The Minister of State For Defence Procurement, Alec Shelbrooke, has updated Parliament on the troubled Ajax armoured vehicle.

“I wish to provide an update on the AJAX equipment project that is part of the Armoured Cavalry Programme.

My first concern is the safety of our personnel, which has been at the forefront of the work that has been ongoing over the summer. I am pleased to be able to inform the House that, following agreement from the AJAX Safety Panel, this work has led to resuming the User Validation Trials paused earlier this year and since Monday 10th October there have been eight days of trials.

Successful completion of User Validation Trials will allow progression toward Reliability Growth Trials. I will continue to ensure that the House is kept updated on these matters.”

The statement makes no mention of whether or not the well-publicised underlying issues that had previously caused the trials to stop have been resolved. Nor does it mention when Initial Operating Capability might now be expected.

MoD confirm they will ‘not accept’ Ajax until issues fixed

George Allison
George Allison
George has a degree in Cyber Security from Glasgow Caledonian University and has a keen interest in naval and cyber security matters and has appeared on national radio and television to discuss current events. George is on Twitter at @geoallison
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111 COMMENTS

      • To be fair I don’t think any PM has ever had the full support of either their MPs or their party. Everyone is an individual with no two people sharing the same views. When Churchill came to power in 1940 I am not sure he had any support from anyone he was just the right man to do a dirty but necessary job.😀Sucess will come to the next leader who can grasp the nettle of Health, Defence & Clean Energy Generation. If they can do that the economy will look after itself.

          • The MOD are more often than not, the archetypical “flawed platform” when it comes to procurement. Regularly defaulting to the worst case scenario.

          • George, believe it or not, more often than not the MoD gets it right on procurement. It is just the howlers that make it into the Press.

          • The problem is known about and flagged up so there is no way it is going to be used unfixed. That doesn’t mean they might not end up contributing towards the fix or writing off the project cost.

            It is not uncommon for there to be flawed plans in Government. It is therefore easy to admit the mistake of a bunch of nameless people long since retired.

    • Over at his blogsite ,Tanknology’, Jon Hawkes has a great primer on Composite Rubber Tracks. Among much interesting data is graphics of the results of trials carried out on Warrior. This shows that one of several improvements over conventional steel tracks or lightweight tracks, is the substantial reduction in vibration acheived with CRT. IMO Ajax should’ve started off with CRT but even at this stage it seems an obvious route to go down.

    • No NVH analysis at design stage? So fundamental.Where was engineering leadership.
      These problems are the ‘elephant in the room’ which were not tackled, just ignored and put into the ‘it will be alright at the end of the day’ file
      Did the MOD not put a NVH needs in their specification of requirements? Did the contractor appreciate this and not discuss it with the customer?
      Oh it is indefensible that so much money has been wasted. Someone was asleep at the wheel.

  4. Hi all,
    As the Minister states, the UVT are underway for the AJAX variant, having already completed the UVT for ARES. On completion of the UVT serials (BFM’s really) that will allow the rest of the green machine to climb on and get stuck into RGT which has been paused. My sources tell me that initial results are very encouraging for all concerned. Once the Safety Notice is lifted, which my insider is confident will happen, then the HCR and other training units will get stuck in.
    cheers

    • Good news if true. As an observation these vehicles remind me of those utilitity trucks in areas of imminent threat with the population trying to escape, every inch covered with every possession they can tie onto it. It’s like every area of Ajax sports some extra structure bolted on front sides and back. Just needs a kitchen sink now. You can see how the problems started and where the extra weight comes from, certainly can’t have helped the basic balance of the thing when manovering.

    • Really wonder whether you shouldn’t be appointed spokesman for HMG re AJAX. Clearer, more concise, and certainly more reassuring info than professional flacks.

    • Any clues on whether they have actually fixed the problem or if the solution talked about last year oof using better ear protection is the way they went?

      • Fingers crossed they fixed the problems not found a solution to make the problems bearable.
        Can picture it now. Private why are you ignoring me and what is that in your ears.
        Sorry sir I lost my ear muffs when we were out and had to ride back with 2 tampons stuck in my ears. They swelled up so much from my bleeding ears from the noise and I haven’t been to the nurse yet.

    • Thanks Ian, that bit about Ares I’d not heard before- and to me is pretty important (please correct my understanding if it’s off): If Ares is as close to the “base” model, APC without turret and extra gubbins, and it has not had these same issues then it means that the underlying structure is broadly sound. The problem only comes when you add big heavy spinning things to it- which is definitely an issue, but not as fundamental.
      Hope I’m right, your very helpful post has changed my perspective of the whole programme somewhat!

  7. Funny isn’t it Ian m is asked for some info gives it and still people either don’t read the post or just thing it’s great going off on one🙄

    • I will defend them a bit I think they are referring to the official statement rather than Ian’s far more enlightening effort. Ironically the official one is far shorter than the Daily Mail articles referencing its imminence and going through every nut and bolt of the platform.

  8. It’s a reasonable presumption, is it not, that if we are “resuming the User Validation Trials paused earlier this year” the MOD’s design team must be satisfied the process can now continue towards some sort of acceptance milestone, right?

