The following are notes taken from today's meeting of the defence
committee
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15:24:15
15:27:59
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Richard Knighton CB
Richard Knighton CB
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The internal assessment by the infrastructure and
projects authority on the Ajax programme concluded that
the goal that it will be delivered to the time and budget
is unachievable
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This has raised significant concerns
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Asked “how has this gone so wrong?”
Response
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: “It
will not go over our cost”
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On cost, it is a fixed cost contract
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If it is more expensive than it should have been
to deliver, then “we will not be paying that”
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On a taxpayer's level, it will not spiral
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He asked to see the Ajax contract in fill when he
first came into office
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He saw what they could do to improve the
output
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No secret that there has been significant issues
with the programme
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Long running programme and has clearly had
problems
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They have withheld money from the contractors
until issues are corrected
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14 have been delivered (by this time, it should
have been 24 -- the IOC), 26 have been completed
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Some of them are coming into service
problems
“I was one of earliest platoon commanders to have a
warrior platoon, and that did not all go off to
plan”
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Reversing at certain limit has been fixed
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Can go over a certain obstacle
Following some issues, this has been restricted,
but this is going to be lifted in July.
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BW: “Main concern is vibration”
DT: Will the Ajax be able to fire while moving and
when will the vibration problem be fixed?
BW: we have asked for an independent assessment
(not by the contractor) for the vibrations, this is
taking place at Millbrook Test Centre, they will report
by September
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BW will use the report to see what they can do to
rectify
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That is what they will use to have a discussion
with the contractor to see what they can use to rectify
the issues with the vibration
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Health and Welfare assessment will respond
soon
RK:
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To get to the declared and required operating
capability, we need to have resolved all of the issues
associated with the platform
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Until we have resolved the vibration issue, we
will not be able to complete the trials and give you a
firm date
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Minister of Defense for Procurement coming to the
committee on 20 July will be able to give a better
idea
Technical problems are the challenge
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“Vibration problems… are always difficult to
address”
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“Foolish of me to give you a date today until we
have worked through this problem”
BW: “It can fire on the move”
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This is due to certified by the NAD later in the
programme -- at the Capability Drop 3 stage
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15:31:11
15:38:00
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Rt Hon
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MF: Concerns over the Ajax firing accurately and
aiming
RK: “it is a stabilised (something)”
MF: There’s an issue because this is the same
weapon that was going to be retrofitted into Warrior
which was cancelled as part of the review
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One of the drawbacks of the ammunition is that it
is very expensive
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“Once you pull the trigger, you start to bankrupt
the treasury”
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Rumours that the ammunition is phenomenally
expensive
RK: the purpose is that it increases the lethality
against thicker armour
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Is is more expensive, but we have appropriate
funding and stockpile
BW: comments that it is not expensive because of
the telescopic nature but because the warhead is off
better quality and penetrative quality
MF: “Will this penetrate a T14?”
BW: No, but can penetrate an older battle tank and
other fighting vehicles (not the latest generation, but
it is not designed for it)
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It is not the gun that is the problem in
itself
MF: Once these problems are solved, are you able to
give the committee an indication of the IOC when the
problems are solved (bearing in mind, it was supposed to
reach IOC in 2017)?
BW: the latest date of the IOC is on
September
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BW will be meeting w the seniors of GD
soon
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It is a programme that needs to be delivered to
the army
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Its problems have lessons in it
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“I would hate to guess how many SROs have been on
Ajax”
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15:38:44
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Chairman
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TE: “This has been a ridiculously expensive
project. There has been a huge delay and a number of
redesigns and poor oversight… has this not become too big
to fail now?”
BW: even if I were to cancel the contract, it
wouldn’t produce me all the money we have spent on it
that I can then go spend on another armoured
vehicle
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The digital architecture and the 44mm gun are
needed
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I have to make sure we fix this and I will
personally take the lessons I have seen over the past
decade
The design as a whole is more expensive than the
Warrior but it has better performance
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