Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, on what dates the Minister for Defence Procurement has met management of General Dynamics Land Systems to discuss the AJAX project since his appointment.
John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 5 March 2024 to Question 15241 on Ajax Vehicles: Procurement, whether the revised contractual terms with General Dynamics include changes to spending related to the Ajax contract.
Lord Coaker: ...have led to these projects being late and over budget? It certainly does not appear that they would have prevented the issues with some of the major programmes mentioned in the Statement, such as Ajax or Morpheus, or others that were not mentioned, such as the E-7 Wedgetails. Is that analysis wrong and, if so, why? We are under no illusions that the problems can always be eliminated...
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he has taken to improve the delivery rate of the Ajax armoured vehicle programme.
Keith Brown: How can that be the case, given the recruitment and retention crisis, the possible selling off of one of the aircraft carriers, and the Ajax tanks fiasco? Surely we could do better in an independent Scotland.
Maria Eagle: ...by the Public Accounts Committee. They have all been critical—some highly critical—of this Government. It is right that the Minister proposes some changes—we welcome that. He mentioned Ajax; can he explain how his proposals would have stopped the disasters of the Ajax procurement? That was supposed to see vehicles in service in 2017, but now they will not be on operational deployment...
Keith Brown: ...way back in 2008-09, and that has had a huge impact on our public services. We also have to consider the impact on the Scottish taxpayer. For example, they are currently contributing to the Ajax tanks programme. It was meant to cost £5.5 billion and to have produced 589 tanks by 2017. We have had only 44 tanks. The tanks were meant to cost £9 million each, but the current cost is £90...
John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many CT40 rounds have been fired by Ajax on the move as of 8 February 2024.
Alan Brown: ...roads and causeways. Again, that was reliant on European money, because it simply was not coming north from Westminster. To touch briefly on defence procurement, we have the ongoing shambles with Ajax, with a £5.5 billion fixed price contract for approximately 600 armoured vehicles to be delivered by 2025. So far, £4 billion has been paid out, out of that £5.5 billion, for just 44...
James Cartlidge: ...2Puma Similarly, on current plans it should be recognised that a number of new platforms and families of vehicles are being introduced such as the New Medium Helicopter, the Boxer family, the Ajax family and the Light Protected Mobility Platform family.
Martin Docherty: ...budget numbers since before 2010, agreed how to plug the massive black hole partly created by the nuclear enterprise disaster, agreed a range of disasters that should be stopped immediately (e.g AJAX, Challenger), and agreed a plan for procurement reform and new capabilities to build. (Also NB. the Army did NOT lobby for a bigger army—in the world that seemed possible in 2020 of a...
John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many Ajax hulls have been manufactured.
John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much his Department has spent on external consultants for the Armoured Cavalry programme.
John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much his Department plans to spend on the Ajax programme in 2024.
John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many Ajax vehicles have been (a) manufactured, (b) delivered to the Army and (c) accepted by the Army.
John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many Ajax turrets have been received by his Department as of 11 January 2024.
John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the timetable is for operational deployment of the first Ajax vehicle.
Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, for what reason £300,579,931 was paid to General Dynamics UK for its work on Ajax between March and November 2023.
Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will publish the most recent (a) payment schedule and (b) milestones for the Ajax armoured cavalry programme.
Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 14 November 2023 to Question 701 on Ajax Vehicles: Procurement, what cost increases there were at the (a) Bovington, (b) Lulworth and (c) Kirkcudbright facilities; and for what reason each cost increased.