The Financial Times (FT) quoted a representative of the British Ministry of Defense as reporting on November 25 that the British Army has suspended the operation of the new Ajax armored fighting vehicle for two weeks due to military complaints about deteriorating health. About two weeks earlier, the Ministry of Defense announced that Ajax had reached the initial stage of readiness for combat use. This means that a battalion of 50 armored fighting vehicles has been formed, of which 27 armored vehicles and their crews are fully ready for service.
However, just a few weeks later, after the Iron Fist exercise that took place at the Salisbury Plain training range on November 22-23, it became known that about 30 soldiers complained of ill health due to the “noise and vibration” of armored fighting vehicles. The Department of Defense noted that the “vast majority” of injured service members “passed medical examination and continued to serve.” However, some of them at that time “continued to receive qualified medical care.”
According to the newspaper, the wounded soldiers had to stay in Ajax for 10 to 15 hours. Another British publication, The Times, noted that some soldiers vomited after leaving their vehicles, and some were shaken by strong shaking. Therefore, the Ministry of Defense ordered “as a precautionary measure” to suspend combat training using these armored fighting vehicles for two weeks.
This is not the first time British troops have complained about health problems after flying the new Ajaxs, which began entering military service earlier this year. Testing of armored vehicles has been suspended at least twice due to related problems, especially hearing loss among crew members. Additionally, some soldiers were diagnosed with swollen joints after being in them. Experts attribute this to Ajax's design flaws, manifested in excessive vibrations, including making it impossible to fire while moving.
Meanwhile, on November 6, Deputy Minister of Defense Luke Pollard said that all problems with armored fighting vehicles have been overcome and the armored vehicles are ready to perform all assigned tasks. According to Sky News television channel, information about new cases of military visits to doctors could put an end to the British government's plan to export this type of armored vehicle abroad.
They are hiding something
“Ajax” is built on the multipurpose tracked chassis “Askod-2” (ASCOD 2) manufactured by GDELS (General Dynamics European Land Systems). Armored fighting vehicles on the Askod chassis are in service with the Ground Forces (Ground Forces – notes ) of Spain and Austria, and are also being prepared for transfer to Latvia. The program to buy new armored vehicles for the UK military has been in trouble since its inception. The initiative, initially aimed at replacing the aging fleet of CVR(T) (Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance – Tracked) tracked reconnaissance vehicles, cost the UK Treasury £5.5 billion ($6.7 billion). The contract for the production of 589 Ajax cars was signed with GDELS in 2014. At that time, these cars were called “Scout”. They were renamed Ajax in 2015.
Combat reconnaissance vehicles (RCVs) were supposed to start entering service with the UK armed forces from 2017. However, the deadline has been postponed until July 2020, then to July 2021 and then to an unspecified date. Due to the fact that for more than 10 years the developers could not deliver a single combat-ready armored vehicle, this program was heavily criticized more than once. First of all, due to information leaked to the media about problems with the prototype received by the Army for military testing and evaluation.
Among them, increasing noise levels and similar strong vibrations were noted, causing hearing problems in the military. In addition, the first Ajax prototype could not reach speeds of more than 20 km/h or fire from the 40 mm cannon while moving. As the news portal The War Zone (TWZ) recalls, in 2021 the British Ministry of Defense published a report, according to which for almost two years senior officers and ministry officials knew about problems with the BRM, “jeopardizing the health of military personnel”. In particular, it was noted there that, although the potential risk of soldiers suffering from barotrauma was identified in December 2018, Ajax tests were first suspended only in November 2020. A year later, more than 300 soldiers were offered hearing tests and 17 of them were still receiving treatment at the time the document was published.
Also in 2021, the Royal Unified Institute for Defense and Security Studies (RUSI) published a report on the Ajax development program, which concluded that the program is falling into a deep crisis. RUSI experts noted that the crew's hearing problems arose mainly due to the Bowman headphones, which picked up the noise of the Ajax engines and were “directed directly at the crew's ears.” Although this problem could clearly be solved by replacing the headphones, the institute's experts questioned in principle why the Bowmans were not tested for noise before being equipped with armored vehicles.
As for the strong vibration, according to RUSI, it is, at least in part, related to quality control issues in the production of the BRM hull by the UK division of general contractor GDLS UK. Experts say that vibration not only caused serious discomfort to the crew, but also had other consequences: “it hindered the stability of the main weapon during movement and also damaged the electronic system, reducing the quality of the Ajax's combat effectiveness and leading to a sharp increase in the number of failures of its components.”
