Ex-Saudi envoy Prince Bandar 'disappears' , father seriously ill

[emad]

Keys to the kingdom: Inside Saudi Arabia's royal family

The crown prince is seriously ill, and Saudi Arabia's normally secretive royal family is openly clashing over who will take the throne, reports Hugh Miles

The Independent on Sunday


A dispute over Saudi Arabia's royal succession burst into the open yesterday, revealing a power struggle in which one of the most senior princes in the oil-rich kingdom is reported to have disappeared. The prospect of instability in a country that is not only the world's largest oil exporter but also a key Western ally at the heart of the Middle East will cause serious concern in Washington, London and beyond.


Rumours are rife over the position of Prince Bandar bin Sultan, 60, son of the heir to the Saudi throne, who has not been seen in public for weeks. Prince Bandar is better known abroad than almost any other member of the Saudi royal family, not only for his extravagant lifestyle, but because of his daring foreign policy initiatives during 22 years as the Saudi ambassador in Washington, where he played an important role after 9/11 and during two Gulf wars. His absence from public life comes at a sensitive time in Saudi Arabia: his father, Crown Prince Sultan, is gravely ill with cancer, throwing the succession to King Abdullah into question.

One theory in political circles in Riyadh is that Prince Bandar was seeking to oust King Abdullah before Prince Sultan dies, thus placing his father on the throne. Other rumours claim that Prince Bandar is ill, or that he angered King Abdullah by dabbling in Syrian politics without authorisation. The Saudi embassy in London could not be contacted for comment last week, but this weekend political tensions in the kingdom came dramatically to the surface.

On Friday night King Abdullah unexpectedly announced the appointment of one of his half-brothers, Prince Nayef, the 76-year-old interior minister, to the post of second deputy prime minister, which had been left vacant. This was immediately taken as an indication that he would become crown prince when Prince Sultan dies or becomes king. But yesterday Prince Talal, another senior figure, publicly demanded that the king confirm that the appointment did not mean Prince Nayef would automatically become the next crown prince. Such public disagreement among senior Saudi royals is highly unusual.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/keys-to-the--kingdom-inside-saudi-arabias-royal-family-1656644.html

[madokie]

1. Its probably them cooties he got from bushitler

thats doing him in

[emad]

2. he's still wanted by the UK Serious Fraud Office over the BAe fiasco

even though Poodle told the cops to drop the case 'because it was not in the national interest' to prosecute.

[Octafish]

10. Billion pound bribes make million pound crumbs...

...for the poodle begging at the table.

The rotters are showing their colors. If Bandar's truly missing, as in Luca Brazi missing, it would mean big trouble for his enemies and friends. One group benefits in both cases, however, the group the Blairs and Bushes serve.

Thank you for an excellent article, emad.

[emad]

11. Octafish! Long time no see..."If Bandar's truly missing" - as in ...

"The Presdident's Brain Is Missing!"

emad
x

[seemslikeadream]

14. (*_*)

:hi:

[KharmaTrain]

3. This Needs To Be Watched...

Besides the Saud family connections to the BFEE and it's beltway clout, it has been a major exporter of money Wahabi movements around the Middle East...including the more radical Talaiban groups in Afghanistan and Sunnis in Iraq. The Sauds have long kept the clerics at arms distance in their country...at least as far as the money and real power. A fight that weakens the House of Saud could easily put those clerics in a strong position to fill a power vacuum and the consequences to American interests in the region could turn ugly in a hurry.

[NV Whino]

9. You ar absolutely right

This power play has been going on for a while, but it's about to come to a head.

[Solly Mack]

4. That's interesting

Thanks for posting!

[SpiralHawk]

5. "Jeez, too bad 'n stuff. Smirk." - xCommander AWOL Bush (R-Plutocrat)

[baldguy]

6. I think W would find an enormous eloquence within himself

with regards to his GOOD FRIEND Bandar Bush. After all, he's like a real person to W - not like the hoi palloi and the unwashed masses.

[SpiralHawk]

7. "Smirk." - xCommander AWOL Bush (R - Plutocrat)

[dixiegrrrrl]

17. That picture should be on a milk carton...

well, the prince half of the pic anyhow....

