"PA Media Defence minister Luke Pollard has said he was "disgusted" when he heard that soldiers were injured while using Ajax armoured vehicles, which he had previously been assured were safe. Last month, the Army paused its use of the vehicles after 30 soldiers became ill from noise and vibration during a military exercise. The 6.3bn Ajax project had been due to deliver 589 armoured vehicles with the first entering service in 2017. However, the programme has been beset by problems and repeatedly delayed."
"Pollard said three investigations were under way and promised to take "whatever decisions are required to end the saga one way or another". He later added that the Ajax vehicle had completed "42,000 km of testing without such injuries" and that "not all the vehicles on that exercise caused injuries". Shadow Conservative defence secretary James Cartlidge said the incidents with noise and vibration "sound strikingly similar to the problems that I was assured, as minister for defence procurement, had been resolved"."
""I imagine the minister is as furious as I am at having been repeatedly given what now turn out to be false assurances by those responsible for the Ajax programme," he said, adding: "Surely he is left with a binary choice - fix it or fail it." Cartlidge also raised "a disgraceful incident" where an employee of General Dynamics, the company making Ajax, had "belittled the injured soldiers" in social media posts."
Defence minister Luke Pollard said he was disgusted after 30 soldiers became ill from noise and vibration while using Ajax armoured vehicles, prompting the Army to pause their use. Three investigations are under way and Pollard promised to take whatever decisions are required. The
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