Cllr Hodges fears World War 3 in Wales

Cllr Nic Hodges Plaid

PRESS RELEASE

News of a massive military exercise in Wales appears to be the thin edge of
the wedge according to Plaid Cymru Councillor Nic Hodges.

Cllr Hodges leader of the Plaid Cymru group at the Vale of Glamorgan Council
said "I see once again our coast and air space is being used for a multi-national military playground for "war games" on a greater level than ever before."

"A two-week exercise code named "Joint Warrior" will see the whole of Wales
including large sections of our coast and air space used as a playground for
the forces. With the leaked plans to build the privately funded Military
Academy at St Athan on the cards I fear Wales will become an all year round
military playground. I continue to be concerned that there are still no
answers on the question of cost and possible job creation at St Athan. I
have no doubt I will once again be attacked for asking these questions by
Labour MP's and aspiring Tories. "

"I want to see promises from the Ministery of Defence that if the
privately funded training academy at St Athan goes ahead it will not be used
to train soldiers from some of the unsavory regimes in the world. I've
raised these concerns with Chris Franks my Assembly Member and have urged
him to take these forward."

PHOTO -shows Nic Hodges raising his concerns with Chris Franks AM.
Nic Hodges

World War III

Sep 28 2008 by Robin Turner, Wales On Sunday here

FIGHTER jets, infantry troops, destroyers and submarines will converge on Wales next month for one of the largest military exercises of all time.

The two-week exercise – codenamed Joint Warrior – is designed to recreate a scenario in which Britain and other sovereign nations go to war against a “state-sponsored terrorist movement” – using a vast array of lethal modern weapons.

Taking place between October 6 and October 16, it will provide coordinated training for all three UK Armed Services, plus forces from EIGHT allied nations.

The whole of Wales has been designated as a flying area for the exercise, while so-called “managed danger area” ranges at Castlemartin and Manorbier in Pembrokeshire and Pembrey near Llanelli will be used for ground strafing, bombing and missile practice using live ammunition.

An area of the West Wales coast has also been earmarked as a maritime “warfighting” area for Joint Warrior.

The exercise is aimed at giving pilots, ships’ crews and ground troops vital training before they deploy to war zones like Iraq or Afghanistan.

According to the RAF, Joint Warrior will be particularly useful for Forward Air Controllers (troops directing airborne missile strikes), the role made famous by Prince Harry who became known by his call sign Widow Six Seven while directing fire against the Taliban.

Six companies of infantry, 29 surface and four sub-surface maritime units and 60 aircraft – flying at a rate of about 80 to 100 sorties a day – will be involved in the exercise.

An MoD spokesman said: “The two weeks will develop through a period of tension into simulated warfighting/open hostilities.”

The exercise aims to provide opportunities for all warfighting disciplines including:

Close Air Support (CAS) – executed by fast jet aircraft and Forward Air Controllers, often using live weapons;

Convoy Support, Time Sensitive Targeting (TST) and urban close air support scenarios – “in order to replicate current Middle-East operational missions”;

Large Force Element (LFE) missions – which will target fixed and mobile targets including inflatable Scud Decoys and Electronic Warfare (EW) emitters simulating surface-to-air threats;

Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW), Anti-Surface Warfare (AsuW) and also, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) missions – all carried out by Maritime Patrol Aircraft;

Joint fires – involving live weapons on ranges in Welsh Wales;

Submarine training – boats will complete sub-vs-sub and sub-vs-ship exercises.

The MoD spokesman said: “The exercise will accommodate a squadron of Tornado GR4s from 12 Sqn, RAF Lossiemouth and a squadron of Gripen aircraft from 171 Sqn, Swedish Air Force plus asso-ciated support personnel drawn from support units throughout the RAF.

“This is a particularly important exercise for the Tornado GR4 deployment as this will also act as a full mission rehearsal for their forthcoming deployment to Afghanistan.”

But Squadron Leader Peter Sinclair of the RAF in Wales moved to allay fears about the impact on people – and the environment.

He said: “Some of the exercise areas overlap environmentally-sensitive conservation zones, which contain a wide variety of marine wildlife, sea bird breeding grounds and protected fauna and flora.

“Furthermore, the farming, fishing and tourist industries are important economic activities, which benefit from the natural beauty and relative isolation of some of the exercise areas. Against this background, the MoD recognises the impact of military activity and takes its environmental responsibilities very seriously.