According to the latest data of the ministry, over many years of testing, designed, among other purposes, to test the fault tolerance and ability of Ajax to operate in difficult climatic conditions, this armored fighting vehicle has traveled a total of more than 42 thousand km. More than 20 thousand rounds were fired from its 40 mm cannon, even while in motion. In the winter of 2025, the first production Ajaxes finally began entering military service. However, despite numerous assurances from officials, based on the emergence of new reports of similar problems in the use of these armored vehicles, the shortcomings that have long been identified have not been corrected. TWZ claims that if four years ago the future of Ajax was very much in doubt, now the prospects for the new armored fighting vehicle look completely ambiguous.
An unnecessary hero?
Currently, according to the plan, by the end of 2028, the British ground forces will receive all previously ordered Ajaxs with six modified versions. In addition to the standard version with a 40 mm gun, there are also the Ares armored vehicle, the Apollo repair and recovery vehicle, the Atlas logistics vehicle, the Argus technical reconnaissance vehicle, which also serves for the construction and destruction of fortifications and performs other technical tasks on the battlefield, as well as the command and staff vehicle “Athena” (Athena) with advanced control and communication capabilities.
Meanwhile, according to RUSI experts, although the British ground forces are in dire need of new armored vehicles, the long-standing Ajaxs do not really fit their concept of use in combat. The report notes that the new armored vehicles will not be of any help to infantry units, if used as part of a heavy brigade alongside the Challenger 3 main battle tank, or as part of special reconnaissance groups, as originally planned. Experts evaluate Ajax as a “weak independent combat unit”, moreover, it is too heavy, bulky and has a complex design. All this will only complicate the implementation of reconnaissance missions behind combat contact lines and will not facilitate their implementation.
TWZ draws attention to the fact that the Ajax purchase program began when drones did not yet play such a role in combat zones as they do today. As a result, the armored vehicle is not equipped with electronic warfare (EW), although the British Ministry of Defense claims that the Ajax's armor can protect the crew from at least some types of kamikaze drones. The portal expressed bewilderment at the fact that the Ministry of Defense spoke of its intention to deploy Ajax, weakly protected from drones, in Ukraine in the event of a peaceful settlement and the deployment of military forces from NATO member states to its territory.
The end of the “shaking story”
The weekly Defense News reported on December 9 that after another incident with the Ajax in the army, British opposition politicians called for a fundamental review of the program for the development of these armored fighting vehicles or a complete reduction of the program. The day before, on December 8, a special hearing was convened in parliament on the matter, to which Pollard and his predecessor as Deputy Minister of Defense Procurement, James Cartlidge, were invited.
“Prior to the announcement that Ajax had reached initial operational capability, I personally consulted with senior Department of Defense officials and they assured me in writing that the vehicles were safe,” Pollard told lawmakers. The Deputy Minister added that he now holds daily meetings with representatives of GDLS, discussing how to solve the problem of vibration in machinery. “To be clear, we will make any necessary decisions to end this story one way or another,” he emphasized.
For his part, Cartlidge said: “These new noise and vibration problems are somewhat reminiscent of problems that I am confident were remedied when I was Under Secretary of Defense Acquisition. “We were both misinformed about the prospects and outcomes of the Ajax program.” Cartlidge continued: “Naturally, the only possible conclusion (from this entire situation) is that the Ajax car has inherent and serious defects. Insist that the contractor is “blame” for everything. “As I understand it, the Deputy Minister (Pollard – note) is now as angry as I am that those responsible for the program repeatedly gave him what turned out to be false assurances. All that remains for him now is to fix everything or fail everything,” Cartlidge said.
“I was also angry to hear about the injuries our employees suffered, especially after we were assured that the vehicles were safe,” Pollard said. “Finding out why everything happened is extremely important, because the Ajax vehicle traveled 42,000 km during testing and during this time no such injuries (to personnel) were recorded,” the deputy minister said. “Even in those exercises (“Iron Fist” – ), not all vehicles caused injuries (to their crews).” According to Pollard, the military's use of Ajax, which had previously been suspended for two weeks, will not resume at least until the investigation is complete. According to him, it is expected to last at least another two weeks. Meanwhile, according to Defense News, of the 589 Ajaxs, the purchase of which was stipulated in the agreement 9 years ago, GDLS has produced about 160 of them.
Tatiana Samoilova, Konstantin Alysh
