Ajax issues to be expected but they should have been fixed by now, says ex-commander
Anonymous videos released by Fill Your Boots purport to show a number of failings with Ajax, the Army's new armoured fighting vehicle.
Three videos were released after the Army suspended the use of the platform when 31 soldiers became unwell due to noise and vibration issues during an exercise on Salisbury Plain.
We asked Colonel Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a former commander of 1st Royal Tank Regiment, to offer his thoughts on the footage.
Ajax on hold for now
One video claims to show a number of loose fixtures around the vehicle, while another appears to show water from the crew compartment hand-washing basin failing to drain properly, with a soldier demonstrating how deep it goes.
The final, and potentially most alarming, video shows the rear door closing on and crushing a test dummy rather than any automatic safety device kicking in.
While it's not clear exactly when or where these videos were taken, all operations have been suspended with the vehicle while three separate investigations are underway.
Ajax should be the Rolls-Royce of the Army
Having viewed the videos, Col de Bretton-Gordon told BFBS Forces News: "It just looks a bit amateurish, a bit shoddy, you know, for something that you're spending over £6bn for, you expect it to be like a Jaguar or a Rolls-Royce.
"The battlefield is dangerous enough as it is without actually the vehicle that you're fighting in making you ill itself.
"First of all, obviously seeing the Ajax reconnaissance vehicle in a tank shed somewhere, there seem to be certain bits and pieces around the vehicle that don't seem to be very well secured and perhaps showing also some... strange wiring and all the rest of it.
"It's a new vehicle, and you've got bits that have come loose, which no doubt would be part of the problem with vibration and noise."
He suggested it would be fairly straightforward to fix these sorts of issues, especially seeing the long development cycle Ajax has undergone.
The former Chieftain and Challenger officer added: "I'm not surprised that a tank or an armoured vehicle like this has some bits that are coming loose.
"However, I think with a vehicle that is now 20 years in development... you don't expect to see these sort of things. And I think it is highlighting perhaps a wider issue involved with Ajax."
Water – but not in the right place
The second video appears to show water collecting underneath a small sink in the crew compartment rather than draining away.
Col de Bretton-Gordon said: "But it's not entirely clear what we're seeing here – there is obviously an accumulation of water somewhere in the hull. It appears to be gaps, perhaps between the hull and armour, but a large collection of water.
"This can't be right. You've got water swishing around in the hull that could impact on your electronic systems and a whole host of other things that may well be creating noise and disturbance to the vehicle itself."
Again, he suggested it did seem a relatively easy fix, saying: "One would have thought if you had a drain hole or two, that that water would dissipate.
"But having said, in the first place, it is difficult to tell. I mean, at least the water looks fairly clean. So it's not coming through the engine or something like that."
Crush test dummy
In the third video, the armoured rear door is shown closing on a test dummy. The door is the main point of entry and exit for the crew, but it's heavy and looks like it could cause significant injury should it close inadvertently on a soldier.
Col de Bretton-Gordon said: "There should be some safety device to make sure that when the door is shut, and it's on a hydraulic automatic shut system, if there is something in the way – or particularly somebody in the way – it should not crush them.
"Now, in this particular video, it has failed, but again with prototype vehicles, one would expect some sort of failures, and this is a dummy being tested here, so in a way, they're right to test it in that way.
"However, on the battlefield, that would be incredibly dangerous. I couldn't exactly say how heavy that door is, but it might be... a tonne in weight.
"And with the powerful closing mechanisms that it had, certainly it could create serious damage for somebody who stopped there.
"You will see many soldiers who've operated on tanks who lose fingers, because of these sort of issues here. It's not quite like slamming your finger in a car door, which is extremely painful. This is on a scale much, much higher."
He added: "But what one tries to do is absolutely minimise that danger as much as possible. So something like this is a critical safety issue that will need to be sorted if it hasn't been sorted already."
Problems need fixing sooner, not later
However, Col de Bretton-Gordon pointed out how the videos were isolated situations.
"It's very easy to create situations in single videos to create a particular point of view," he said. "They are all very, very important. But they are in isolation. So I think people should just sort of bear that in mind.
"But the overall picture of Ajax is one of safety issues, one of quality issues and staggering, I think, 15 years into development we're talking about problems with an automatic back door. That just shouldn't happen."
With additional reporting by Mike Morton
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