“During the planning of the exercise, Environmental Impact Assessments are conducted for all potentially damaging activities, such as the use of active sonar and live weapons. Furthermore, close working relationships with landowners and key national stakeholders, combined with engagement with local communities, ensure that appropriate environmental mitigation procedures are put in place and then adhered to.

“It should be noted that the MoD has decreed that environmental considerations are always to take priority over the achievement of training objectives. This direction remains a primary consideration throughout exercise planning and execution.”

The director of the exercise, Capt Paddy McAlpine OBE said: “Joint Warrior will offer high-quality joint tactical training with maximum tactical interaction, tailored to meet the participants’ requirements across the whole of the UK whilst creating as little impact on the environment as possible.

“I am sure that the high-fidelity joint tactical training environment provided by JTEPS within Joint Warrior will ensure that UK and allied participants are rigorously prepared for operational tasks in theatres world-wide.”

Ego and greed driving DTR package 1

DTR Announcement October 2008

Published by Cheryl under Cosford, MoD

On October the 9TH 2008, when Minister of the Armed Forces, (whoever it happens to be after this week after the reshuffles) makes another long awaited announcement, PCS hopes he is thinking very carefully about what the Metrix consortia (made up of Raytheon, QinetiQ, Land Securities Trillium, Dalkia, Sodexho and a host of many other companies and Education experts including the Open University) states on its website. “Within the consortium we bring the benefits of very large scale commercial infrastructure programmes to the MOD for the first time, and the proven confidence of the financial markets” ! Like so many other Metrix aspirations, they seem to have their fingers truly off the pulse again. Any wonder for PCS concerns over this failing and flawed PPP/PFI ?

In the recent months we have seen intense negotiation between the Department and Metrix. Presumably Metrix have been trying to make sure that they will still be able to make a considerable profit out of a deal worth some £12billion over the next 30 years. Brigadier Nield, head of the DTR IPT seems engrossed in worrying about his ratings in the Private Eye magazine and in trying to keep any news as an official secret.

Meanwhile the BBC on Fri Oct 3rd gave details of just how bad the current housing is at St Athan. Never one not to miss an opportunity to promote the Metrix bid , John Smith, the MP for the Vale of Glamorgan, said he had asked the Ministry of Defence to investigate the accommodation at St Athan. “I am deeply concerned. The problem here appears to be that the property was absolutely filthy and that could not have happened 20 or 30 years ago,” he said. “The entire housing stock of the Ministry of Defence was sold to a Japanese bank some 10 or 12 years ago and what that means is the liaison officer on camp has limited control over the standards of these properties. “

What John Smith MP carefully didn’t mention is Japanese bank Nomura or actually Annington Homes was a PFI deal which was heavily criticised by the audit office for selling the houses for between £77 million and £139 million less than they were worth.

It is going to change at St Athan because with the new technical academy being built - the housing accommodation and just as importantly, the single person accommodation, is going to be transformed.” (can PFI deliver 2nd time around?)

I am sure that our serving Military colleagues share his concerns and must also remain sceptical about moving from perfectly good housing to “renovated flea infested accommodation.

PCS await the announcement with interest. H O;Harney PCS Specialist Instructional Officer said “The fact that Metrix and the Department are aware that 98% of staff are unwilling to move to South Wales and want to remain as Civil Servants, the risk involved in this programme are huge. It is not too late to a lot of save money and seek a common sense solution which will see Armed Forces Training not being threatened with potential disaster. Some people’s ego’s and greed seem to the main driving factors now within DTR Package 1”.

Ministry of Defence

Minister of state - Bob Ainsworth
Minister of state - Lady Taylor
Parliamentary undersecretary of state - Quentin Davies
Parliamentary under secretary of state - Kevan Jones

Full list brown government here

Huttton new defence team

New Defence Ministerial team announced

Following the appointment on Friday, 3 October 2008, of the Rt Hon John Hutton MP as Secretary of State for Defence, further changes to the Defence Ministerial team have been confirmed.

L-R: Quentin Davies MP, the new Minister for Defence Equipment and Support and Kevan Jones MP, the new Parliamentary Under Secretary of State and Minister for Veterans

Rt Hon Baroness Taylor of Bolton PC moving to the newly-established appointment of Minister for International Defence and Security, supporting the Defence Secretary on NATO, ESDP and international issues; she will continue to lead on defence matters in the House of Lords.