[NV Whino]

8. Has anyone checked that little "ranch" in Crawford?

[emad]

12. Hardline Prince (Nayef) moves closer to Saudi Arabia's throne

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/saudiarabia/5071865/Hardline-Prince-moves-closer-to-Saudi-Arabias-throne.html


ALSO posted on previous DU GD Saudi thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=5356359&mesg_id=5356359

[uppityperson]

21. Thank you. off to read those. kicking for today

[bridgit]

13. You mean 'Bandar Bush'? For years when the Saudi family told the Bush's to look the other way...

or offer up vital information key to the survival of America when it was asked for...they did. If I didn't know better I'd say a veneer of plausible deniability is being established prior to the next round. The luster having gone out of bombing military housing, embassies and naval ships chugging into port; Al Qaeda & bin Laden always positioned their doings as an opening salvo upon the true underbelly of America: her economy, listening to Obama on TV this very instant speechifying about how important GM http://www.militaryfactory.com/armor/detail.asp?armor_id=1 and our auto market is, is sadly too boringly predictable for a bunch of guys that buy & drive Mercedes Benz & Audi stretch limos in the course of converting their dollars to euros

http://discuss.epluribusmedia.net/bush_buddy_bandar_aids_al_qaeda

[Ganja Ninja]

15. We have a Crown Prince we can spare if they need one. n/t

[dixiegrrrrl]

16. Maybe Cheney knows something about this....

[BeFree]

18. Fill up on gas!

Imo, the Suad hired the US to put a lid on Iraq. We did. A once thriving, and becoming freer society is now a war torn squalid place. The Sauds are happy.

Now, with oil prices down, the Sauds are unhappy. And now there may be a fight over power? Trouble.

[ddeclue]

19. Bandar Bush is missing? Time to call AMW...and fill up on gas..

It's going back up to $4.00/gallon if civil war in S.A. breaks out.

[seemslikeadream]

20. Prince Bandar bin Sultan received hundreds of millions of pounds in secret payments

http://www.nwemail.co.uk/home/mystery_disappearance_of_saudi_prince_in_bae_bribe_allegations_1_533904?referrerPath=home

The Prince, Saudi ambassador to Washington for more than twenty years, is known for his role in securing an arms deal with the UK in return for hundreds of millions of pounds. According to an investigation in 2007, up to £120m a year was sent by BAE Systems from the UK into two Saudi embassy accounts in Washington.






BAE System's Dirty Dealings
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=9008


It sounds like the stuff of pulp fiction: The UK's largest armaments producer running a £20 million ($33.4 million) slush fund to finance prostitutes, gambling trips, yachts, sports cars, and more for its most important clients the Saudi royal family and their intermediaries, greasing the wheels of the largest business deal in UK history. These are the accusations made last month by a former employee of weapons giant BAE Systems. And evidence has surfaced that members of the British government were aware of the bribe arrangement, but looked the other way.

BAE Systems, formerly known as British Aerospace, is one of the world's top arms producers. It manufactures warplanes, avionics, submarines, surface ships, radar, electronics, and guided weapons systems, generating annual sales of £12 billion ($20 billion) in 130 countries. The arms giant was formed as a nationalized British defense corporation in 1977, which was subsequently privatized in the early 1980s, and changed its name to BAE when British Aerospace merged with Marconi Electronic Systems in 1999.

BAE Systems' North American branch has an unusual special relationship with the Pentagon where it is treated as a domestic arms company. According to Ian Prichard of the British Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT), "BAES North America appears to be virtually a separate company - even top UK executives are not privy to the more sensitive work carried out by 'their' company in the US."

For years the company has been accused of selling arms to impoverished and dictatorial regimes, polluting the environment, and has been dogged for years by allegations of corrupt dealings.

Now those allegations have exploded into the open. Revelations point to BAE's provision of enticements to the Saudis over a fifteen year period, starting in the late 1980s, using a front company Robert Lee International (RLI), to divert funds to the arms clients and their middlemen. Among other allegations, RLI procured prostitutes for visiting Saudi officials and bought houses for mistresses, while an internal BAE statement reportedly refers to "sex and bondage with Saudi princes". According to documents published by The Guardian, the British government's Serious Fraud Office (SFO) alerted the Ministry of Defense of the possible involvement of BAE's chairman Sir Richard Evans in the bribe scheme, but the Ministry of Defense did nothing.

BAE Systems' chief executive Mike Turner didn't deny the slush fund charges. At a press conference following the revelations, he stated, "They are old allegations and they are old hat. They are history." Turner added, "Everything we do is legal and that is all I am prepared to say. Whatever the law is, we are legal."

http://www.wri-irg.org/pubs/warprof-0606.htm

AGM protest...
BAE Systems
As Campaign Against Arms Trade reports....

BAE Systems is the 4th biggest arms company in the world. Each year it sells around £11 billion of arms around the globe.

These weapons are sold indiscriminately to a wide customer base - to regimes with appalling human rights records, regions involved in devastating conflicts, and impoverished countries with huge development needs.

