In a report today the Public Accounts Committee says the Ministry
of Defence has “once again made fundamental mistakes in its
planning and management of a major equipment programme” and is
“failing to deliver the enhanced armoured vehicles capability
that the Army needs to better protect the nation and meet its
NATO commitments.”
The PAC says the Ajax programme, begun in 2010 and “intended to
transform the Army’s surveillance and reconnaissance capability”
has “gone badly wrong”. MoD has a £5.5 billion firm-price
contract with General Dynamics Land Systems UK for the design,
manufacture and initial in-service support of 589 Ajax armoured
vehicles, and initially expected to bring Ajax into service in
2017 - but subsequently missed a revised target of June 2021.
By December 2021 MoD had paid General Dynamics £3.2 billion for
just 26 Ajax vehicles, none of which it can use: MoD still does
not know how to fix noise and vibration problems two years after
identifying they were injuring soldiers using the tanks.
More than a year behind the revised schedule, slow progress and
continued delays create “significant risks to value for money,
put at risk the Army’s plans for transformation and mean soldiers
will have to use existing outdated vehicles for longer”, while
the “programme remains under significant pressure”. Trials
involving Army crews have been suspended indefinitely and noise
and vibration issues remain unresolved. MoD and General Dynamics
remain in dispute over payment.
Chair's comments
, Chair of the Public Accounts Committee, said:
“The MoD has made fundamental mistakes in its planning and
management of this project. The Ajax tanks programme has been
deeply flawed from the outset and the PAC now seriously doubts it
can be recovered within existing costs and commercial
arrangements.
Enough is enough - the MoD must fix or fail this programme,
before more risk to our national security and more billions of
taxpayers’ money wasted. These repeated failures at MoD are
putting strain on older capabilities which are overdue for
replacement and are directly threatening the safety of our
service people and their ability to protect the nation and meet
NATO commitments.”
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