Campaign to oppose a privatised military academy for St Athan - biggest PFI/PPP ever, with arms dealers Raytheon Serco. John Pilger "a British "School of the Americas" is to be built in Wales, where British soldiers will train killers from all corners of the American empire in the name of "global security". Tony Benn “The thought of privatising the training for the Armed forces was morally abominable”
Yesterday Defence Management reported that the outgoing second permanent under secretary of state for defence has ordered Package 1 of the £11bn training programme to move forward at the Welsh site despite resistance and doubts over the programme’s viability:
A leaked memo from a high ranking MoD official has revealed that the Defence Training Review (DTR)is set to carry forward at St Athan, Wales, despite the troubled economic climate, faulty business plan for raising revenue and widespread resistance from the affected MoD civilians employees and the union that represents them.
In a leaked memo seen by Defence Management, it has been revealed thatSir Ian Andrews, the outgoing second permanent under secretary of state for defence has ordered Package 1 of the £11bn training programme to move forward at the Welsh site despite resistance and doubts over the programme’s viability.
There has been resistance to Sir Ian’s final objective for sometime. RAF Cosford, which narrowly lost out to the St Athan facility, has been viewed as a more viable alternative because of its central location and the fact that it already has much of the infrastructure in place for training. Civilian trainers are widely resistant to moving to rural Wales to conduct the training. Furthermore, the financing of the DTR site has been rocked by the shaky economy. The Metrix led consortium had planned to fund the project through the sale of surplus MoD land but with the housing market hitting rock bottom, predicted revenues are now substantially less than first believed. Rising inflation has led to a ballooning of costs to £12bn.
The memo indicates that Sir Ian is willing to proceed with the St Athan site despite the above mentioned concerns. He wants to commit to Metrix and St Athan . Developing a contingency plan would show that the MoD has doubts the memo implied.
Recently some MoD officials admitted that the plan was unaffordable in its current state and that Metrix would have to submit a new business plan in order for the deal to move forward.
The contents of the memo were later revealed in an e-mail to staff at RAF Cosford in an e-mail. However the MoD failed to inform the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union which represents most of the affected civilian trainers.
Robert O’Harney, the Cosford branch secretary for the PCS said he was disappointed by the MoD’s willingness to leave the union out of the communications loop. He vowed that the union would continue fighting the DTR at St Athans because it was “unaffordable.”
The MoD strongly denied that any decision had been made. A spokesperson refused to comment on the leaked memo, but said: “A recent routine review has confirmed the Department’s commitment to delivering the DTR Package 1 Project and the Defence Technical Academy at St Athan.
“A final clarification exercise is now ongoing, after which Metrix’s revised proposals will be evaluated and considered for final approval.
“The MoD and Metrix are committed to an ongoing programme of consultation and communication with the local community.”
Armed forces minister Bob Ainsworth will make a statement to the Commons on 9 October regarding DTR SIr Ian said.
Why would this go ahead now! Would it be a desperate move by new labour to save the face of a Rhodri Morgan and John Smith AM ...even if they don't realise this is more an election liability.. than anything else....so they will shoot themselves in the foot...
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.
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 Notawordofanyproblems like unaffordabilityandbigmilitaryrisksbyWingcommanderRichardReadinhispropagandaarticletitledACADEMYlogbookintheGemonAug5th ..although heisdescribedassitedirector, workingcloselywithMetrixandtheMoDonthedefencetrainingreview programme ....Readtellsus "Whilemuchdebateensuesovertheprecisenumberofjobsthatwillbecreated; evenatitslowest, likely conservative, estimateitwillbeinthethousandswithevidentpositiveboostforthelocalandSouthWaleseconomy"!!! ..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.
The future of RAF Cosford is even more unclear than it was a few months ago due to the struggles of the Defence Training Review (DTR).
The £11bn training programme was awarded to St Athan, Wales over the RAF base in Shropshire. Many officials expected that this would mean the closure of the airbase. A formal announcement on the base's future is expected later this month.
However, as reported on Friday, the DTR is facing an extended period of difficulty and a full blown financial review because its financing was dependent on the sale of surplus MoD land.
Now the MoD may have to keep the RAF Cosford open as a contingency plan in case the deal at St Athan collapses. RAF Cosford had a number of advocates behind it during the bidding of the DTR including the unions representing the trainers and a number of high profile MPs. The base's infrastructure and close proximity to major cities and airports continues to make an attractive option. If the deal at St Athan were to fall through, the MoD would need a backup site for the programme.
