The new BLACKJAX testbed will trial its composite rubber tracks (CRTs) in two weeks’ time, confirmed the AJAX systems requirements manager, Lieutentant Colonel Charlie AJ Valdes-Scott, during the Future Armoured Vehicle Survivability conference in London on 17 November 2025.
CRTs are an upgraded feature of armoured fighting vehicles (AFV) that offer an alternative to traditional, segmented steel tracks. Instead, rubber is used as a continuous band with integrated treads; this is reinforced with a combination of steel cords and a mixture other high strength materials such as carbon nanotubes.
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Depending on the success of the trial, which will take place at the beginning of December, CRTs may become a potential upgrade path for the British Army’s AJAX AFV of which there are six variants.
The AJAX manufacturer, General Dynamics Land Systems (GDLS), will deliver 589 vehicles in all, bringing the fleet to initial operating capability before the end of this year. For now though, it should be understood that CRTs are being integrated on BLACKJAX, a technology demonstrator, which was unveiled at the DSEI 2025 exhibition in September.
An industrial curveball
It is also worth noting that Soucy Defense, based in Quebec, builds and supplies the CRTs from Canada. There is no local manufacturing done in the UK.
If the trial is successful, and the British Army decide to integrate the capability, then the subcontractor would eventually be forced to provide the UK government with an economic incentive in line with their new offset policy – in the form of jobs or novel technologies – set up in the Defence Industrial Strategy, published in early September.
Interestingly, CRTs have been around for a while. A number of platforms already use them going back several years, including the Dutch CV90s in 2020, a contract with BAE Systems that emulated Norway’s own CV90 fleet, which used CRTs in Afghanistan.
New generation vehicles are using CRTs too such as Patria’s armoured personnel carrier, the TRACKX, which was unveiled at DSEI 2025 in London on the same day as the BLACKJAX.
In the end, CRTs offers several improvements over steel tracks: reduced noise and vibration signature (a notorious issue the AJAX initially overcame); improved mobility; weight saving since rubber is lighter than steel, potentially improving fuel efficiency in turn; and as it is a single, continuous rubber band there would be fewer maintenance issues.
