Defense Minister: British soldiers were endangered during the testing of the Ajax armored vehicle

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The Minister for Defense Procurement told MPs that soldiers were in danger of harm during testing of the new £5.5 billion Ajax armored vehicle, which was so noisy that soldiers could suffer hearing loss.

Jeremy Coen said 11 soldiers had to be placed under long-term surveillance after a list of “complex and systematic” failures. He admitted that the incident showed that the military does not place as much importance on safety as cost and value for money.

The minister said a series of warnings about excessive noise and vibration dating back three years had not been properly enforced. “It exposes a deep cultural malaise and leads to systemic failures across our institutions,” Quinn told MPs on Wednesday.

More details were spelled out in a health and safety report released by the Department of Defense in conjunction with Quinn’s statement to MPs. “Safety is not seen as a partner equal to cost, schedule, and military capability” — and the military felt that soldiers had to put up with discomfort as part of the job, she said.

The Department of Defense first decided on Ajax in March 2010, and awarded a contract to US military contractor General Dynamics. At the time, I thought there was a 50% chance the car would enter service in 2017, but more than 11 years later, it’s still being tested as the manufacturer tries to reduce noise and vibration.

Eleven of the 310 people who tested Ajax now had a “recommended long-term limitation of noise exposure” after medical evaluation, while 17 remain under specialized outpatient care. Four others were discharged from the military for health reasons, albeit for unrelated reasons in some cases.

Military commanders want to buy 589 of the armored vehicles, which Quinn told MPs would cost £5.5 billion. According to the National Audit Office’s review of defense projects published last June, the Ministry of Defense spent £3.75 billion out of the £6.3 billion full life cost budget.

Despite the long-running problems, Quinn said the Department of Defense hopes to resolve the problems by working with the manufacturer in the coming months. But he offered no timing or certainty that the effort would succeed in resolving one of the worst ongoing military procurement crises.

“It remains impossible to share 100% confidence with this house that this program will succeed, or if it meets the timing of achieving full operational capability,” Quinn said. Representative Tobias Ellwood, the defense committee chair, called on ministers to make a final decision in February.

Quinn also said the Department of Defense would appoint a senior legal figure to lead the AJAX procurement review which would cover “not only health and safety” but “the cultural and practical flaws it highlighted,” notably the fact that it was “implicit” that soldiers could and should tolerate such issues”.

Labor said the government’s response had left Ajax in limbo. “It is very unsatisfactory that the action following this review is to launch another review,” said John Healy, Shadow Defense Secretary. He told MPs the suspicion was that the project had become “simply too big to fail”.

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