Funding the continued operation of RAF Cosford may pose additional challenges to the MoD. A few months ago all signs pointed to it being closed and sold off. Keeping the base open will not only cost additional money but force the ministry to keep certain jobs there.
A decision on the future of a Shropshire RAF base which missed out on a £16bn contract is expected to be revealed by the Ministry of Defence.
Hundreds of defence jobs were set to move from RAF Cosford to RAF Athan in south Wales, after the Metrix Consortium won the contract last year.
However, recently concerns have been raised about whether the plans were affordable amid rising costs.
The MoD said the move will go ahead and is set to clarify its position soon.
It was expected to give more details on Thursday, although its official announcement may not now be made until 23 September.
The Metrix Consortium won the major defence-training deal with the MoD in January 2007 beating a rival bid from RAF Cosford.
Following a review of defence training needs, Defence Secretary Des Browne said it would set up a new armed forces tri-service centre at RAF Athan which would create about 5,000 jobs.
However, in recent months, doubts have been raised about whether the Metrix plans were affordable, with the current economic climate being blamed for rising costs.
The future of RAF Cosford's Defence College of Aeronautical Engineering has been unclear since last year's announcement.
The Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) has contested the decision and fought to keep the defence jobs in Shropshire
Relaunch of training review in the works Friday, September 12, 2008
Officials from the Metrix consortium and the MoD are attempting to relaunch the Defence Training Review following the deal’s finances all but collapsing in the current financial turmoil.
Defence Management first reported in July that the deal was experiencing a troubled period due to the harsh economic conditions and resistance from the civilian trainers in moving to rural Wales. The consortium, led by QinetiQ, won the £11bn PFI deal in January 2007 to bring together most defence training at one site in St Athan, Wales. The training was to be divided into two packages, but the MoD concluded that the second package was all but unaffordable.
The deal’s finances are heavily dependent on the sale of redundant MoD land as various groups and trainers move from their bases to the St Athan site. Unfortunately the credit crunch has all but levelled the property market, making the value of certain MoD properties far less than financers had predicted when they crunched the numbers in the original business plan a few years ago.
Rising inflation has also contributed to the financial troubles. It is believed that costs could rise by as much as £1bn over the next year.
MoD and consortium officials are now expected to develop a new business plan in the hopes that they can find a way to finance the project without it being so heavily dependent on property sales. A decision on the troubled project could be reached by as early as next week.
In a statement the MoD confirmed there were problems, saying: "A contributory factor adding to the complexity (of talks) has been the impact of the increased cost of borrowing and cost growth. Negotiations with Metrix are ongoing and both parties are working hard to drive down costs and obtain maximum value for money for the taxpayer."
The focus will now turn to what a new financial plan will mean. Union members and MPs have told Defence Management that the DTR is unaffordable in its current form. A new financial model that is not dependent on revenue from land sales will surely mean that additional cuts to the training plans will have to be made.
TEXTBOOK BUNGLING Desperate for cash, the Government sells it's remaining stake in defence research firm QinetiQ for a knockdown £257million in a depressed market. So ends the saga of incompetence that has robbed taxpayers of countless millions, while vastly enriching a handful of former civil servants. Somebody should write a history of this Government's handling of QinetiQ as a textbook for whelk-stall owners on how not to run business.
Credit Crunch Affects £11 bn( or is it £12bn) contract
The Daily Mail has now picked up on the effects that the current credit crunch is having on the proposed Defence Training Review (DTR) contract: By Karl West see here
A controversial £11bn contract to provide training to Britain's armed forces is in danger of collapsing as a result of the credit crunch.
The QinetiQ-led Metrix Consortium, which also includes property firm Land Securities and American engineer Raytheon, is preferred bidder on the giant Defence Training Rationalisation deal.
Metrix won the contract back in January 2007 with a plan to slash the Ministry of Defence’s training estate from 30 sites to about ten, with a main campus at St Athan in South Wales.
It had planned to keep costs low by selling off the unwanted land and buildings to either housebuilders or commercial property developers.
However, the value of development land has plummeted since the contract was awarded as the credit crunch has frozen the market.
It is thought the cost of the training proposal has rocketed by £1bn to £12bn, as debt is more expensive and Metrix’s ability to offset rising costs with land sales has diminished.
One senior industry source said: ‘DTR is in trouble. We know that for a fact because they (Metrix) can’t afford it. QinetiQ went for the big bang with the property deals but the value of that property is no longer worth what it was since the credit crunch.’
