Ajax armoured vehicle trials will be 'proceeding cautiously', minister says

Trials of the British Army's Ajax armoured vehicle will be "proceeding cautiously" after they were halted last year, a defence minister has said.

A decision was made to stop using the Ajax after soldiers became unwell from noise and vibration during a training exercise in November.

It came weeks after minister for defence procurement Luke Pollard said the £6.3bn programme had "left its troubles behind" and declared the vehicle was ready to be deployed on operations.

Read more:
Expensive, noisy and delayed - but is the Army's new fighting vehicle any good?

In a written statement published on Thursday, Mr Pollard said an investigation found "a combination of factors" was likely to have caused the symptoms reported by soldiers - including technical issues, variability in training and experience, cold exposure and air quality in the Ajax.

He said all personnel who reported issues during Exercise Titan Storm in Hampshire in November have returned to normal duties and the majority suffered "temporary symptoms".

Around 30 service personnel suffered noise and vibration symptoms following the exercise.

The former commander of a unit tasked with trialling the new armoured fighting vehicle lost around 20% of his hearing and suspects his time on the Ajax platform could be to blame, he told Sky News.

'It was concerning'

Rob Page, a former lieutenant colonel who has since left the military and put the vehicle through its paces from 2019 to 2021, said he witnessed soldiers on the Armoured Trials and Delivery Unit suffer harm to their hearing because of excessive noise as they operated the platform and harm to their bodies because it vibrated so much when moving.

In 2019, he said his troops started to suffer the impact of their bodies being shaken around after the very first trials of the Ajax.

"Essentially, you know, hands, wrists, knees, feet, that type of pain," he said.

"It was concerning, and so we immediately started to raise the fact that this was occurring… We wanted to understand the risk a bit more so that we could make it as safe as possible for them [the troops] to operate the vehicle."

'Strict new controls' implemented, minister says

In his statement, Mr Pollard said: "I have now agreed to restart the acceptance of vehicles from [the manufacturer] General Dynamics. However, I accept that the experience for our soldiers using Ajax has not been good enough and that is not acceptable.

"I have implemented strict new controls on the reintroduction of the Ajax vehicles that is focused on providing a significantly improved user experience.

"We have been engaging extensively and directly with our soldiers throughout this process - their experiences matter and they are shaping much of what we do next.

"As a result, we are considering a phased approach to restarting the Ajax programme."

Read more from Sky News:
Man arrested after shootings leave several wounded in Athens
Jimmy Kimmel responds as Trumps call for his sacking

The first phase will include the restarting of trials with a limited number of vehicles under "very controlled circumstances", he said.

The Ajax was originally intended to enter service in 2017, but it suffered long delays after the soldiers became unwell.

(c) Sky News 2026: Ajax armoured vehicle trials will be 'proceeding cautiously', minister says