CAAT holds a number of 'token shares' in BAE Systems which enables them to attend the company's Annual General Meeting and challenge it about its deadly trade. In May 2006, around 40 CAAT supporters attended the AGM and dominated questions to the company's board members on a number of issues.

Supporters challenged the company on its continued contribution to conflict and human rights abuses around the world - particularly by supplying arms and services to Saudi Arabia and Indonesia. One shareholder highlighted the fact that around 80% of victims in conflict are civilians; another asked the chair directly whether he empathised with victims who have been maimed or killed by BAE products.

The Chairman, Dick Olver, replied by saying that he believe that 'BAE supplies products to make the world a safer place' and that 'the people in the company are proud of their contribution to stability in the world'.>





Trail of the Dove

Al Jazeera: Trail of the Dove - Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iuFyWX3Rz8

Al Jazeera: Trail of the Dove - Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jIPMQSpiiE

Al Jazeera: Trail of the Dove - Part 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dclFejuvrwg

An exclusive interview with one of Britain's leading investigative journalists and a former insider, the Trail of the Dove reveals the extent of surcharges, commissions and the $100 millon secret fund used by the UK's leading arms firm, BAE Systems, to grease the wheels of the biggest arms deals in British history.

Al-Yamamah 'The Dove' is the name of a series of massive arms sales by the United Kingdom to Saudi Arabia. It is Britain's largest ever export agreement, and the prime contractor has been BAE Systems and its predecessor British Aerospace, which earned £43 billion in 20 years.

Both the UK's National Audit Office (report never released) and The Serious Fraud Office (halted) conducted investigations into corruption allegations. Trail of the Dove has also had access to ministry of defence secret documents and ambassadorial official correspondence that shows the level of corruption in the British arms trade.


New Labour - Old sleaze - Saudis and BAE blackmail Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tibaAAS5Zk

New Labour - Old sleaze - Saudis and BAE blackmail Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMnIBMm9HBQ

New Labour - Old sleaze - Saudis and BAE blackmail Part 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEwJ72VCrzI

NOW WE KNOW WHY:- Tony Blair has defended the government's decision to halt the Serious Fraud Office's (SFO) investigation into alleged bribery surrounding BAE Systems' contracts with Saudi Arabia.

The prime minister told the House of Commons continuing the investigation would have damaged the UK's relationship with Saudi Arabia.

However, he refuted allegations the attorney general Lord Goldsmith had attempted to block a subsequent Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) investigation as "completely and totally unfair and wrong".

It had been alleged Lord Goldsmith had warned officials not to disclose information to the OECD investigation.

Quizzed in prime minister's questions, Mr Blair defended the decision not to pursue an inquiry.

He said: "First of all these allegations are strenuously denied by the Saudi royal family, secondly if we were then going to conduct an investigation then that might last two, three years into these allegations that frankly I think would lead absolutely nowhere.

"What it would lead to is the complete wreckage of a relationship that is of fundamental importance of the security of this country, to the state of the Middle East, and to our relationship with countries in the Middle East."

Mr Blair continued: "I was asked for my advice as to what damage this investigation would do if it continued. I gave that advice because of the huge importance of working with Saudi Arabia on the Middle East peace process, on counter-terrorism, on the situation in the Middle East.

"I stick by that, and the idea frankly that such an investigation could be conducted without doing damage to our relationship is cloud cuckoo land, which after all is the natural habitat of the Liberal Democrats."

The Liberal Democrats have called on Mr Blair to confirm what he knew about the alleged bribery and when -- noting that bribery of a foreign official became illegal in 2002.

Since 1985, BAE Systems has signed £43 billion worth of arms contract with Saudi Arabia. But it was alleged these were agreed in return for payments totalling £1 billion to Prince Bander.

The government halted a SFO investigation in December 2006 and the case has since been investigated by the OECD