It is understood the MoD is scheduled to meet next week with the consortium, which is due to present its ‘new financial model’.
The ministry insisted it remains ‘fully committed’ to delivering the project at St Athan, but admitted it is still in discussions with the consortium about how it is going to fund its training plans without compromising the scope of the project.
The MoD said: ‘A contributory factor adding to the complexity (of talks) has been the impact of the increased cost of borrowing and cost growth. Negotiations with Metrix are ongoing and both parties are working hard to drive down costs and obtain maximum value for money for the taxpayer.’
Metrix declined to comment. The decision to award the huge deal to QinetiQ (up 1/4p at 2141/4p) caused uproar because, at that time, the Government was the defence firm’s biggest shareholder with 19%.
However, the holding was sold for £257m this week.
Campaigners took the message to Milton Keynes - with the support of Mark Thomas - to highlight the key role the OU is proposing to play in the privatised military academy in bed with arms dealers & war profiteers Ratheon, Serco, Qinetiq, and incompetent EDS... and to ask what happened to ethics? What is the OU ethical stance?
Mark Thomas is in Cardiff - Tue, 7 October (19:00) - Borders Bookshop - CF10 1AH - Talk and book signing.
see his website for more information.. http://www.markthomasinfo.com/
Mark's new book, "Belching Out the Devil" will be published on 25th September 2008. It is available for pre-order from Amazon
Mark new book is about Coca Cola. As many of you may know Coca Cola bottlers in Colombia face allegations that the plant managers colluded with paramilitaries to bring about the deaths of trade unionists working for the Coke plants.
Could this be considered insider trading should the MoD drop Metrix. IE Share prices are bound to sink even further if Metrix are withdrawn as preffered bidder for Package 1 ?? ??
What an interesting time for MoD to selling Qinetiq shares !!
Qinetiq stake sale raises £257m
By Sylvia Pfeifer and John Willman
Published: September 9 2008 08:59 | Last updated: September 9 2008 08:59
The government raised £257.3m from the placing of its remaining stake in Qinetiq, the defence technology group that was privatised in 2003 and floated in 2006.
The Ministry of Defence placed its holding of 124.9m shares, representing 18.9 per cent of the company’s ordinary capital, at 206p –=2 06p above the original float price and 1p above the level at which Carlyle Group sold out at in February 2007.
The shares fell nearly 8 per cent on the news in early trade to 206.6p before closing down 6.04 per cent, or 13½p, at20210p.
Tuesday’s sale was not unexpected and came just days after its shares reached a record high of 235¼p last week. The sale is good news for the cash-strapped MoD.
The department said it would retain a substantial proportion of the proceeds, with the rest being diverted to the exchequer for “government spending priorities”.
It said: “The government always made it clear that it anticipated selling its entire financial stake in order to realise its financial investment and to achieve best value for money for the UK taxpayer.”
The contentious privatisation of Qinetiq in 2003 was criticised by MPs for giving bad value for money to the taxpayer. However, the government has been trying to sell state-owned assets such as the Tote and its stake in British Energy as the fiscal deficit has swollen. In December, the Liberal Democrats warned against premature sales to fill the deficit in the public finances at a time of stock market turn..
With an announcement expected towards the end of the month what message is this sending out if any !!!
http://www.legitgov.org/#breaking_news US military, contractors trained Georgian commandos 05 Sep 2008 The US military provided combat training to 80 Georgian special forces commandos only months prior to Georgia’s army assault in South Ossetia in August. The revelation, based on recruitment documents and interviews with US military trainers obtained by the Financial Times, could add fuel to accusations by Vladimir Putin, Russian prime minister, last month that the US had "orchestrated" the war in the Georgian enclave. The training was provided by senior US soldiers and two military contractors.
a friend writes ...
I thought you might be interested in the well being of our old friend Mr.
Ingram.
As you know the architect of Collocation, FDSCi, 13,000 job cuts, mass
privatisation and pay cuts was the man who did not "give a shit" about Civil
Servants. Sadly he stepped down from Ministerial duties last year. He is much
missed by PCS members.
Fortunately, our loss has been others gain.
As well as being appointed Chair of the Prospect Parliamentary Group (lucky
Prospect members), the Guardian reports 3rd Sept "Congratulations to Adam Ingram,
who stepped down after six selfless years as defence minister, for he has
received the green light to become a consultant to EDS, one of the MoD's largest
and most controversial suppliers".
