£5bn, Eight Years Late and Unusable: MPs Signal the End of the Army’s Ajax Farce

Ajax Armoured Vehicle Finally Killed Off After £5bn Spent and Years of Failure

The statement made in the House of Commons yesterday by Minister of State in the Ministry of Defence Luke Pollard MP has most probably sounded the death knell of the troubled British army armoured cavalry vehicle Ajax. Already at least eight years late and now subject to a “do not use” notice on account of the health damage to soldiers involved in its development and testing, the programme has cost British taxpayers over £5 billion to date and delivered nothing useable.

Defence analyst and former British tank officer Lt Col Stuart Crawford said: “It looks as if Luke Pollard has at long last pulled the plug on the disastrous Ajax procurement programme, and not before time.”

“The vehicle has proved to be detrimental to troops’ health and deficient in various aspects, not least of which is its difficulty in firing on the move.”

“Various investigations are underway to try to solve its noise and vibration problems but I don’t hold out much hope that it can be fixed without sending good money after bad – money that the MoD just doesn’t have.”

“Far better to call it quits now before going further into the sunk costs fallacy abyss. But there is nothing immediately available to replace it, so it looks like the army will be without a credible ground-based reconnaissance vehicle for the foreseeable future.”

“The Ajax saga has been a farce from beginning to end and yet again no-one has been held responsible. We now need to see senior military officers and civil servants held to account by Parliament.”

Lt Col Stuart Crawford is a defence analyst and former army officer. Sign up for his podcasts and newsletters at www.DefenceReview.uk

Lt Col Stuart Crawford’s latest book Tank Commander (Hardback) is available now

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