Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 18
18
Under the terms of the contract, General Dynamics is responsible for ensuring that Ajax vehicles...
Conclusion
Under the terms of the contract, General Dynamics is responsible for ensuring that Ajax vehicles are safe by design. The Department oversees and monitors this, conducting trials to ensure the vehicles are safe to use.35 The two parties disagreed on whether the levels of noise and vibration in Ajax vehicles breached contractual requirements. The Department therefore undertook testing of four of the early manufactured vehicles to understand their characteristics and the root causes of these problems. It told us it had not previously understood the characteristics of the Ajax vehicles, which had “a complex and unexpected fingerprint”.36 General Dynamics has proposed modifications to reduce noise and vibration levels and the Department has commissioned further trials to test whether these are acceptable. It needs to review and validate this test data before deciding whether it can accept General Dynamics’ proposed solutions.37
Government Response
Not Addressed
HM Government
Not Addressed
The department is focussed on identifying the root causes of the noise and vibration issues to develop long-term solutions to ensure Ajax operates as required by the Army. The Written Ministerial Statement laid out in Parliament on 19 May 2022 sets out the assessments underway to determine the efficacy of the modifications proposed by General Dynamics, in particularly the user trials that will provide additional data for the independent assessment on the effectiveness of the modifications and develop a safe system of work to protect personnel in future tests and trials. An update on progress will be provided to the Committee at the next Ajax evidence session.