Kevan Jones MP will become Parliamentary Under Secretary of State and Minister for Veterans. Bob Ainsworth will remain Minister for the Armed Force

Ministry of Defence

Minister of state - Bob Ainsworth
Minister of state - Lady Taylor
Parliamentary undersecretary of state - Quentin Davies
Parliamentary under secretary of state - Kevan Jones

Full list brown government here

British defence budge bust

A reality check for Britain's defence strategy

As UK troops risk becoming sidelined in Afghanistan, John Hutton must push for an urgent defence and security review

All comments ()

• article here
  
• • Robert Fox
  • guardian.co.uk,

A senior brigadier's candour about the prospects of beating the Taliban in Afghanistan must have given the new defence secretary John Hutton a bit of jolt just days into his new job. But he should welcome the remarks of Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith about British strategy as a cue for a reality check.

It isn't the only urgent problem in the new minister's in-tray. In fact, it is one of several that will need addressing sooner rather than later – and by that I mean in the next few weeks. It isn't that his predecessor, Des Browne, didn't care. He is said to have been privately anguished by the level of deaths and injuries of British servicemen and women in a conflict in which they have been involved over a longer period than the second world war.

The problem is that both Browne and his prime minister avoided public pronouncements about the aim of British strategy in Iraq and Afghanistan, what it might realistically achieve and when the troops could come home.

The problems now facing Hutton are that British forces and their equipment are facing exhaustion after five-and-a-half years in Iraq and seven in Afghanistan. Though most of the troops will come out of Iraq next summer, they will do so with little sense of success and with the opprobrium of the Americans, the ally whose cause took them there in the first place.

The British division will pull out of Basra by midsummer, to be replaced by a US divisional command. In theory this should save between £500m and £750m from the UK budget. But it probably won't. Replacing their kit, training and redeployment – most likely to Afghanistan – will eat up a large slice of that saving........................"Increasingly the allies, even the ones doing the fighting like the Canadians, Dutch, Danes and Brits are becoming bit players – a sideshow," a British commander told me recently. "This is now an American mission."

The new American commander for US forces across the region, General David Petraeus, believes he can use the same tactics he has just employed in Iraq. He wants there now to be a surge of allied forces into Afghanistan in the way he believes that the surge of 35,000 extra American forces into Iraq have turned round security there – though some say the picture isn't as simple as that. He is preparing to dispatch a further 15,000 US forces to Kabul by the spring. On his visit to London last week he was evidently seeking the UK government to match this by sending the bulk of the forces being pulled out of Iraq next year of around 3,500 to Afghanistan.

The most Britain can send now is a few hundred extra specialists, engineers, signalers, logisticians and the like. There is an unspoken reluctance to commit further because of misgivings about the American approach to spreading the war into Pakistan and because the British defence budget is bust – or even worse than bust. In July, Bush signed an unpublished operational order authorising American ground forces as well as drones and aircraft to raid into Taliban and al-Qaida sanctuary zones inside Pakistan....

For British ministers like Hutton, the picture is made darker still by the disastrous state of defence finances. Equipment programmes that should run at an average of £16bn over the next 10 years are now expected to soar to more than double that at £35bn. There are problems with big-ticket items such as the new Nimrod surveillance plane and the recently installed Bowman communications system (at £2.2bn) that cannot meet today's requirements for battlefield and strategic communications. The extra £3bn for the Astute submarine programme for this year and the next has already been blown, according to defence industry sources and more funds will be required to get the programme up and running fully. Some in-house MoD analysts and critics are warning that Britain cannot afford to run all three armed services at their present premier division level – some even say that the navy may have to choose between running aircraft carriers and submarines.

"Things are really about to implode," a senior MoD advisers said privately this last week. Gordon Brown had hoped that he could put off a proper defence and security review until after the next election. Now he and his new defence secretary may find they are forced to carry one out very soon. It cannot be the usual "carry on chaps" approach of so many recent policy utterances from MoD in recent years.

This time it will have to assess what Britain really needs and can really do for its own security – and that doesn't necessarily mean treating America as the senior partner at all turns.

This time the review will have to be properly costed – which the last one, in 1998, was not. For it to have any realistic and lasting value it will also have to examine what we have learned from our mistakes and shortcomings since we went piling into Afghanistan and then Iraq since 2001. It is too late for protecting tender egos: a grown-up inquest into the Afghan and Iraq campaigns may avert even worse disasters ahead.

