St Athan deal on the ropes - QinetiQ dodgy share sale!

no 1219
One in the Eye (page 3) Private Eye Article

The Eyes exposure of the unaffordability and big military risks of plans to privatise defence training in a £12bn PFI deal has angered the man running the project Brigadier Geoff Nield. "I return to you on the subject of the leakage of DTR related material to the press," he writes in a memo. "You will be aware of most of the articles on package 1 [the main, PFI, element of training reform] which have appeared in Private Eye." What really riled Nield was our exposure of of the cancellation of a planned announcement before parliament broke up. "The act of someone to release this latter information to a private eye journalist is clearly illegal, contrary to to the official secrets act," he mutters darkly.

Nield might be over-egging it as the official secrets act contains a public interest defence. Or maybe he thinks the public would be better off not knowing that the deal, which the MOD has refused to justify financially or operationally, is on the ropes. Or that the MOD's own secret assessment betrays the risk that "training output fails to meet the requirements of of operational command ".

D-day is due this month with an announcement on signing the PFI contract - or given the problems and latest rumours that the sale of MOD sites on which the deal depends has fallen through - abandoning PFI altogether.

All of which makes the timing of last weeks sale by the MOD of its remaining 19.8% stake in QinetiQ, owner of Metrix, highly unusual. If the MoD pulls the defence training deal. QinetiQ's share price will be hit and questions will be asked about whether the forthcoming announcement was a factor in the sell off decision and if so, whether inside information played a part.

If the deal goes ahead and QinetiQ's stock rises, however, another badly timed government sale will have cost the government millions. Remember you read it here first.

pic Vale of Glamorgan - Council briefed on defence training academy plans

During a visit to South Wales, Major General Tim Inshaw and Brigadier Geoff Nield visited the Civic Offices to meet council cabinet members, ...

see also page 6 on EDS. (whose interest is he looking after?)
Former long serving armed forces minister Adam Ingrams appointment as £50,000 a year consultant for the Eye's favourite firm, EDS, is just reward for 6 years at the MoD helping booster the firms buisiness.

ED's notable successes in recent years include a £250m contract to take the forces payroll (with predictably disasterous results so far) membershiop of the Metrix consortium negotiating a £12bn (and rising) PFI deal to privatise military training and a 4bn contract won in 2004 to overhaul all military and civilian defence IT......

Comment
Not a word of any problems like unaffordability and big military risks by Wing commander Richard Read in his propaganda article titled ACADEMY logbook in the Gem on Aug 5th ..although he is described as site director, working closely with Metrix and the MoD on the defence training review programme ....Read tells us "While much debate ensues over the precise number of jobs that will be created; even at its lowest, likely conservative, estimate it will be in the thousands with evident positive boost for the local and South Wales economy"!!!
..The new Defence Technical Academy is building on S
Cowbridge Today, Wales - News 11:13 8-Aug-08
No mention of these either by WAG and friends sham consultation.

..........................................................................................................................................
Notes

‘St Athan jobs dwindle while the costs rise’
Cowbridge Today, Wales - News 11:13 8-Aug-08

Plaid chief opposes St Athan academy
Wales Online - Politics News 07:26 6-Sep-08

Brig Geoff Nield. here

Vale of Glamorgan - Council briefed on defence training academy plans

During a visit to South Wales, Major General Tim Inshaw and Brigadier Geoff Nield visited the Civic Offices to meet council cabinet members, ...
www.valeofglamorgan.gov.uk/our_council/press_office/latest_news/2008/february.../military_academy_plans.aspx - 14k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

Vale of Glamorgan council Reports of the Director of

7. Project Management Unit: (i) The Defence Training Academy and

[View Minute]

Question Carwyn Jones AM on the militrary academy!

Bridgend CND in conjunction with Bridgend Quakers are holding a meeting this Thursday, 4th September, 7:30pm, in the Friends Meeting House (87, Park Street, Bridgend) with Carwyn Jones AM "answering" questions on the proposed St Athan military academy.

Why not use this opportunity to get some questions together.

Mr. Jones should not leave with the idea that only a few in the area are concerned about this issue

If you could give anyone a lift to the meeting or need help with a lift please let me know

The contact for Bridgend CND is Pete Thompson

3 Litchard Hill,

Bridgend,

SA6 8HS.

