Senior officer overseeing failed £6.3bn Ajax fighting vehicle ‘effectively sacked’ | UK | News
The senior official of the beleaguered Ajax program has been “effectively sacked” after security concerns were kept secret from ministers. Use of the £6.3bn vehicle for military training was halted in November after around 30 soldiers fell ill due to noise and vibration while using the Ajax armored vehicle on a training exercise.
Tests to determine the cause of the injuries had to be stopped after another soldier fell ill after using the £10 million platform. Defense Minister Luke Pollard said describing himself as angry for not properly informing ministers of security concerns was an understatement. He said: “Ministers should have been given more comprehensive information about the operational impact and the subtle risks involved in working safely.
“Importantly, the applications did not reflect the full total known safety risk, particularly regarding vibration-related injuries and past scheduling issues.”
While Pollard refused to comment specifically on “individual HR matters”, he confirmed Chris Bowbrick, who earns between £95,000 and £162,500, was no longer overseeing the procurement.
Shadow Armed Forces Secretary Mark Francois called on ministers to fix or cancel the programme, which was originally scheduled to enter service in 2017.
He told the Daily Express: “This is one of the most extraordinary statements I have ever seen.
“Luke Pollard rightly admits his anger that ‘the applications did not fully reflect the total known security risk.'” It is also understood that he has been effectively sacked from his £160,000-a-year job at Ajax SRO and these trials will now tentatively begin again.
“With the safety of our soldiers paramount, Ministers must now either fix Ajax once and for all or fail completely.”
The program experienced a number of delays and noise and vibration problems that resulted in injuries to soldiers testing the vehicles.
But at the beginning of November, Mr Pollard announced Ajax’s initial operating capacity, saying it had “put its problems behind”, meaning it could be deployed in operations. The soldiers’ injuries occurred less than two weeks later.
He later told the House of Commons Defense Committee that he made the declaration after receiving written assurances from Army chief General Sir Roly Walker and then national armaments director Andy Start that it was safe.
In a statement to the House of Commons today, Pollard acknowledged that “misinformation directly contributed” to the decision to put the armored vehicle into use.