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWwdJpJkyKg



Former Saudi Ambassador to the US, Prince Bandar bin Sultan received hundreds of millions of pounds in secret payments from Britain's top defence manufacturer with the knowledge of Prime Minister Tony Blair's government, according to the BBC.
The payments made by BAE Systems were actually a conduit to Bandar for his role in the multi-billion al-Yamamah arms agreement, Britain's biggest ever export deal signed in 1985, the state-funded broadcaster said it had learned Thursday.
The alleged bribes were said to have been discovered during a year-long inquiry conducted by Britain's Serious Fraud Office (SFO), but which was abruptly halted last December after Blair said the investigation was a threat to national security.
The dropping of the investigation also came amid concerns that it might jeopardize a new multi-billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia to supply Eurofighters.
The BBC said that the payments, believed to total more than Pnds one billion (Dlrs 1.9 bn), were sent to two Saudi embassy accounts in Washington, were written into the government-to-government arms deal contract in secret annexes.
Allegations previously made in the British press have also suggested that Mark Thatcher, son of the British prime minister at the time, was also involved in the deal.
The al-Yamamah deal included the supply of more than 100 Tornado aircraft and is estimated to have been worth over Pnds 40 billion (Dlrs 78 bn) over more than a decade.
The new claims, to be made in the BBC's current affairs Panorama programme next Monday prompted the head of parliament's committee which investigates strategic exports, Labour MP Roger Berry, to call for a proper investigation into the allegations.
Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman Vince Cable said that if ministers in either the present or previous governments were involved there should be a "major parliamentary inquiry".
"It is one thing for a company to have engaged in alleged corruption overseas. It is another thing if British government ministers have approved it," Cable said. (more) (less)


BAE brings in a pair of Army contracts


http://www.bizjournals.com/masshightech/stories/2007/08/27/daily5.html

A New Hampshire-based defense contractor reports it has won an $8 million federal research grant to develop a power amplifier for the U.S. Army.

A Merrimack, N.H., BAE Systems Inc. site is scheduled to develop a 160-watt gallium nitride amplifier to power communications and radar systems. The grant was awarded to BAE by the Defense Research Projects Agency (DARPA) for the U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center, based in Fort Monmouth, N.J. BAE is expected to share the grant with Virginia-based materials science company Rohm and Haas Co. and the University of Colorado.


In a separate development, a Massachusetts-based unit of BAE reports it plans to develop night vision goggles for the U.S. Army for an undisclosed contract amount. The Program Executive Office Solider, based at Fort Belvoir, Va., commissioned the work, according to company officials.

BAE Systems Inc. is the U.S. subsidiary of United Kingdom-based BAE Systems PLC. BAE Systems Inc. is headquartered in Rockville, Md. BAE Systems Information & Electronic Systems Integration Inc., a business unit of BAE Systems, is based in Nashua, N.H. BAE Systems PLC employs 88,000 workers worldwide and reported 2006 annual sales of $25 billion. The largest North American BAE operating group is the Electronics & Integrated Solutions group.


BAE already has an order from India for 66 BAE Hawk trainers, 42 of which are being built there.
Posted by seemslikeadream on Wed Aug-29-07 06:07 PM

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601091&sid=aIVNGXZDbsww&refer=india

BAE Systems to Develop Enhanced Night-Vision Goggle For U.S. Army


http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20070827005480&newsLang=en


LEXINGTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--BAE Systems will design and develop a digitally enhanced night-vision goggle as part of the U.S. Army’s Enhanced Night Vision Goggle program. This next-generation goggle will use digital imagery to improve soldier mobility and situational awareness under all lighting conditions and in the presence of battlefield obscurants.

The helmet-mounted goggle will digitally combine video imagery from a low-light-level visible sensor and an uncooled long-wave infrared sensor on a single color display located in front of the soldier's eye. This digital technology will provide improved image quality and will enable imagery to be shared among soldiers, improving platoon effectiveness.

“This program will demonstrate the maturity and effectiveness of digital fusion technology and its benefit to the warfighter,” said Margaret Kohin, Advanced Systems program director for BAE Systems in Lexington, Massachusetts. “Applying innovative technology to help our soldiers complete their missions is an objective BAE Systems stands behind every day.”

The contract is managed by the Program Executive Office Soldier at Fort Belvoir, Virginia.

BAE Systems will incorporate its uncooled MicroIR® microbolometer sensor technology in the enhanced goggle. This technology also is used in the thermal weapon sights the company supplies to the Army. BAE Systems has two microbolometer foundries and has delivered more than 50,000 microbolometer-based imagers to date.

About BAE Systems

BAE Systems is the premier global defense and aerospace company, delivering a full range of products and services for air, land, and naval forces, as well as advanced electronics, information technology solutions and customer support services. BAE Systems, with 96,000 employees worldwide, had 2006 sales that exceeded $27 billion on a pro forma basis, assuming BAE Systems had owned Armor Holdings Inc. for the whole of 2006.

1692661, $519 million deal to supply the U.S. military with 1,170 mine-resistant ambush-protected vehicles

http://www.thestreet.com/s/merger-bolsters-bae/newsanalysis/general/10375090.html?puc=googlefi

OKLAHOMA CITY -- With its huge buyout of Armor Holdings, U.K. defense contractor BAE Systems (BAESY - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) may have very well gotten more than its money's worth.

