is being billed by the UK as a "next generation" fighting machine, equipped with cameras, protective armour and a 40mm gun, with bullets that can rip through concrete.

Luke Pollard, the defence procurement minister, talked up the fleet's potential while acknowledging that the £5.5bn procurement has had its issues.

This includes excessive noise and vibrations coming from the vehicles that left 17 soldiers requiring treatment for hearing loss.

"It is an incredible platform. It

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