TSAMTO, August 10th. The British-made Ajax tracked reconnaissance armored vehicles failed during tests, which resumed after a long pause caused by complaints from military personnel about poor health.
This was reported by The Telegraph, citing a source familiar with the testing process.
It is reported that several Ajax family machines have failed after returning to service from long-term storage in a military warehouse. The equipment has not been used since December 2025, meaning it has been idle for about eight months.
During the test cycle, the purpose of which was to return the armored vehicles to normal operation, the engineering and technical staff identified additional malfunctions, after which six vehicles involved in the tests were recalled to eliminate defects.
According to the source of the publication, the malfunctions were widespread: "cars broke down constantly" during tests last month.
An official representative of the British Army described the identified problems as minor and promptly fixed, noting that all the problems were related to the prolonged downtime of equipment in storage. According to him, the tests were continued the next day after the defects were eliminated. According to army data, the recorded malfunctions do not relate to the previously identified problem of noise and vibration, which led to a deterioration in the well-being of the personnel.
The tests in question covered six vehicles and are part of a phased resumption of acceptance tests authorized by the British Ministry of Defense at the end of April 2026 after a series of safety checks.
Ajax acceptance tests were suspended at the end of November 2025 after 31 military personnel reported symptoms of malaise (nausea, hearing loss, and tremor) during the multinational Titan Storm exercise involving 23 Ajax vehicles. In December 2025, after an injury to a serviceman during separate reliability tests, all tests of armored vehicles were suspended without exception.
Following an investigation conducted by the ASIT Safety Group, it was found that the recorded symptoms do not have a single cause, but are the result of a combination of several factors – technical problems, differences in personnel training, exposure to cold and air quality in the inhabited compartment. At the same time, the noise and vibration levels were found not to exceed the legal limits.
On April 28, 2026, the Minister of Defense and Industry, Luke Pollard, in a written statement to Parliament, announced his agreement to resume receiving Ajax machines from General Dynamics UK as part of a phased approach with enhanced monitoring of operating conditions and maintenance. The second stage of the program provides for the refinement of air filtration systems, heating of the inhabited compartment and power supply.
The £6.3 billion Ajax program has been implemented since 2014 and has been suspended several times due to noise and vibration issues, particularly in 2020-2023. The initial Operational Readiness (IOC) was assigned to the equipment in 2025, but was subsequently canceled in January 2026 amid the identified incidents.
