Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to his letter to the right hon. Member for North Durham on legal costs incurred during the Armoured Cavalry programme, whether he expects the costs of attaining legal advice is expected to increase in the near future.
Deidre Brock: ...receive training in economics—not a bad idea. Should the Leader of the House not introduce some training in economic literacy for Ministers? It might prevent over-budget blunders such as the Ajax armoured vehicle programme, which is six years overdue, with costs of £3.2 billion so far and not a single deployable vehicle delivered; or HS2, where it is suggested that even what remains of...
Deidre Brock: ...receive training in economics—not a bad idea. Should the Leader of the House not introduce some training in economic literacy for Ministers? It might prevent over-budget blunders such as the Ajax armoured vehicle programme, which is six years overdue, with costs of £3.2 billion so far and not a single deployable vehicle delivered; or HS2, where it is suggested that even what remains of...
Mark Francois: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, when he plans to publish the Ajax Lessons Learned Review; and whether he plans to publish the Review unredacted.
Baroness Goldie: ...Soldier is part of that. We have published an equipment plan of £242 billion over 10 years, and the Army’s proportion of that is £41 billion, covering, for example, Challenger 3, Boxer and Ajax. I remind the noble Lord that this Government were responsible for a record-breaking finance settlement for defence—the biggest since the Cold War—and it should be acknowledged that we have...
Chris Evans: ...that my hon. Friend the Member for Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney is serving on the Committee. He represents Merthyr and I represent Islwyn, and I think both of us have had serious problems with the Ajax armoured vehicles. Most of our time has been taken up with that over the last year, and it shows a central problem in the procurement process. This is £5.5 billion of taxpayers’ money....
Alex Chalk: ...nearing the end of its in-service life. For the Army, replenishment of armoured vehicles will reflect the Future Soldier structure, which will be built around a digitally networked combination of Ajax, Boxer, Challenger 3, AH64E, long range precision fires and un-crewed aerial systems. Stormer replenishment will form part of the future Land Ground Based Air Defence (GBAD) programme. ...
Mark Francois: The Ajax programme has been so controversial that the Secretary of State personally commissioned an independent review by Clive Sheldon KC into the flow of information surrounding it. Has he yet received that report? When does he intend to publish it? Can he promise the House that he will do so in full and unredacted?
Lord Alton of Liverpool: ...? What is her assessment of the consequences for procurement of a weakened pound and high inflation? Hopefully, Mr. Wallace says that “we have started to upgrade our Challenger tanks, get Ajax armoured vehicles back on track and purchase upgraded Apache helicopters.” I hope the Minister will also enlarge on this. I have regularly raised questions about the Ajax programme. It has been...
John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, when his Department last paid General Dynamics Land Systems UK as part of the Armoured Cavalry Programme.
Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 16 January 2023 to Question 120885 on Ajax Lessons Learned Review, what the cost to the public purse has been of the Ajax Lessons Learned Review.
Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many full-time staff will be required by the Ajax Lessons Learned Review; and if he will provide a breakdown of the roles of those staff.
Tobias Ellwood: ...serious firepower. Those will not be completely introduced until 2032. Finally, there is our recce vehicle, the Scimitar. That was introduced over 50 years ago. It should have been replaced by the Ajax three years ago, but a litany of procurement problems means that it is still unclear when that will happen. I make it clear that as the European security picture deteriorates, all this is...
Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what is the spend to date of the AJAX programme.
John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 21 December 2022 to Question 109427 on Ajax Vehicles: Testing, whether Ajax has to undergo any further trials after a successful completion of Reliability and Growth trials in order to reach initial operating capability.
John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 14 September to Question 48267 on Ajax Lessons Learned Review, if he will make an oral statement to the House following the publication of the Ajax Lessons Learned Review by Clive Sheldon KC.
John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 21 December 2022 to Question 109432 on Ajax Vehicles: Weapons, whether the cannons delivered to his Department as part of the Cased Telescopic Cannon programme and not be fitted to Ajax armoured vehicles will be fitted to any other armoured vehicles in use by the Armed Forces.
Matt Western: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many Ajax vehicles have been manufactured and completed in the last 12 months.
Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether the prospective role of the AJAX AFV has changed in light of the lessons learnt from the war in Ukraine.
Ben Wallace: ...have been. That is why we have committed investment of more than £24 billion in Army equipment alone over the next 10 years. As I have said, I am bringing forward Deep Fire and Recce and getting Ajax back on track, as well as our intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capability, the Challenger 3 tanks, the Boxer fleet, plus many other investments in the Army. This is incredibly...