The article goes on to say that "The advisory committee on business
appointments, which regulates these things, said Ingram "should not become
personally involved in lobbying UK ministers or crown officials, including
special advisers, on behalf of his new employer for a year".
Incidentally - and completely coincidentally - I stumbled across the following
press cutting from 2006 whilst looking at this story:
The details of a financial settlem ent given to EDS by the Ministry of Defence
have been withheld from British taxpayers because corporate America likes to
keep its cards close to its chest.
EDS said in March it was seeking "adjustments" to compensate for the "financial
impact" of changes made by the Ministry of Defence to its requirements for its
£2.3bn Defence Information Infrastructure (DII) project.
Neither EDS nor the MOD would provide details after they reached an agreement
over the contract change in May. But EDS said its second quarter results,
released this month, would.
However, when the results were published on 1 August, they failed to mention how
much the MOD had paid EDS.
The matter has been raised in Parliament by Mike Hancock, Liberal Democrat MP
for Portsmouth South, last month. He wanted to know precisely how much more had
been paid to EDS.
The £2.3bn contract, according to analysts at Ovum, was expected to deliver the
MOD £170m of savings in its first three years, with £43m of this expected to be
gleaned in the first year.
MOD Minister of State for Armed Forces Adam Ingram refused to answer Hancock's
Parliamentary question, saying the details were "commercially sensitive".
Neither EDS nor the MOD would elaborate on why the payment was confidential.
A source close to the deal said EDS would be upset if it were to reveal the
payment details. EDS has already attracted flak over20compensation payments and
confidentiality arrangements with the British government.
In April, MPs on the Treasury Committee said a £71.25m payment EDS was ordered
to make in compensation for its delivery of a shoddy tax credits computer system
had the "appearance of impropriety".
Their problem was that £26.5m of EDS' payment was contingent on the firm winning
more government business. This detail had been hidden by a confidentiality
clause. The National Audit Office cited it as a reason why confidentiality
clauses should be banned from government contracts.
I am sure PCS members will be delighted to learn that Mr Ingram will no doubt be
back at MoD lobbying for EDS in 12 months time. I am also sure PCS members who
were privatised under DII and are now threatened with compulsory redundancy will
wish to welcome the new employee in an appropriate manner.
Credit crisis squeezes defence training
By Sylvia Pfeifer, Defence Industries Correspondent
Published: August 29 2008 03:00 | Last updated: August 29 2008 03:00
Fresh concerns have been raised over an £11bn training programme for the military - one of the government's largest private finance initiatives - after the fall-out from the credit crunch raised its cost by nearly 10 per cent in less than 20 months.
The Defence Training Review (DTR) will centralise all non-military technical training for army, navy and air force personnel in one academy, at St Athan in the Vale of Glamorgan.
The first part of DTR, a 30-year PFI programme to train military engineers, was awarded to a consortium called Metrix, led by Qinetiq, the defence research group, in January 2007.
But the economic downturn has contributed towards increasing the cost of the programme to £12bn. The Ministry of Defence said the increase "is due to the impact of inflation and borrowing costs and the current economic climate, not just directly associated with cost growth".
Separately, Charles Barrington, chairman of Metrix, told the Financial Times that the turmoil in the credit markets had forced the consortium to abandon its original plan to raise up to £1bn through a bond issue.
"The bond market is not conducive at the moment so we are looking at a bank solution," he said.
The project had, however, already secured the support of a group of banks in principle, he stressed.
A final decision on which funding route to go down would not be made until the programme was closer to completion.
Mr Barrington expected the MoD to give its final sign-off on a full investment decision early next year, later than originally expected.
Concerns about the affordability of the programme, given the MoD's severe budget crisis, persist. Last month Bob Ainsworth, armed forces minister, admitted to MPs that "this is taking longer than is ideal". He added that "financial appraisals have thrown up some difficult issues".
Mr Barrington said Metrix was working hard to give the MoD "a project that will meet its affordability gap under its constrained circumstances".
"The MoD is operating not only in an operational environment it has not seen for a generation, but also operating in a budgetary environment that it has not seen for a generation," he said.
There was no indication the programme would not happen. "This is a nationally important project. You only need to consider the value of trained personnel to the current operational army to realise how important technical training is."
The programme has proved highly political since its inception. The competition pitted Wales against the West Midlands to secure the main base for the contract. A bid from a rival consortium would have based its training at RAF Cosford and some of its personnel will now have to move to Wales.
The consortium received a pre-contract award of £9.5m from the MoD in the spring, which is being used to develop a transition plan and start work transforming the training courses.