Notably, just weeks before that transaction closed, Armor landed a surprise $519 million deal to supply the U.S. military with 1,170 mine-resistant ambush-protected vehicles. With similar MRAP business of its own, BAE has suddenly burst forward as a new leader in the multibillion-dollar MRAP game.

This story is the fourth installment in TheStreet.com's five-part series examining the top players in the multibillion-dollar MRAP bidding.

"In 2007 to date, BAE plus AH have captured ... No. 1 market share -- ahead of Force Protection (FRPT - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) and International Military and Government," a unit of Navistar (NAVZ - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr), noted JPMorgan analyst Harry Breach, whose firm has investment banking ties to BAE. Moreover, "we believe that further MRAP awards are likely later this year."

BAE demos DSL-esque military radio protocol
Posted by seemslikeadream on Wed Aug-29-07 06:13 PM

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/08/20/bae_dsl_via_link_16 /

According to BAE, "the demonstration included Internet Protocol (IP) connectivity, Voice over IP, mobile ad-hoc networking, streaming video, and imagery."

The share price of BAE Systems, Europe’s largest defence company, has risen 225 per cent.


http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/engineering/article2337229.ece

Symon Hill, a spokesman for the Campaign Against Arms Trade, said: “We think that most of the British public will object to the idea that these companies are profiting from war. While Iraqi civilians and British soldiers are dying, there are companies profiting from it.”

Accusations of making money from war are seen as unfair by the businessmen who run Britain’s defence industry. While the industry in the United States is loaded with former generals and admirals, British executives tend to be engineers or entrepreneurs. They are not career soldiers and get frustrated when they are presented as warmongers.

Revealed: official passes that give BAE access to the top at the MoD



http://www.guardian.co.uk/baefiles/story/0,,2149644,00.html

Incestuous' relationship must end, says MP
Lobbyist among 38 given free access to ministry

Rob Evans and David Leigh
Thursday August 16, 2007
The Guardian


The Ministry of Defence has given security passes to 38 employees of the arms giant BAE, allowing them to go in and out of the ministry's headquarters as they please, it has been revealed.
The disclosure has triggered accusations that the relationship between the MoD and BAE is too close and allows the arms company to exert too much political influence over the government. The MoD is refusing to disclose the names of the BAE employees with the official passes, or why they were given them, saying the information would breach their privacy and security. However, it is known that one has been held by BAE's chief lobbyist, Julian Scopes. The pass gave him access to the top levels of the ministry, enabling him to lobby ministers and senior officials and promote BAE's commercial interests.

BAE - $368 million to build and refurbish naval weapon systems,


http://www.epicos.com/epicos/portal/media-type/html/user/anon/page/default.psml/js_panename/News+Information+Article+View ;jsessionid=1DC948DE7A201E05F88DA8A5F1D73E43.tomcat2?articleid=81859&showfull=false


BAE Systems Receives Navy Basic Ordering Agreement for Weapons and Support Services
(2007-08-24)
By: Copyright Business Wire 2007 , Business Wire

BAE Systems has received a Basic Ordering Agreement (BOA) from the U.S. Navy for up to $368 million to build and refurbish naval weapon systems, and provide support services over the next five years. Potential orders received under this BOA are expected later this year and will be carried out by BAE Systems' facilities in Minneapolis and Louisville.

"This agreement will give us the opportunity to continue to serve the U.S. Navy and provide our sailors with critical naval weapon systems and support services," said Dennis Morris, BAE Systems' president of Armament Systems.

The BOA covers a wide range of BAE Systems' programs including the transition of production of the Mk 110 57mm naval gun system; the overhaul, manufacture and upgrade of the Mk 45 5-inch naval gun for the Cruiser Modernization program, the Mk 75 76mm gun mount, the Mk 42 extended range guided missile handling mechanism, the Mk 32 surface vessel torpedo tubes (SVTT), and the Mk 36/53 decoy launcher systems (DLS); the manufacture of gun barrels; the overhaul of turbine pump ejection systems (TPES); and work associated with minor caliber guns.

"This BOA demonstrates to us that our employees have been successful in meeting the customer's needs -- and that's our priority - delivering solutions on time and on budget," said Morris.


