Ajax: We're going to turn this challenge that we've had into an opportunity, Army chief says

"We're going to turn this challenge that we've had into an opportunity", the head of the British Army has said, as he gave his verdict on the Ajax armoured fighting vehicle saga. 

General Sir Roly Walker, Chief of the General Staff, said that an investigation is currently ongoing after soldiers were injured during Exercise Titan Storm in his speech at the International Armoured Vehicles Conference at the Farnborough International Exhibition Centre. 

It comes after MPs warned the Government that Ajax needs fixing and that it needs fixing now, during a parliamentary debate on the future of the beleaguered vehicle last week. 

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"But, please be in no doubt, we need an armoured, reconnaissance and armoured cavalry programme that I've laid out," Gen Sir Roly said. 

"So, we're going to turn this challenge that we've had over the course of the last few months into an opportunity. 

"It has already brought the Army's tacticians close to the technicians from our equipment manufacturers, from [General Dynamics], and many of the subsystems."

Armed Forces Minister Al Carns told the House of Commons that of the more than 30 soldiers who suffered injuries related to the vehicle's vibration and noise problems during Ex Titan Storm, nine are back to normal duties. 

Mr Carns revealed that 24 are being monitored by medical services for ongoing impacts related to hearing and vibration, and a couple were found to have issues unrelated to Ajax. 

Gen Sir Roly said it was "quite rightly so" that an investigation into the injuries had begun, following the media coverage on the exercise, some of which was published on BFBS Forces News. 

"We know exactly what it is that our soldiers need to see to change, to have confidence that this [the Ajax armoured fighting vehicle] is a warhorse they can go to war in," he said. 

"And we know with [General Dynamics] that we can get after those. So, I have confidence that the partnership is strong enough to make a virtue of this necessity."

In December last year, BFBS Forces News reported that an Army-wide order banning all activity on Ajax was expected to stay in place until the start of this year. 

The soldiers who had taken part in Ex Titan Storm on Salisbury Plain had spent between 10 and 15 hours in the vehicles.