The former commander of a unit tasked with trialling the British Army’s new Ajax armoured fighting vehicle has lost about 20% of his hearing and suspects his time on the £10m platform could be to blame.
Rob Page, a former lieutenant colonel spent two years putting the vehicle through its paces from 2019 to 2021. In that time, he said he witnessed soldiers on the Armoured Trials and Delivery Unit suffer harm to their hearing because of excessive noise as they operated the platform and harm to their bodies because it vibrated so much when moving.
General Dynamics UK, which manufactured the vehicle, said a huge amount of work was done into ensuring the safety of Ajax, calling it "one of the most tested combat vehicles ever produced".
A Ministry of Defence spokesperson said: "We will always put the safety of our personnel first and the current pause shows that we will investigate any issues when they arise…We take any allegations very seriously and will look closely at any evidence provided."
Read more: https://news.sky.com/story/ex-commander-of-unit-tasked-with-trialling-ajax-armoured-vehicle-lost-20-of-hearing-13482221
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