The initial groundwork behind the development of the Ajax family of vehicles was laid out under the British Ministry of Defence’s Future Rapid Effect System program. Its objective was to modernise the British Army’s arsenal of armoured fighting vehicles by procuring a range of specialised vehicles. Two main variants were proposed: a utility vehicle (UV) designed to assist in protected mobility, command and control, light armoured support, repair and recovery or medical support missions, and a specialist vehicle (SV) for scouting, armoured personnel carrying, repair, and recovery tasks. The UV part of the programme was taken on in 1999 by the Germano-British Boxer armoured fighting vehicle (AFV) produced by ARTEC GmbH. However, this progress was halted in 2003 by the British Ministry of Defence as this model, though quite effective on the ground, did not fit into A400M and C-130 Hercules aircrafts for transport.