01656 648 817

petehommo@gn.apc.org

Wales sold to war profiteers

Wales is fast becoming a TOTAL MILITARY TRAINING ZONE!
RAF Valley Privatised - More unaccountable war profiteers/arms dealers/clusterbomb manufacturers coming to Wales!!!

War is the oldest, the most profitable and the most vicious racket—one in which the profits are measured in dollars/pounds and the losses in body bags. The insanity of militarism is forced on Wales by New Labour without a cheep of protest.

Who has decided on this in Wales? Has it been discussed at the Welsh Assembly? Our Welsh politicians need to take a reality check!

RAF Valley currently trains air force and navy officers to fly jet planes. The new PFI scheme at RAF Valley will be the first step in a 25 year programme to be delivered by Ascent, the MoD's private training service provider - the total programme value is estimated to be worth up to £6 billion over the 25 years

The base at RAF Valley on Anglesey will be ‘upgraded’ as part of a PFI scheme that sees flying training for the RAF, Army and Navy run by a private firm, Ascent – a joint venture by US giant Lockheed Martin and VT Group, based in Southampton. All fast-jet pilot training will now take place at Valley, where pilots will use the new Hawk 128 aircraft.

Same old myths! The Ministry of Defence said the PFI deal would help cut costs and simplify a fragmented training system, as well bringing jobs to the area. Same old spin! dont believe a word of it.

VT Group, makes high-tech products for the military and intelligence services, and transport security firm TRL as well as defence industry stalwarts, BAE Systems, Meggitt, and Smiths Group, all suppliers to aviation and defence industry.

Private corporations working for profit now sway the course of national and international conflict, but shouldn’t the Welsh people be told the consequences. Are these huge multinational companies accountable and are they accountable in any way to the politicians and people of WALES? Answer..NO!

Human Rights Watch April 2008
The following US companies are associated with the current production of cluster
munitions and their submunitions: Aerojet, Alliant TechSystems, General Dynamics, L-3
Communications, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, and Textron Defense Systems.

Hawk
Armament: AIM-9 Sidewinder, Aden 30mm, Cluster Bombs
The T1A has two under-wing pylons cleared to carry BL755 cluster bombs or Sidewinder AIM-9L air-to-air missiles, and can carry a 30mm Aden cannon in a pod underneath the fuselage centre-line.

Top Guns to get training centre liftic Wales, United Kingdom - 4 hours agoA NEW training centre for Top Gun RAF pilots will be built in Wales in a new £635m deal announced by the Ministry of Defence. ...
Training deal to secure RAF baseBBC News, UK - 2 Jun 2008A multimillion-pound deal .. military training at RAF Valley on Anglesey is expected to be confirmed later. The base would deliver all ...
History
Written Ministerial Statements — Defence: Training (2 Jun 2008)
Bob Ainsworth: I am pleased to announce the award of a contract to Ascent valued at £63.5 million, a joint venture between Lockheed Martin and VT Group, for the UK military flying training system, which is designed to meet the long-term flying training needs of the UK armed forces. Ascent has been appointed as training system partner to work with the Ministry of Defence to incrementally procure and...

Written Ministerial Statements — Defence: Military Flying Training (30 Nov 2006)
Derek Twigg: I am pleased to announce that the Ascent Consortium has been selected as the preferred bidder for the UK military flying training system (UKMFTS) training system partner. The Ascent Consortium consists of Lockheed Martin and the VT Group. The training system partner will ... read the spin.....work with the Ministry of Defence to deliver a long-term, cost effective, flexible training capability for the future...oh yeah!!! don't think so!

St Athan PFI Decision made in London

Not a single politican from WAG is challenging the UK government ability to have this sort of power over Wales - to make this decision for Wales?

Q. Did the 'Wales Office' not have to approve the St Athan PFI?

Paul Murphy : Written Answers - Wales: Departmental Private Finance Initiative (3 Mar 2008)
The Wales Office has not initiated or approved any private finance initiative projects in the last three years.http://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2008-03-03a.190810.h&s=speaker%3A10454#g190810.r0

A. Its not a Welsh PFI. Remember that MC3 package 1 solution was based around Bordon and Cosford and Portsmouth. It was instigated by Mod with Ministerial backing. However the Welsh politicians did help Metrix win the bid by hard lobbying and the WDA provided human resources to METRIX.