A set of “systemic and institutional” failures in the UK’s military procurement system plagued a multi-billion pound programme to buy light tanks for the army, a damning review has found.
The long-awaited report was released by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) on the same day as the findings into Boris Johnson and his lockdown parties came out.
It identified a failure by those within the relevant branches of the MoD and the army to listen to dissenting voices involved in delivering the Ajax armoured vehicles.
There was also a reticence to alert the chain of command to problems – such as issues with noise and vibration that ended up injuring soldiers who tested the tanks and triggered huge delays.
This was because of a “leave it with me” attitude to fix problems at a lower level and a “cultural sense that elevating problems was a sign of failure”.
In addition, it identified an “optimism bias” that meant increasingly impossible timelines to deliver the tanks into service were clung on to instead of being reset, while ministers were frequently given a “positive spin” rather than a reality check on the state of the programme.
“The same ‘glossing’ and optimism were seen in evidence to parliamentary select committees,” the review, led by Clive Sheldon KC, said.
The UK arm of the US defence company General Dynamics won the £5.5bn contract in 2010 to deliver 589 armoured vehicles to the army.
The first Ajax tanks should have come into service by June 2020, with full operating capability reached by 2025.
Multiple delays and problems, however, have pushed that timeline back several years.
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Despite his stark conclusions, Mr Sheldon said he had not attributed blame to individuals.
“This is because the review has not seen any evidence of misconduct by any person involved in this programme, let alone gross misconduct, and nothing to justify any disciplinary action,” he wrote.
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“At its highest, I consider that a number of errors of judgment were made at various points, and that ‘optimism bias’ infected some of the thinking of senior individuals working on the programme.
“The failures that I identified were systemic and institutional.”
He made 24 recommendations to improve military procurement.
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Conceding the report made “difficult reading”, James Cartlidge, the defence procurement minister, told MPs that the MoD accepted the findings and would implement most of the recommendations.
But he also claimed that the Ajax project had “turned the corner”, noting that soldiers – stuck for now with decreasing numbers of ageing armoured vehicles – had restarted training on the light tanks. Trials had been a halted because of the noise and vibration issues.
Labour’s shadow defence procurement minister Chris Evans said: “Ajax is the biggest procurement failure for a decade – and the Sheldon Review confirms it’s the Conservatives’ mismanagement which is to blame.”
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