BAE wins $8m US defense contract to develop GaN amplifier ELECTRONIC WARFARE

http://www.semiconductor-today.com/news_items/NEWS_2007/AUG_07/BAE_230807.htm

BAE wins $8m US defense contract to develop GaN amplifier
UK-based aerospace and defense contractor BAE Systems says that its Electronics & Integrated Solutions (E&IS) business in Merrimack, NH, USA has been awarded an $8m contract from the US Army Communications-Electronics Command to develop a 160 Watt gallium nitride power amplifier for communications, electronic warfare, and radar applications. Partnering BAE Systems on the program are materials supplier Rohm and Haas of Blacksburg, VI, USA and the University of Colorado.

The solid-state technology will replace the older traveling-wave vacuum tubes that are currently used to produce high-power radio frequency signals, and are intended to aid warfighters by more effectively disrupting enemy communications and radar signals, while protecting friendly communications.

“DARPA has identified BAE Systems’ GaN technology as an important material for future military applications in electronic warfare, radar, and air-to-ground, air-to-satellite, and ground-to-ground communications systems,” says Dr John Evans, the manager for DARPA’s Disruptive Manufacturing Technology program (through which it solicits proposals to reduce cost and time for production of military components). BAE Systems was chosen from among 40 bidders.

“Using this technology, we can develop systems that are significantly less expensive, more reliable, and lower in weight,” says Tony Immorlica, program manager of microwave device programs at BAE Systems. The first prototypes could be deployed by the end of the decade

Cannon for the U.S. Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS) program


http://digital50.com/news/items/BW/2001/07/14/20070822005666/bae-systems-congressional-community-and-army-leaders-celebrate-inauguration-of-elgi.html

BAE Systems, Congressional, Community and Army Leaders Celebrate Inauguration of Elgin Site
ELGIN, Okla.-(Business Wire)-August 22, 2007 - BAE Systems held a special inaugural ceremony in Elgin, Oklahoma to initiate work on BAE Systems - Elgin Operations, a 150,000 square-foot facility. The BAE Systems - Elgin Operations facility will be built by the city of Elgin in the Ft. Sill Industrial Park, and is scheduled to open in early 2009. Work at the new facility will initially focus on production integration and assembly of the Non-Line-of-Sight (NLOS) Cannon for the U.S. Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS) program.


Peter Gardiner has been secretly flown to Washington to give testimony by the feds.


http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/11/26/bae_slime_bypas... /

The Guardian reveals today that the Justice Department feds, frustrated by the UK's failure to release the vast amounts of evidence in the Serious Fraud Office files, have moved decisively to gather information on their own account. US agents have secured cooperation from Swiss authorities - a lot of money relating to the BAE deals is said to have moved via normally-secretive Swiss banks, and now a lot of information is going from there to the Justice Department.

The paper also reports that Peter Gardiner, who ran a travel company used by BAE to lavish gifts and luxury on various Saudis, has been secretly flown to Washington to give testimony by the feds. Gardiner has claimed of the services he provided for Saudi princes: "This is way beyond the lifestyle of most film stars... film stars were quite often around at the large hotels that we were visiting, but they wouldn't be living in this level of affluence."

Gardiner claimed to have channelled BAE cash to Saudi notables, as well as an endless procession of five-star hotel bookings, million-pound all-expenses holidays, expensive cars and other sweeteners. On one occasion he said he had to charter a 747 cargo plane to carry a Saudi princess's shopping home.

It appears that Gardiner travelled to Washington during the summer courtesy of the feds, going via Paris so as to avoid the notice of the British government. The US agents are also said to be working closely with Swiss prosecutors.

A Guardian source "close to the Department of Justice" said "the investigators are confident they can get what they need from Switzerland. That's where all the BAE arrangements were made."

Meanwhile, Prince Bandar has hired former FBI Director Louis Freeh to act for him in the matter.





Stench of conspiracy at BAE Systems
Posted by seemslikeadream on Fri May-23-08 11:22 AM

Stench of conspiracy at BAE Systems -- US obtains Swiss records and flies in British witness
Posted by seemslikeadream on Sun Nov-25-07 09:29 PM

http://www.guardian.co.uk/baefiles/story/0,,2217144,00.html

US obtains Swiss records and flies in British witness in BAE investigation

US corruption investigators have gone behind the back of Downing Street to fly a British witness to Washington to testify about Saudi arms deals with the UK arms firm BAE Systems, the Guardian can disclose. In a hitherto secret move, Swiss federal prosecutors have also agreed to hand over to Washington financial records linked to the Saudi royal family.

The US is seeking - but has so far been refused - more than a million pages of documents seized from BAE, its bankers, Lloyds TSB, and the Ministry of Defence during an investigation by the Serious Fraud Office.