Residents oppose airport road for St Athan Academy

No Ely Valley Airport Road

The Vale of Glamorgan Council has twice rejected proposals for a major new road linking junction 34 of the M4 to Sycamore Cross. The Welsh Assembly Government seem to be the driving force behind this, and it could be that airport traffic is a smokescreen for improved access to the Defence Academy at St Athan or other developments in the south of the Vale.

Anyone concerned about the loss of the Vale countryside may like to know that Vale MP John Smith has already given assurance to the Welsh Affairs Committee in the Commons in support of the Metrix Bid for St Athan "We have the total support of the local authority ... many of the of those planning and infrastructure considerations have already been addressed by the body that will be responsible for delivering them, underwritten by the Welsh Assembly Government. We are not going to have problems with green belt issues and planning issues...."
(Hansard 23 May 2006, Q58)
The Assembly wants an industrial trunk road through the Ely Valley.

However there is opposition to the proposed road.

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/2008/10/02/residents-oppose-cardiff-airport-access-road-91466-21946663/

Residents oppose Cardiff airport access road

Oct 2 2008 by Peter Collins, South Wales Echo

ANGRY residents campaigning against plans to build an access road to Cardiff International Airport mounted a protest in Barry yesterday.

The Welsh Assembly Government has asked for the public’s view on three options for a road to the airport. But many people in the Vale do not want to see a new road at all.

A report on the three options was presented to the Vale of Glamorgan Council’s cabinet yesterday members of an anti-access road action group held a demonstration outside the Civic Offices, in Barry.

Two of the three options centre on the A4232 from Junction 33 of the M4, while the third promotes a new road link south of Junction 34 of the M4 with an eastern or western bypass at Pendoylan before linking with the A48 at Sycamore Cross.

The third option was put forward by the Welsh Assembly Government in 2003 and was opposed by the Vale council. It was later withdrawn.

Coun Jeff James, the council’s cabinet member for planning, said councillors were not being asked to support or oppose any of the three options at this stage.

He said: “The council need to be fully engaged in this issue and will have to take a long hard view of the preferred option or options when it is announced by the Welsh Assembly Government.”

Matthew Rees, a member of the NEVAR (No Ely Valley Airport Road) said with the airport shrinking and airlines pulling out there was no need for an access road.

He said: “They are planning to spend £130m of taxpayers money for no good reason. As far as we are concerned the access to the airport is adequate already.

“The third option would have the most environmental impact and would destroy virgin agricultural land.”

Peterston-Super-Ely resident Roy Williams said there had no consultation on the premise that there should be an access road to the airport.

He said: “We get the feeling that we are being manipulated.”

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/2008/10/01/boost-for-st-athan-academy-jobseekers-91466-21936704/

BBC NEWS | Wales | Villagers' demo over airport link

- 16:191 Oct 2008 ... Members of No Ely Valley Airport Access Road (Nevar) held a protest outside the Vale of Glamorgan council's headquarters in Barry. ...

£100m transport boost on back of St Athan - WalesOnline

Bus or coach links from Miskin Parkway to the airport and St Athan; ... be some distance west of St Athan village, for easy access to the military academy. ...

No2 Road South from Junction 34 for Military Academy

boost for St Athan academy jobseekers PLANS for a multi-million-pound learning centre on the Barry waterfront to help train young people for jobs at the landmark defence academy in St Athan have been given a major final boost. Read

Can the Vale Cope with Defence Academy project without funds for new roads?

‘Act now on airport road’ – call by the Vale MP

Vale MP, John Smith, is calling for action to ease congestion at Culverhouse Cross and improve roads to Cardiff International Airport and the planned Defence Training Academy at St Athan. Mr Smith said: “While I recognise the need for a long-term solution in the form of a direct link from the M4 to the airport and the Defence Academy, there is need for immediate action. I shall be writing to the Welsh Assembly Government as part of its consultation on improving access to Cardiff International Airport, urging them to examine the possibility of improvements to the present airport access route from junction 33 of the M4 via Culverhouse Cross through north Barry and to the Airport and St Athan. “I believe there is an urgent need for a dedicated route to Barry skirting the western side of Culverhouse Cross. “This would provide vital breathing space while a new long-term solution is built from the M4 to the airport and the Defence Academy,” the MP insisted.