At any one time, some 6,000 students are going through training and around 1,100 courses are taught every year. There are currently nine different training sites.
Public consultation for the planning process started a few weeks ago. Construction at the site is due to begin in 2009 and be completed in 2013.
The details of a financial settlement given to EDS by the Ministry of Defence have been withheld from British taxpayers because corporate America likes to keep its cards close to its chest.
EDS said in March it was seeking "adjustments" to compensate for the "financial impact" of changes made by the Ministry of Defence to its requirements for its £2.3bn Defence Information Infrastructure (DII) project.
Staff affected by the Defence Training Review recently found out from an article in the Financial Times that:
Charles Barrington, chairman of Metrix, told the Financial Times that the turmoil in the credit markets had forced the consortium to abandon its original plan to raise up to £1bn through a bond issue.
“The bond market is not conducive at the moment so we are looking at a bank solution,” he said.
The project had, however, already secured the support of a group of banks in principle, he stressed.
A final decision on which funding route to go down would not be made until the programme was closer to completion.
Mr Barrington expected the MoD to give its final sign-off on a full investment decision early next year, later than originally expected.
By Sylvia Pfeifer, Defence Industries Correspondent
Published: August 29 2008 03:00 | Last updated: August 29 2008 03:00
Fresh concerns have been raised over an £11bn training programme for the military - one of the government's largest private finance initiatives - after the fall-out from the credit crunch raised its cost by nearly 10 per cent in less than 20 months.
The Defence Training Review (DTR) will centralise all non-military technical training for army, navy and air force personnel in one academy, at St Athan in the Vale of Glamorgan.
The first part of DTR, a 30-year PFI programme to train military engineers, was awarded to a consortium called Metrix, led by Qinetiq, the defence research group, in January 2007.
But the economic downturn has contributed towards increasing the cost of the programme to £12bn. The Ministry of Defence said the increase "is due to the impact of inflation and borrowing costs and the current economic climate, not just directly associated with cost growth".
Separately, Charles Barrington, chairman of Metrix, told the Financial Times that the turmoil in the credit markets had forced the consortium to abandon its original plan to raise up to £1bn through a bond issue.
"The bond market is not conducive at the moment so we are looking at a bank solution," he said.
The project had, however, already secured the support of a group of banks in principle, he stressed.
A final decision on which funding route to go down would not be made until the programme was closer to completion.
Mr Barrington expected the MoD to give its final sign-off on a full investment decision early next year, later than originally expected.
Concerns about the affordability of the programme, given the MoD's severe budget crisis, persist. Last month Bob Ainsworth, armed forces minister, admitted to MPs that "this is taking longer than is ideal". He added that "financial appraisals have thrown up some difficult issues".
Mr Barrington said Metrix was working hard to give the MoD "a project that will meet its affordability gap under its constrained circumstances".
"The MoD is operating not only in an operational environment it has not seen for a generation, but also operating in a budgetary environment that it has not seen for a generation," he said.
There was no indication the programme would not happen. "This is a nationally important project. You only need to consider the value of trained personnel to the current operational army to realise how important technical training is."
The programme has proved highly political since its inception. The competition pitted Wales against the West Midlands to secure the main base for the contract. A bid from a rival consortium would have based its training at RAF Cosford and some of its personnel will now have to move to Wales.
The consortium received a pre-contract award of £9.5m from the MoD in the spring, which is being used to develop a transition plan and start work transforming the training courses.
At any one time, some 6,000 students are going through training and around 1,100 courses are taught every year. There are currently nine different training sites.
Public consultation for the planning process started a few weeks ago. Construction at the site is due to begin in 2009 and be completed in 2013.
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
In Planet magazine there is an email exchange between Stephen Thomas (Director of the Welsh Centre for International Affairs) and Sara Koopman, an academic who is an activist with the School of the Americas Watch, they exchange their experiences of campaigning against St Athan and School of the Amer...icas.
Campaign Objections to defence technical college here
State underwrites UK defence’s PFI project By Alex Barker, Political Correspondent
Published: February 25 2009 02:19 | Last updated: February 25 2009 02:19
Ministers have quietly offered contractors bigger state guarantees as a means of rescuing the £12bn ($17bn) private finance project to centralise the military’s training, the Financial Times has learnt.