Prince Bandar, the former Saudi ambassador to the US, who says there was no impropriety about a £1bn payment he received for brokering arms deals with BAE, has hired a former head of the FBI and a retired British high court judge to defend his position. The British government has been attempting to block all investigations into payments from BAE to members of the Saudi regime.

British ministers are refusing to grant a six-month-old official request from the US department of justice for mutual legal assistance, in defiance of the UK's anti-bribery treaty obligations. This follows the suppression of Britain's own Serious Fraud Office investigation, which was abandoned last year on the grounds that the inquiry might jeopardise national security. The move, following Tony Blair's intervention, infuriated anti-corruption campaigners.



Stench of conspiracy at BAE Systems


http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2192611,00.html
Stench of conspiracy at BAE Systems


Nils Pratley
Wednesday October 17, 2007
The Guardian


The boardroom dynamics of BAE Systems are hard to read at the best of times, but the natural reading of chief executive Mike Turner's departure seems clear: he was pushed.
The killer quote was provided by Turner in June, when he seemed to pitch publicly for an extension. "I'm a fairly young guy," he said. "I've been through some difficult times a few years ago, but the company is in great shape. Why would I want to stop now?"


Why indeed? He is 59, has worked at the company since his teenage years, and retirement age at BAE is 65. Turner himself says he will now look for a job elsewhere, albeit in a non-executive role. It's not as if shareholders were demanding change. The shares have performed wonderfully in recent years, a fact that usually baffles those who only associate BAE with allegations of bribery.
On the business front, Turner did well. He weathered the rows with the Ministry of Defence over the costs of the Nimrod aircraft and Astute submarine programmes. His single-minded vision for expansion - more American assets - was controversial, but successful. Becoming the world's biggest builder of armoured vehicles, from an American base, has paid off handsomely thanks to conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq.

So why's he going? It looks as if winds of change are blowing through BAE. Chris Geoghegan and Steve Mogford, co-chief operating officers, have already resigned this year, so Turner's exit next August means members of BAE's old guard are becoming harder to spot.

New faces might be deemed desirable at this point: the US department of justice is still investigating allegations that BAE paid bribes to Saudi officials. BAE says its relationship with the US government is unaffected, but it's also its job to ensure that's always the case.

Was chairman Dick Olver behind Turner's departure? Was it a boardroom coup? There is sometimes danger in smelling conspiracy at BAE. On this occasion, the stench is powerful.




http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=1692996

BAE brings in a pair of Army contracts


http://www.bizjournals.com/masshightech/stories/2007/08/27/daily5.html

A New Hampshire-based defense contractor reports it has won an $8 million federal research grant to develop a power amplifier for the U.S. Army.

A Merrimack, N.H., BAE Systems Inc. site is scheduled to develop a 160-watt gallium nitride amplifier to power communications and radar systems. The grant was awarded to BAE by the Defense Research Projects Agency (DARPA) for the U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center, based in Fort Monmouth, N.J. BAE is expected to share the grant with Virginia-based materials science company Rohm and Haas Co. and the University of Colorado.


In a separate development, a Massachusetts-based unit of BAE reports it plans to develop night vision goggles for the U.S. Army for an undisclosed contract amount. The Program Executive Office Solider, based at Fort Belvoir, Va., commissioned the work, according to company officials.

BAE Systems Inc. is the U.S. subsidiary of United Kingdom-based BAE Systems PLC. BAE Systems Inc. is headquartered in Rockville, Md. BAE Systems Information & Electronic Systems Integration Inc., a business unit of BAE Systems, is based in Nashua, N.H. BAE Systems PLC employs 88,000 workers worldwide and reported 2006 annual sales of $25 billion. The largest North American BAE operating group is the Electronics & Integrated Solutions group.


BAE already has an order from India for 66 BAE Hawk trainers, 42 of which are being built there.
Posted by seemslikeadream on Wed Aug-29-07 06:07 PM

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601091&sid=aIVNGXZDbsww&refer=india

BAE Systems to Develop Enhanced Night-Vision Goggle For U.S. Army


http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20070827005480&newsLang=en


LEXINGTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--BAE Systems will design and develop a digitally enhanced night-vision goggle as part of the U.S. Army’s Enhanced Night Vision Goggle program. This next-generation goggle will use digital imagery to improve soldier mobility and situational awareness under all lighting conditions and in the presence of battlefield obscurants.

The helmet-mounted goggle will digitally combine video imagery from a low-light-level visible sensor and an uncooled long-wave infrared sensor on a single color display located in front of the soldier's eye. This digital technology will provide improved image quality and will enable imagery to be shared among soldiers, improving platoon effectiveness.

