General Lord Dannatt calls for more investment in armed forces

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The British Army’s new fleet of light tanks has been delayed for four years because the “overly complicated design” needs to be changed. Ministers had previously said that the “troubled” Ajax armoured vehicles programme has “turned a corner”, and that they were hopeful the project would continue soon.

But the Ministry of Defence (MoD) will now pay £480million this month after halting payments to General Dynamics, the company building the vehicles, two years ago.

The armed forces had expected to get the Ajax armoured vehicles in 2017, but this has been delayed because the noise and shaking endured by soldiers while using the vehicle proved a big problem.

It is now estimated that the Ajax armoured vehicles are now expected to be fully operational by 2029.

Alex Chalk, defence procurement minister, issued a statement to MPs that said payments would resume with around half of what has been held back since December 2020 passed immediately to the contractor.

Mr Chalk said: “Given the satisfactory progress against the programme, the department will resume payments this month, starting with a payment of £480million.

“Restarting payments to General Dynamics reflects the fact that the programme continues to return to a firm footing and supports the delivery of the schedule to deliver operational capability.”

He said further payments for 589 of the fighting vehicles will be made against a “new schedule and its milestones”.

Mr Chalk added that further payments will be made against a “new schedule and its milestones” for the 589 vehicles.

As reported by the Times, a defence source said that many assumptions made about the Ajax’s design had been proved wrong, meaning they now need to be changed.

The source criticised the MoD for agreeing on the contract before the design had been confirmed and for “losing sight of some of the risks”.

The Ajax programme has faced a number of issues, leading to increased scrutiny of the failings.

Dame Meg Hillier MP, Chair of the Public Accounts Committee, has previously said the MoD made “fundamental mistakes in its planning and management” of the project, which was “deeply flawed from the outset”.

Contributing to the delays has been the disagreement between the MoD and General Dynamic over what caused the noise and vibration issues for soldiers while using the Ajax.

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In a statement, the MoD said the fixed-price contract “remains within its originally approved budget level” of £5.5billion, of which just over 60 percent had already been paid to the contractor.

John Healey, Shadow Defence Secretary, said: “The Conservatives are shelling out billions more of taxpayers’ money on a project which is already six years late and won’t fully deliver until the end of this decade.

“The Defence Secretary has made Ajax central to the future of the Army and the UK’s ability to fulfil our Nato obligations, yet after 13 years and £4billion investment the Army has still not got a single deployable vehicle.

“It is clear the Government can’t deliver value for public money or the equipment our forces need to fight.”

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