Copyright Tindle Newspapers Ltd 07 December 07

PFI Filthy housing for service people at St Athan

Defence Procurement Debate 19 June 2008 a complete farce over the sale of Annington Homes, which has left the Army’s housing stock in the hands of a private company here

Now we may have a New Labour bigger Farce....privatsing miltary training and super garrisons...or even McGarrisons! Metrix Serco linked to Japenese Bank Nomura here

Protests as Japanese bank wins share of forces' homes Independent, The (London), Sep 4, 1996 by Chris Blackhurst Westminster Correspondent

Michael Portillo, Secretary of State for Defence, yesterday sparked a welter of allegations about lack of patriotism, sleaze and "Tory fat cats lining their pockets" when the MoD announced the preferred bidder for its pounds 1.6bn married-quarters houses. The winning consortium, Annington Homes, includes Nomura, the Japanese bank, Amec, the construction group which has made rich pickings from previous privatisations, and Royal Bank of Scotland and Hambros, two banks with close links with the Conservative Party

Annington made no secret of its intention to profit from the deal. Sir Tommy Macpherson, the consortium chairman, said it would be seeking a stock market listing in "five to seven years". He refused to be drawn on the expected size of the profit from the share sale, but, if past experience is anything to go by, it will be considerable and will provoke a political outcry.

'Filthy' home angers RAF couple (Military accomadation owned by Japenese bank)
BBC News - UK

An RAF engineer who moved from Scotland to St Athan in south Wales wants to leave the forces because of the state of his family's accommodation there.Aarron Campbell, 22, claims he and his pregnant wife and baby were given "filthy and flea-infested" quarters.........Mr Campbell's wife Davina, 24, was horrified at the standard of their accommodation at the RAF base in the Vale of Glamorgan and said their six-month-old baby Chloe was bitten all over by fleas.

"The MoD sent us to a welfare house while our quarters were fumigated...the place they gave us was disgusting, with ripped carpets, filthy cupboards and kitchen doors hanging off their hinges, " said Mrs Campbell.The couple were moved but that was not much better, she added.

John Smith, the MP for the Vale of Glamorgan, said he had asked the Ministry of Defence to investigate the accommodation at St Athan. "I am deeply concerned. The problem here appears to be that the property was absolutely filthy and that could not have happened 20 or 30 years ago," he said.

"The entire housing stock of the Ministry of Defence was sold to a Japanese bank (Nomura) some 10 or 12 years ago and what that means is the liaison officer on camp has limited control over the standards of these properties.

"It is going to change at St Athan because with the new technical academy being built - the housing accommodation and just as importantly, the single person accommodation, is going to be transformed."

(Really..Heard it all before ...Don't mention The Annington Homes PFI deal which was heavily criticised by the National Audit Office. Michael Portillo sold Ministry of Defence married quarters to Nomura, who then rented them back to the army. The audit office found that Portillo had sold the houses for between £77 million and £139 million less than they were worth.) Story from BBC NEWS: Published: 2008/10/03 07:23:49 GMT

...Back story Sale of Defence Homes 'Cost Millions' here .

A house of Commons Debate on 16 June 2008 re Annington Homes. here
Bob Russell (Shadow Minister, Defence; Colchester, Liberal Democrat)...
As for Annington Homes, will the Minister confirm that over the past 12 years, the Government have paid more rent to Annington Homes than the Tory Government received during the privatisation in 1996? If that money could be invested in upgrading the homes of Army families, instead of lining the pockets of Annington, perhaps retention would be better than it is.

Derek Twigg (Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Minister for Veterans), Ministry of Defence; Halton, Labour) As the hon. Gentleman knows, the amount paid for the sale was around £1.6 billion, and I have written to him with the details of the rent that is being paid. The key thing is that most people now accept that that deal, which was done by the previous Government, was not in the interests of armed forces personnel or their families, and we have had to deal with a legacy of decades of underinvestment.

Linda Gilroy (Plymouth, Sutton, Labour) Not only does that deal not represent good value for money, as my hon. Friend confirmed, but Annington Homes must be making a handsome profit out of the arrangement. People are always looking to the Government for such things, but it is right to look to industries that make handsome profits out of the defence market. What discussions has the Under-Secretary had with Annington Homes to ask what it can do to put money back into the armed services?...

Robert Key (Salisbury, Conservative) But does the Under-Secretary agree that what matters to our armed forces and their families is the quality of the management of those homes? The Defence Committee found lamentable shortcomings in everyday management—taps working, loos flushing—issues that matter so much. In the new supergarrisons, will there be a new housing management system, which is an improvement on the current system?

