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”
24 February 2009 : Parliamentary Debate
MP formally objects to increasing costs of defence training review Mark Pritchard (The Wrekin) (Con): On a point of order, Mr. Speaker. You will know the rules concerning the reporting of contingency liabilities: no contingent is allowed to proceed without examination if a Member of this House formally objects. Given that the Ministry of Defence suggests in a departmental minute dated 17 February that it is looking to increase the initial contingent liability on the defence training review project from £9.5 million to a staggering £40 million, without any ministerial statement, may I ask that it be put on the record that I am formally objecting to this MOD minute and new contingent liability?
Mr. Speaker: The hon. Gentleman has put the matter on the record, and I shall leave it at that.
State underwrites UK defence’s PFI project Financial Times - London,England,UK Under the deal, taxpayers will underwrite a further £32m of risk in order to push through the Defence Training Review, the UK’s biggest private finance ...
John Smith MP meets the PM to discuss the defence training academy at St Athan reports Barry and District News on the 26th Jan on the same day as The Times reports that PFI schemes worth hundreds of millions of pounds for roads, waste plants, hospitals and defence projects are now under threat because the banks are reluctant to lend money.
The future of major PFI projects, such as the Defence Training Review in which QinetiQ has a major stake, is uncertain while credit markets are frozen say the Investors Chronicle
The National Audit Office (NAO) is considering opening an investigation into the QinetiQ-led project, which is the largest PFI in British history.
MP Mark Pritchard said that the DTR is "a privatisation too far". He said a key driver of rising costs - which went from GBP11 billion to GBP12 billion - and increasing delays was the need to build an infrastructure, including transport links, at RAF St Athan in Wales, which is where the project is bas
John Smith MP has failed to get any assurances from Gordon Brown or the Government that the £12billion and rising DefenceTechnicalAcademy at St Athan will be able to proceed.
Vale MP meets the PM 12:40pm Monday 26th January 2009
VALE of Glamorgan MP, John Smith, discussed the strategic importance of the multi-billion pound Defenceto the UK economy with the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, when they recently met in 10 Downing Street. Following their meeting John Smith said: “The Prime Minister recognised that this project is of national importance. "It will equip our armed forces with the best training in the world, greatly expand our skills base, create thousands of jobs and will in future years achieve significant savings for the British taxpayer.” http://www.barryanddistrictnews.co.uk/news/latestnews/4067236.Vale_MP_meets_the_PM/20412
VALE of Glamorgan MP John Smith has been seeking assurances from the Government about the future of aircraft repair jobs. Mr Smith was speaking at the inquiry into the Defence Support Group (DSG) and the progress made since the amalgamation of the Army Base Repair Organisation (ABRO) and the Defence Aviation Repair Agency (DARA) in April 2008.
The chief executive of DSG, Archie Hughes, told the committee that work for St Athan was being actively sought for beyond 2014, when its maintenance of the VC10 aircraft is due to end.
Mr Smith, a member of the committee, said: “The workers at the St Athan site have some of the most highly prized set of technical skills in the aerospace engineering world. “I have no doubt whatsoever that the arrival of the Defence Technical Academy at St Athan can only work in favour of DSG St Athan winning new aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul work.”
FTSE 350: Aerospace & Defence Investors Chronicle, UK -19 Jan 2009 The annual round of defence spending in the US and the UK will be a focus of anxiety for UK-listed companies over the next 12 months, as governments on both sides of the Atlantic grapple with growing budget deficits….
Efforts to close a yawning £2bn hole in the UK defence budget will dominate the year and this could see several projects either mothballed or delayed. The Ministry of Defence has already put back the delivery date of its new aircraft carriers by two years, and the future of major PFI projects, such as the Defence Training Review in which QinetiQhas a major stake, is uncertain while credit markets are frozen.
Labour forced to call for help as building programme stalls Times Online, UK -25 Jan 2009 PFI schemes worth hundreds of millions of pounds for roads, waste plants, hospitals and defence projects are now under threat because the banks are ...
UK's Defence Training Review is nearing collapse, warns MP Jane's, UK -31 Dec 2008 By Gerrard Cowan The UK's GBP12 billion (USD18 billion) Defence Training Review (DTR) is on the verge of collapse due to a "triple whammy of rising costs, ...
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 -
