THE QUEEN’S elite bodyguard are trialling a new £10 million fighting vehicle armed with artificial ears.

The cutting-edge Ares wagons use three acoustic sensors to pinpoint the direction of incoming enemy fire.

They are the army's first “fully digitised vehicles”.

The ears transmit location data about enemy firing points to a computer guided machine gun mounted on the roof.

The gun can stay trained on invisible targets even when the Ares is bouncing over rough ground at up to 43mph.

The Army hailed the wagons as a "step change in battlefield capability".

“These vehicles will give the Army’s armoured infantry and strike brigades a critical advantage over any likely opponent, through a combination of the latest technology, exemplary levels of crew protection, and, of course, our world-class professional soldiers,” the Army said.

The first six Ares vehicles were delivered to the Household Cavalry's Bulford Barracks in Wiltshire.

The wagons weigh up to 42 tons – almost five times more than their predecessors.

They are designed to carry a secret new type of “explosive reactive armour” which explodes outwards before it is hit, to protect the crews inside.

The government ordered 600 new vehicles as part of a £5.5 billion deal with General Dynamics, based in Merthyr Tydfil in Wales.

They include 245 Ajax variants with devastating 40mm cannons.

The cannon's explosive rounds can smash through reinforced concrete more than 20cm thick.

Ares and Ajax vehicles are due to replace the Army’s ageing fleet of Spartan troop carriers and Scimitar light reconnaissance tanks which first entered service in 1971.

Scimitars and Spartans, which also fought in Afghanistan, are faster and lighter but the crews are less protected.

General Dynamics said Ares and offered “best-in-class protection and survivability, reliability and mobility”

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