Trials of the Army’s new fleet of armoured vehicles are halted for a second time over complaints about noise affecting the crew. The Ministry of Defence said trials of the £5.5bn Ajax self-propelled vehicle programme would be “paused” after “renewed concerns” about the difficulty. Announcing the choice, defence minister Jeremy Quin described the programme as “troubled”. Labour urged the govt. to “get a footing on this stop-start shambles”. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) signed a contract for 589 of the Ajax armoured vehicles in 2014 and has already spent nearly £3.5bn on the flagship programme. The vehicles, which are being assembled by General Dynamics in Merthyr Tydfil in Wales, aim to be “fully digital” and supply the military with a “family” of recent tracked armoured fighting vehicles. A spokesman for General Dynamics UK said it had been “confident in its vehicle design” which the MoD had told the firm the pause was “temporary and precautionary”. The MoD has launched a security investigation, working with the corporate, which is ready to complete at the tip of next month. Officials first halted trials within the four months to March after complaints that crews were affected by temporary hearing impairment and aching joints. Testing resumed with “mitigations” in situ in March, but it’s now been paused again. Mr Quin said: “This long-running troubled programme requires ongoing intense work by our industrial partners and ourselves to make sure its delivery. “In achieving this, the protection of our personnel will always come first.” Labour’s shadow defence secretary John Healey called on the govt. to ask the National Audit Office to try and do a special audit of the programme “to prevent billions more of taxpayer money being wasted”. He added: “Only three weeks ago, ministers assured MPs that Ajax would begin operations from next week. “The MoD must get an edge on this stop-start shambles. Ajax is over budget, overdue and still not working safely.”
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