See OU society matters article here Metrix shambles and OU here Should the OU be involved in the ARMS TRADE? here OU OU partnerships with armed forces? here Daily Mail - controversial £11bn contract to provide training to
Britain's armed forces is in danger of collapsing as a result of the credit crunch.herePlaid chief opposes St Athan Academy 6-Sep-08 hereWales must not be a cog in the war machine - Daily Post..here‘St Athan jobs dwindle while the costs rise’ here
Meet the mystery defense contractors that are raking in billions in taxpayer dollars without notice. Read more » "We recommend that people throughout the world launch nonviolent actions against US and UK corporations that directly profit from this war” - 7th Recommendation of the World Tribunal on Iraq, June 2005; http://www.worldtribunal.org/
What are the 'benefits' to the MOD of transferring risk to the private sector?
Derek Twigg MP, Under Secretary of State for Defence, talks to PSCA International's Matthew D'Arcy about what lies ahead in bringing a new flexible approach to learning through the Defence Training Review. “Partnership with the private sector does give us flexibility, and this is the key point here, to decrease or increase student throughput. The partner will be able to generate third party income from spare capacity and also dispose of surplus capacity. It also allows for a very important part of the role for industry to bring private sector management expertise and the ability to include significant capital investment at this stage. It is really about delivering a modern and flexible learning environment that will be fit for our service personnel of the future.” Facilities key to defence trainingThe PPP Journal Issue 56 - Thursday, April 12, 2007
Raytheon News
Raytheon Raytheon Tucson is a pretty awful place to work. If you're thinking about working there, you should think long and hard before you accept the offer. ... Raytheon Says 12 Private Wells Are Polluted Raytheon: Plume Is No ThreatTampa Tribune - USA.. environmental experts from Raytheon told a crowd of about 700 people in St. Petersburg on Friday that a toxic plume of chemicals that ...
Rhodri Morgan should be ashamed of himself for supporting raytheon with no supporting evidence
Ending Contractor Impunity see here The Center for Public Integrity, The Windfalls of War. Global Policy Forum. “State Sovereignty and Private Security Companies” webpage with documents, analyses, articles and links. Available here Human Rights Watch, Private Military Contractors and the Law. See here International Committee of the Red Cross, Privatisation of War section. See here Private Military Companies. See here War on Want, Getting Away with Murder. See here Sourcewatch. See here
News: Officials: Hundreds of Iraqis Killed By Faulty Grenades ..failure rates as high as 40 percent. Hundreds and possibly thousands of Iraqi civilians have been killed or maimed by outdated, defective U.S. cluster weapons that lack a safety feature other countries have added, according to observers, news reports and officials……… Britain, which joined the USA in the fight to oust Saddam Hussein, fired 2,000 artillery cluster weapons in the war. All were equipped with Israeli-made grenades with secondary fuses and a 2 percent dud rate, the British Defense Ministry said…….."The funding for R and D [research and development] in the Army was minimal, and fusing was the last on the list," said Bruce Mueller, a former Army lieutenant colonel who managed the fuse program for defense contractor Raytheon. "They develop weapons, then they develop munitions, and after they develop munitions, the last thing they worry about is how to fuse them."
Raytheon. The company makes the guidance systems for many of the missiles that are sold to Israel and that caused so much civilian death in the conflict, including the 51 people crushed to death in a bunker in Qana.
Download Corporate Mercenaries [pdf]: War on Want's report on PMSCs - Private Military and Security Companies - Corporate Mercenaries: The threat of private military and security companies…..Northrop Grumman and Raytheon are major arms contractors also selling PMSC services.
Clusterbombs - On April 1st an undetermined number of BLU-97/B submunitions hit Hilla, with reports claiming that at least 33 civilians were dead and around 300 injured.
America Cluster Bombs Iraq - UN Security Council - Global Policy Forum The missile is described by the Navy, its primary developer, and Raytheon Systems, its manufacturer, as a long-range glide bomb. Acting Pentagon spokesman ... www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/iraq/2001/0226cstr.htm - 14k -
Dozens of Iraqi dead after cluster bomb attack in Hilla Amnesty International has condemned the Hilla bombing and the US use of clusterbombs, saying that the use of cluster bombs against a civilian area of Hilla... www.ccmep.org/2003_articles/Iraq/040403_dozens_of_iraqi_dead_after_clust.htm - 14k -
The use of cluster bombs Human Rights Watch "U.S. Use of Clusters in Baghdad Condemned" 16 April 2003) The cluster bombs that were used in Hilla were identified by Landmine Action, ... www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3463.htm - 31k -
tance from the affected MoD civilians employees and the union that represents them.