Serco links to Japensese Bank Nomura here

New Capital in 1999

In early 1999, Nomura International, the European division of a Japanese investment bank, established a £1 billion ($1.7 billion) fund along with Serco for the purpose of bidding on and financing large public infrastructure projects. Two major projects coming up for bidding were those for Britain's National Air Traffic Control System and portions of the London Underground.

Note ..Big profits for defence big guns former Foreign Secretary Lord Owen who is a consultant to Terra Firma which has interests in Annington Homes, owner of MoD properties.

Britain: Government think tank sets out plans for privatisation of ...

The Commission’s sponsors include KPMG, Serco Plc, Nomura Securities, Norwich Union ...Japanese global investment bank Nomura has established a European ..

The St Athan Defence Training Academy: the future of British education?

latest SGR Newsletter : Autumn *2008*
The St Athan Defence Training Academy: the future of
British education?

Stuart Tannock discusses the disturbing implications
of the Ministry of Defence's new multi-billion pound
training academy.

Britain's largest education and technology investment
project in recent memory has been developing quietly
under the public's radar. It is time we paid attention.
In January 2007, the Ministry of Defence awarded an £11
billion contract to the private Metrix Consortium
(see Box) to build a massive new training centre for the
British armed forces at the village of
St Athan in the Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales.

St Athan, which is expected to become one of the world's
biggest military training establishments when it opens
 in 2013, will provide specialist training in engineering,
communications and information systems technology
to all three services of the British military. For the
first time, it will centralise in one location military
training that is currently done in sites
across the country.

Supporters of St Athan emphasise that the Academy will
use state-of-the-art technology and training methods
such as neurolinguistic programming, e-learning technologies,
computer-based training, computer-aided instruction,
emulation, simulation and Web-based systems. St Athan, they
claim, "breathes life into the classroom of the future
model which for many years now has been anticipated by
futurologists and thought leaders in the education community."
St Athan represents a "model for training in this
country" that will enable Britain to realise Lord Leitch's
vision of gaining "world leadership in skills."

Why should any of this worry us? There is the fundamental
question of why we should support such a massive outlay of
taxpayer money on a military that is still involved in
fighting an illegal war in Iraq – and in a country,
Britain, that already boasts the world's second-largest
military budget.Beyond this, St Athan represents three
developments which should be attracting extended public
and political debate, but which instead have
received little attention, beyond a small, local campaign
against the Academy that sprung up in Wales after the
project was first announced.

First, St Athan is part of a political project of
privatising the British armed forces, and turns over
responsibility for military training to a private, for-profit
consortium. At a time when, across the Atlantic, US Congress
is holding investigations into abuses perpetrated by private
military companies such as Blackwater in Iraq, Britain is
rushing headlong down the same path of military privatisation
that the USA has gone down before. This privatisation,
moreover, makes the British government a direct
partner of one of the world's largest and most controversial
arms dealers,Raytheon, which is a core member of the St
Athan Metrix Consortium.

Second, St Athan represents a major leap forward in Britain's
participation in the global arms trade. The Metrix business
model for maximising profits at St Athan is to maximise the
amount of training it provides, through serving not just the
British military but militaries from around the world.
Between 2002 and 2005, the Ministry of Defence provided
military training to more than 12,000 personnel from 137
countries, many with poor human rights records.  With
St Athan, this trade promises only to increase.

Third, St Athan represents another step up in the ongoing
militarisation of British education. The Open University –
whose Vice-Chancellor, Brenda Gourley, claims that
universities should be "beacons that reflect the very
best of which the human spirit is capable"  – is a
direct partner in the Metrix Consortium. Schools around
the Vale of Glamorgan are making plans to train local
youth for jobs at the St Athan Academy, while colleges and
universities across South Wales, which have already
been extensively militarised over the past decade,
are exploring new Academy contract tie-ins. 

Indeed, one reason why we shouldn't expect Cardiff
University, the premier institution of research and
learning in the region, to lead any critical investigation
into the St Athan project is that, in 2005, it signed
a long-term strategic research partnership with QinetiQ,
another core member of the Metrix Consortium.

Promoters of the St Athan Defence Training Academy
claim that it represents the future of education
in Britain. Without public investigation, debate and
critique of St Athan and other military research
and education projects across the country, there is
a strong possibility that this will come true.
If it does, it will not be for the better of Britain
or anywhere else in the world.