PROBLEMS with a military tank built at two Welsh sites – including one in Caerphilly - might never be resolved, it has been warned.

The Army’s Ajax light tank programme has been plagued with problems for a number of years, and a report, released today, has claimed that the project was “flawed from the start”.

Published by the National Audit Office (NAO), the report into the £5.5 billion project claims that the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has failed to understand the scale and complexity of the work.

The programme employs 800 people across two sites – one in Merthyr Tydfil, and the other at General Dynamics UK in Oakdale, Blackwood.

It also supports more than 4,000 jobs across the UK.

At this time, the project is already more than four years behind schedule.

One of the major problems to date has been with excessive noise and vibration, which has left those inside the armoured vehicle during testing with hearing damage.

How did we get here?

General Dynamics UK (GD) was contracted to supply 589 Ajax armoured vehicles, which were originally supposed to enter service in 2017 - but despite receiving more than £3 billion, just 26 have so far been delivered.

The NAO said the concerns around noise and vibration have still to be resolved, and continued to represent a “significant risk” to the programme.

The MoD and GD continued to disagree on the safety of the vehicles and whether contractual requirements had been breached – a dispute that was likely to take until late this year before it can be resolved.

While trials with Army crews have been halted, the NAO said GD has continued production without receiving any payment in 2021.

However, the MoD has yet to set a revised initial operating capability date and has no confidence that an April 2025 target date for full operating capability can be met, leaving the Army to rely on its ageing Warrior armoured fighting vehicles.

What has been said about the project?

Following the publication of the report, the head of the NAO Gareth Davies said: “The Ministry of Defence and GD’s approach was flawed from the start.

“They did not fully understand the scale or complexity of the Ajax programme and a series of failures have led to delays and unresolved safety issues that will have a significant impact on the Army’s ability to use the vehicles.”

A MoD spokesman said: “As we have made clear, Ajax is a troubled programme, and we will not accept a vehicle that is not fit for purpose.

“As the NAO recognises, we are working with General Dynamics to resolve the noise and vibration issues with a view to Ajax being successfully delivered to the Army.

“We continue to meet our obligations to Nato and will mitigate any capability gap through a range of alternative reconnaissance capabilities.”