The British Army’s faulty Ajax vehicles come back to rattle Parliament

ROME — A British government minister has vowed to put an end to the “saga” of dangerous vibrations in the U.K.’s new Ajax armored vehicles , as opposition politicians call for the program to be fixed or scrapped.

Three enquiries are now underway into the noisy vibrations in the General Dynamics vehicles during an exercise held just after they were given initial operating capability status.

The vehicles were promptly parked as 30 soldiers riding in them took ill, with some reportedly vomiting.

The armored vehicles had been declared fully functioning after nine years of delays to the £6.3 billion ($8.4 billion) program and repeated problems with vibrations.

“Prior to Ajax’s initial operating capability being announced, I asked for and was given assurances in writing by senior Ministry of Defence personnel that the system was safe,” Luke Pollard, the U.K. Minister of State for Defence Readiness and Industry told the U.K. parliament on Monday.

He added he was now having daily meetings with General Dynamics which has built the vehicles in the U.K.

“Let me be clear, we will take whatever decisions are required to end this saga one way or another,” he said.

So far around 160 vehicles have been built and the U.K. is expected to order 589 of the vehicles.

After Pollard spoke, a former minister for defense procurement, James Cartlidge also addressed the parliamentary session.

“These renewed incidents with noise and vibration sound strikingly similar to the problems that I was assured, when I was minister for defense procurement, had been resolved,” he said.

“We have both been misled about the viability of the Ajax program,” he added.

“Surely the only possible conclusion is that the Ajax vehicle is fundamentally flawed,” he said, demanding General Dynamics “must be held to account.”

Cartlidge stated, “I imagine the minister is as furious as I am at being repeatedly given what have turned out to be false assurances by those responsible for the program. He is now left with a binary choice, fix it or fail it.”

Pollard responded, “I too was disgusted when I heard the news of the injuries to our service personnel, especially after the point the vehicles were assured to be safe.”

He held out the possibility that a fix was possible.

“Getting to the bottom to what has happened is really important because the Ajax vehicle has completed 42,000 km of testing without those injuries taking place,” he said, adding, “not all the vehicles on that exercise caused injuries.”

Tom Kington is the Italy correspondent for Defense News.

罗马——英国政府一位部长誓言要结束英国新型 Ajax 装甲车危险震动的“闹剧”，与此同时，反对派政客呼吁修复或取消该项目。

目前已对通用动力车辆在获得初始作战能力后不久举行的一次演习中出现的噪音振动问题展开了三项调查。

车辆立即停好，因为车内 30 名士兵感到不适，据报道其中一些人还出现了呕吐症状。

经过九年63亿英镑（84亿美元）项目的延误以及反复出现的振动问题后，这些装甲车被宣布已全面投入使用。

“在宣布 Ajax 的初始作战能力之前，我曾要求国防部高级人员以书面形式保证该系统是安全的，”英国国防战备和工业国务大臣卢克·波拉德周一在英国议会表示。

他还补充说，他现在每天都与在英国制造这些车辆的通用动力公司举行会议。

“我要明确表示，我们将采取一切必要措施来结束这场风波，”他说。

目前已生产约 160 辆汽车，预计英国将订购 589 辆。

波拉德发言后，前国防采购部长詹姆斯·卡特里奇也在议会会议上发表了讲话。

他说：“这些再次发生的噪音和震动事件，与我担任国防采购部长时所听到的已经解决的问题惊人地相似。”

“我们俩都被误导了，以为阿贾克斯的计划不可行，”他补充道。

“唯一的可能结论就是，Ajax 车辆存在根本性缺陷，”他说道，并要求通用动力公司“必须为此承担责任”。

卡特里奇表示：“我想部长和我一样愤怒，因为负责该项目的人员一再做出虚假保证。他现在面临一个非此即彼的选择：要么解决问题，要么就此失败。”

波拉德回应道：“当我听到我们的服务人员受伤的消息时，我也感到非常愤慨，尤其是在车辆已被保证安全的情况下。”

他仍然认为问题有可能得到解决。

“查明真相非常重要，因为阿贾克斯赛车已经完成了 42000 公里的测试，期间没有发生过这些伤亡事故，”他说道，“并非所有参与测试的车辆都造成了伤亡事故。”

汤姆·金顿是《防务新闻》驻意大利记者。