A UK government minister has expressed his anger at not being fully informed about the issues that have resulted in the British Army’s £6.3 billion Ajax armoured vehicle programme being paused. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has halted decision-making on the future of the programme while further investigations take place, after 35 service personnel across 23 vehicles became ill from vehicle noise and vibration during training last year.
Defence Minister Luke Pollard said he had initially been told the vehicle was “demonstrably safe”, but he has now taken steps to replace the senior team leader responsible for the troubled project. Most of the affected service personnel have since returned to duty, but Pollard told MPs on Thursday that he was angry he had not been given all the information and that the programme had been put on pause while further investigations took place.
The Ajax programme, which is being developed by General Dynamics in Merthyr Tydfil, was originally due to enter service in 2019 but has faced significant delays. In November, Pollard announced that Ajax had reached its “initial operating capability”, a significant milestone. However, the £6.3 billion project has been criticised for being poorly managed by the MoD and was paused in June 2021 due to concerns over vibration and noise causing hearing loss to those training on the vehicles.
Conservative Shadow Defence Minister Mark Francois said it was time “to fix or fail Ajax, once and for all”. Trials on the Ajax vehicles are set to resume soon, before a final decision is made on the programme’s future. The British Army has ordered 589 Ajax armoured vehicles at a cost of more than £5 billion, but the programme is already eight years behind schedule.
