A review of the UK army’s troubled Ajax armoured vehicle programme has found “serious failings” and exposed a “deep malaise” in the government’s defence procurement culture.
It was also highly critical of officials and the army for failing to protect soldiers involved in the vehicle’s trials, some of whom suffered hearing damage.
Jeremy Quin, defence procurement minister, told MPs on Wednesday that he was “horrified” by the findings of the government-commissioned health and safety study, which he said exposed “serious failings” in the process of buying weapons systems.
He promised to appoint a senior legal figure to look at the root causes of the problems in the £5.5bn Ajax programme, which led to 310 soldiers involved in trials being exposed to levels of noise and vibration “above the statutory limit”.
Quin said the Ministry of Defence had failed to act when the issue was raised by advisers and soldiers. He promised that if the more extensive review uncovered evidence of gross misconduct, he would hold those concerned to account.
The report’s findings are the latest twist in the decade-old Ajax programme, which is meant to replace a family of armoured reconnaissance vehicles designed in the 1960s.
Tobias Ellwood, Conservative chair of the defence select committee, branded the project a “complete mess.” The former army officer and ex-defence minister added: “Our whole land warfare programme is now operationally suboptimal.”
The MoD signed a contract with US defence contractor General Dynamics in 2014 for 589 of the Ajax vehicles, in six different configurations with £3.2bn spent on the programme so far.
“The Ajax programme wins the competition, from a very long list, as the poster boy of defence procurement disasters,” said Andrew Murrison, a Tory backbench MP and former defence minister.
Quin said General Dynamics were working on possible design fixes that the contractor would report back on next year, which would then be assessed by the MoD.
The vehicles, equipped with the latest digital sensors that would increase battlefield surveillance, were meant to be part of the army’s transition into an era of high-tech warfare. Deliveries of Ajax should have started four years ago but none of the two dozen that the contractor has handed over to the army have entered service.
Quin told MPs that 17 soldiers remained “under specialist outpatient care for their hearing, some of whom are expected to return to duty with no health impact”.
He said the hearing of another 11 was so badly damaged that it might “potentially” limit their ability to perform military duties”, although he said four had pre-existing hearing issues before taking part in the trials.
He added that while the MoD could not yet establish a definitive causal link, it was possible that Ajax “may have contributed to the current hearing loss in a small number of individuals”.
The report contained 20 recommendations, including that the army review its health and safety reporting. It said the first formal safety notice was issued by the MoD’s procurement arm in December 2018 as a result of crew reporting motion sickness during trials.
But there was no evidence that a series of recommendations to fix and monitor the vibration problems were acted on, according the report.
Francis Tusa, editor of Defence Analysis, said it was clear from the findings that “we cannot continue doing procurement in the bad old ways”. But he also criticised Quin, accusing the minister of throwing the army and the defence procurement arm of the defence ministry “under the buses”.
General Dynamics declined to comment.
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