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YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST...

.....or maybe you didn`t.  Trials of the British Army`s new Ajax armoured vehicles have been halted for a second time following concerns being raised again over noise.  The Ministry of Defence confirmed that following these renewed concerns on the impacts of noise on the crews of these vehicles, "all Ajax trials have been suspended and will only resume when we are assured that mitigations are fully effective."

Earlier in the month it was reported that trials of Ajax armoured vehicles were halted at the end of last year to March this year due to excessive vibration and noise, leaving crews suffering from nausea, swollen joints and tinnitus.  

The Defence Minister, Jeremy Quin, visited the proving ground where independent testing has been conducted on Ajax and he commented, "This long running troubled programme requires ongoing intense work by our industrial partners and ourselves to ensure its delivery.  In achieving this, the safety of our personnel will always come first." Here`s the offending `vehicle`:-

So, let`s see if I`ve got this right.   The complaint is about how noisy these armoured vehicles are for the crews who have to man them and unless that problem is resolved no doubt the full force of the Health and Safety legislation will be brought to bear on the MoD.  Now, as a former 10th Hussar, I am familiar with and have been in close contact with armoured fighting vehicles and by their very nature they are noisy beasts and prone to the pitfalls of vibration.  They are not designed for comfort. 

The whole raison d`etre of having armoured fighting vehicles is that one day they might be called upon to play their part in not only training exercises, manoeuvres and the like, but also actual fighting in a theatre of war where the enemy might be bearing down and the conventions and dictates of health and safety legislation have absolutely no relevance whatsoever.

Do I detect another example of the eternal contradiction in terms that is military intelligence?