The latest report from the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee contains a striking observation about the Army's troubled Ajax armoured vehicle programme. It concludes that the Ministry of Defence is placing "unrealistic expectations" on soldiers operating the vehicle safely while underlying noise and vibration issues remain unresolved.

Anyone who has spent any time in an armoured vehicle – which I have – will know that a certain amount of 'track bashing' and other maintenance is involved. So this quote from the report really caught my attention:

The Department now expects soldiers to do maintenance checks every time they stop the vehicle...

Anyone who has spent any time in an armoured vehicle – which I have – will know that a certain amount of 'track bashing' and other maintenance is involved.

But the idea of having to hop out and go through a check list every time the vehicle stops is frankly ludicrous.

There are many planned variants in the Ajak family, but they are all potentially for use in the combat zone.

The Public Accounts Committee's criticism goes to the heart of a principle which BAFF has long supported: our people deserve equipment that is safe, effective and fit for purpose.

The Ajax programme has already suffered years of delay, escalating costs and repeated technical concerns. The latest controversy follows Exercise Titan Storm in late 2025, during which 33 soldiers reported symptoms associated with noise and vibration exposure after operating Ajax vehicles. Five

An MOD written parliamentary answer to James Cartlidge MP (Cons, Shadow Secretary of State for Defence) reveals that in just under 20 months, nearly sixty thousand applications to join the armed forces were rejected on medical grounds.

The answer also revealed striking disparities amongst the figures for the respective services -

Rejections per service

• Army: 45,680 rejected on medical grounds
• RAF:   12,310
• Navy:    1,020

Although not specifically stated, these figures are for regular forces. Applying them to the approximate current size of each regular force reveals a huge variation in the proportion per service of applicants rejected on medical grounds -

Rejections compared with approx service size

• Army ∼ 62% rejections as %age of current force
• RAF   ∼ 41% rejections as %age of current force
• RN/RM ∼3% rejections as %age of current force

Another way to view these figures is that the Army rejected on medical grounds around 6 applicants for every 10 serving soldiers; the RAF rejected around 4 applicants per 10 serving aviators, and the RN/RM rejected less than one applicant per 10 serving sailors or marines.

Comparing the medical rejection figures with annual targets, however, shows the Army and the RAF rejecting about the same percentage on medical grounds, with the RN/RM rjecting far fewer -

Medical rejections compared with target recruitment intake

• Army - around 2.7 rejections per target recruit
• RAF - around 2.6 rejections per target