Recommendation 25

In 2010, when the Department let the design contract, its planning assumption was that Ajax would enter service in early 2017. It extended the expected in-service date by three 44 Q 49 45 C&AG’s Report, para 15 46 Q 87 47 C&AG’s Report, para 16 48 Qq 19, 20, 26, 29, 36 49 Q 20 50 Qq 27, 29, 35, 37, 53, 59, 83 51 Qq 60, 87 52 Qq 17, 77, 87 Armoured Vehicles: the Ajax programme 15 years to July 2020 when it awarded the manufacture contract in 2014.53 The programme subsequently missed a revised target date of June 2021. The Department told us it would not set a new initial operating capability date until it had resolved the on-going noise and vibration problems. Despite not having a timeline to achieve initial operating capability, it still retained a target date for achieving full operating capability by April 2025. However, the Department said it has no confidence in achieving this. We expressed concern that the Department did not have realistic target dates for introducing Ajax to enable the Army to make operational decisions on the capabilities that will be available and to help achieve value for money from the programme.54