    • I think there is hope, but the lack of commitment in the official version more a notification of events, shows they are by no means sure the problems are resolved and indeed the testing is, one presumes there to determine amongst other things that in realistic conditions they have been greatly resolved. Still worries me mind that they will need a fair level of leeway to those unacceptable levels because in service things inevitably wear and vibrations and noise will likely increase. I do think this is at least a bright spot on that journey to the starting line mind when the Mail was claiming it would likely be scrapped. But then it is the Mail.

      • Forget the noise and vibration issues, those are important but what about the fact that supposedly it still can’t reverse over a 30cm obstacle, and that there are issues with some electronics if I recall correctly. Thats gonna be another major concern.

  9. So the User validation trials have started again, which suggests that GD has provided solutions to the problems.

      • Also will the fix work long term? If it’s dampeners they may wear out or as with all things once they are thrashed about a bit they get a worn and noisy.

  14. This is a milkcow of a project, that is making some people very rich. Should be shameful, but nobody cares as long as they keep making the money.

      • If you have to pay the US division , Santa Barbra systems for licencing , logo use etc , consultants etc you can export profit to parent company .

    • It’s an update to parliament. Short and sweet. Don’t over communicate and say as little as possible so it can’t be used against you in the future if things go belly up. It isn’t a press release

  16. Morning Chasp!

    Compare South Africa’s experience with the Hoefyster vs the Ajax fiasco- http://www.defenceweb.co.za . Initiated over 15 years ago as a replacement for the Ratel the SANDF has not received a single unit. Corruption and incompetence at the heart of this saga with Billions of Rands spent to date and nothing to show for it! Cancellation looming!

    • Just a con trick to commit to it later, when if the Tories are still in power it can be scaled back at will. Just like all the vows to increase the surface fleet, which take place in a future parliament rather than placing orders now, but a good news story anyway. Spin.

      Nothing new, so given Hunts previous calls to increase defence I hope it still rises to some degree.

      There is also a current uplift in spending til 2024 previously agreed so I’m interested if that is affected. If, so, I hope Wallace and all 3 Chiefs of Staff resign live on TV and bring this government down. They’d deserve it with what is going on in Ukraine and the wider world.

      • Morning Daniele, All western nations are struggling to deal with the economic effects of covid and Ukraine. Brexit has compounded these effects for the UK; it was anticipated that there would be a short term hit but its come at a bad time. The current fiasco is down to the conservative party fair and square. Their system of electing a leader is manifestly dysfunctional. It is not working for them or for the country.
        If we are cutting or postponing spend it is down to Wallace and the Chiefs of Staff to make sure they clearly identify those items which tick the ‘urgent’ and the ‘important’ boxes. Nothing to be gained by jumping out of the pram: the frigates, Warrior replacement, artillery, MRSS, T45 propulsion and missile upgrades all tick both boxes. If A400 really can replace C130 for special forces the RAF is not in bad shape.

      • This Ajax fiasco all started over wrong size Cup Holders for Driver and crew can’t have spilt drinks awash and it’s just escalated could have all been sorted if Lids had been issued for their Cups well that’s what I heard in the Naafi queue Daniele

  19. Same people who knocked the F35. I would rather test and find faults before really action Russia could lean a few things about testing before entry.

  21. Why did this vehicle even get this far and funded by the taxpayer?
    Like most military contracts there seems to be no cause that stops payment until the issues are resolved…
    Millions are lost in defence spending through most projects. Its nearly always ex senior service personnel who are paid by the contractors to push their recommendations!
    Again the poor guys and girls at the bottom are the ones who suffer through bad project management by the MOD and their cronies!!
    The NSO needs to be more involved in the procurement of new projects!

    • GD has not received a payment for well over a year.
      NSO?
      I dispute that most projects incur losses in the millions, most procurement projects are successful. Its only the few howlers that make it to the newspapers.

      • The problem is that the one that do fail often make to the newspaper and it isnt helpful in trying to secure extra funding for the defence budget. Hopefully Ajax is on the right road to iron out the problems

  22. Get rid of this rubbish, enough tax payers money has been spent time to look for something else. No
    more discussion needed!

  23. It’s glaringly obvious that, because of the time, and money spent on “this heap” it will be made to pass, and then be pushed into service because as a nation we are “broke”.
    All complaints after inception will be ignored, and “talked down”, until we can afford much better.
    All those wh9 suffer damage of a physical nature ignored until they are down to a manageable number, only then will the situation be acknowledged, and payments made.
    Standard practice for this countries regard for service personnel.

    • …on the other hand…” but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope”
      Romans 5. 🙂

    • Good idea then we can waste god knows how many years on the selection process for ‘something else’ then wait for years to actually get it into service because we will be at the back of any build queue! Granted this has taken far to long BUT hopefully there might be light at the end of the tunnel .

  25. If they had actually dealt with the underlying issues, they’d have definitely led with that in the statement. They’ve found a workaround to keep things rolling.
    The question will be whether they decide that they can live operationally with this workaround, or if they do still get to the underlying issues prior to final sign off.

  26. We need to cut our losses and dump the Ajax System. It is too big and too heavy to be a versatile air transportable piece of kit. The MoD needs to look at vehicles that are available on the current market and buy something that works !

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