The British Army has suffered fresh humiliation over its troubled fleet of armoured vehicles after the new tanks left soldiers needing hospital treatment.
Army bosses had to launch another safety probe into the Ajax vehicles after troops testing the latest additions over the summer suffered “noise and vibration” injuries.
The news emerged on Friday afternoon and is the latest blunder to hit the £6.3bn “world-beating” programme, which has been plagued by problems, including vehicles being so loud they caused hearing damage to soldiers testing them.
About 310 army personnel needed to have hearing assessments, with 17 involved in the Ajax trials reportedly now undergoing treatment for hearing loss. Troops must now wear double ear protection to prevent injury.
The latest issue to blight the programme is understood to have happened during tests of the Ares troop-carrying variant, the Athena command and control vehicle and the premier Ajax reconnaissance vehicle over June and July.
Defence sources confirmed a “small number” of soldiers were later taken to military medical centres for assessment for noise and vibration-related concerns.
Total cost of programme set to reach £6.3bn
It’s unclear how severely they were injured and whether the soldiers remain off duty as a result, with the Ministry of Defence (MoD) saying it was unable to provide further details.
However, the problem prompted a probe by the Army Safety Investigation Team, which reportedly found no systemic issues with the machines.
Britain spent £5.5bn on the purchase of 589 Ajax vehicles, with the total programme – including training – set to cost about £6.3bn.
The fleet will be the backbone of the Army’s future armoured and deep reconnaissance strike brigades for the next 30 years.
On Wednesday, the Army revealed Ajax was finally ready to deploy its first 50 vehicles, eight years behind schedule.
When the fleet was first commissioned in 2010, it was anticipated that deliveries would begin in early 2017.
However, the development – led by US firm General Dynamics – has repeatedly failed to make deadlines.
In Dec 2020, ministers stopped paying the firm, over noise and vibration complaints, before resuming payments in March 2023. Trials were also suspended from June 2021 to Oct 2022.
