British army’s troubled Ajax armoured vehicle back on track

The British army’s troubled Ajax armoured vehicle programme has “turned a corner” after more than two years of trials to fix noise and vibration problems, the defence secretary has said.

“We think the remedies are in place, we are now going through the normal trials . . . It is showing great signs and we will keep on it,” Ben Wallace said during a visit to Bovington Camp in Dorset where he watched some of the vehicles undergoing trials earlier this week. “I am confident we have turned the corner on this troubled programme.”

The comments are the strongest indication yet that the government plans to stick with the long-delayed programme to delivery a family of high-tech armoured vehicles to replace ones still in service with the army that were designed in the 1960s.

Wallace added that the first Ajax vehicles should become operational soon after the testing programme is completed in about 18 months’ time.

The Ministry of Defence signed a £5.5bn fixed price contract with US defence contractor General Dynamics to buy 589 of the vehicles in 2014 with deliveries due to start three years later. But the vehicles were beset by noise and vibration issues that caused hearing damage to some crews involved in trials.

A government-commissioned health and safety study into Ajax published in December 2021 found “serious failings” in the UK’s defence procurement culture. A broader independent inquiry by Clive Sheldon KC, commissioned by the MoD, into what went wrong, is due to report this spring.

Wallace halted payments to General Dynamics two years ago after the MoD had already handed over £3.2bn. The Financial Times previously reported that the contractor had told investors it expected those payments to resume by the end of March.

David Williams, the permanent secretary at the MoD, told MPs on the defence select committee this month that the government would restart payments only once it had agreed a new date for the vehicles to be delivered to soldiers. General Dynamics UK declined to comment.

Improvements made to the vehicles to deal with the noise and vibration problems include new ear defenders incorporating headphones for better communication and remounted seating with better cushioning.

“These are not engineering solutions, they are mitigations,” said Francis Tusa, editor of Defence Analysis, adding that “none of this has solved the problems”. He pointed out that the MoD looked set to restart payments to General Dynamics “without a single deployable vehicle having been delivered”.