“This program will demonstrate the maturity and effectiveness of digital fusion technology and its benefit to the warfighter,” said Margaret Kohin, Advanced Systems program director for BAE Systems in Lexington, Massachusetts. “Applying innovative technology to help our soldiers complete their missions is an objective BAE Systems stands behind every day.”

The contract is managed by the Program Executive Office Soldier at Fort Belvoir, Virginia.

BAE Systems will incorporate its uncooled MicroIR® microbolometer sensor technology in the enhanced goggle. This technology also is used in the thermal weapon sights the company supplies to the Army. BAE Systems has two microbolometer foundries and has delivered more than 50,000 microbolometer-based imagers to date.

About BAE Systems

BAE Systems is the premier global defense and aerospace company, delivering a full range of products and services for air, land, and naval forces, as well as advanced electronics, information technology solutions and customer support services. BAE Systems, with 96,000 employees worldwide, had 2006 sales that exceeded $27 billion on a pro forma basis, assuming BAE Systems had owned Armor Holdings Inc. for the whole of 2006.

1692661, $519 million deal to supply the U.S. military with 1,170 mine-resistant ambush-protected vehicles

http://www.thestreet.com/s/merger-bolsters-bae/newsanalysis/general/10375090.html?puc=googlefi

OKLAHOMA CITY -- With its huge buyout of Armor Holdings, U.K. defense contractor BAE Systems (BAESY - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) may have very well gotten more than its money's worth.

Notably, just weeks before that transaction closed, Armor landed a surprise $519 million deal to supply the U.S. military with 1,170 mine-resistant ambush-protected vehicles. With similar MRAP business of its own, BAE has suddenly burst forward as a new leader in the multibillion-dollar MRAP game.

This story is the fourth installment in TheStreet.com's five-part series examining the top players in the multibillion-dollar MRAP bidding.

"In 2007 to date, BAE plus AH have captured ... No. 1 market share -- ahead of Force Protection (FRPT - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) and International Military and Government," a unit of Navistar (NAVZ - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr), noted JPMorgan analyst Harry Breach, whose firm has investment banking ties to BAE. Moreover, "we believe that further MRAP awards are likely later this year."

BAE demos DSL-esque military radio protocol
Posted by seemslikeadream on Wed Aug-29-07 06:13 PM

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/08/20/bae_dsl_via_link_16 /

According to BAE, "the demonstration included Internet Protocol (IP) connectivity, Voice over IP, mobile ad-hoc networking, streaming video, and imagery."

The share price of BAE Systems, Europe’s largest defence company, has risen 225 per cent.


http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/engineering/article2337229.ece

Symon Hill, a spokesman for the Campaign Against Arms Trade, said: “We think that most of the British public will object to the idea that these companies are profiting from war. While Iraqi civilians and British soldiers are dying, there are companies profiting from it.”

Accusations of making money from war are seen as unfair by the businessmen who run Britain’s defence industry. While the industry in the United States is loaded with former generals and admirals, British executives tend to be engineers or entrepreneurs. They are not career soldiers and get frustrated when they are presented as warmongers.

Revealed: official passes that give BAE access to the top at the MoD



http://www.guardian.co.uk/baefiles/story/0,,2149644,00.html

Incestuous' relationship must end, says MP
Lobbyist among 38 given free access to ministry

Rob Evans and David Leigh
Thursday August 16, 2007
The Guardian


The Ministry of Defence has given security passes to 38 employees of the arms giant BAE, allowing them to go in and out of the ministry's headquarters as they please, it has been revealed.
The disclosure has triggered accusations that the relationship between the MoD and BAE is too close and allows the arms company to exert too much political influence over the government. The MoD is refusing to disclose the names of the BAE employees with the official passes, or why they were given them, saying the information would breach their privacy and security. However, it is known that one has been held by BAE's chief lobbyist, Julian Scopes. The pass gave him access to the top levels of the ministry, enabling him to lobby ministers and senior officials and promote BAE's commercial interests.

BAE - $368 million to build and refurbish naval weapon systems,


http://www.epicos.com/epicos/portal/media-type/html/user/anon/page/default.psml/js_panename/News+Information+Article+View ;jsessionid=1DC948DE7A201E05F88DA8A5F1D73E43.tomcat2?articleid=81859&showfull=false


BAE Systems Receives Navy Basic Ordering Agreement for Weapons and Support Services
(2007-08-24)
By: Copyright Business Wire 2007 , Business Wire

BAE Systems has received a Basic Ordering Agreement (BOA) from the U.S. Navy for up to $368 million to build and refurbish naval weapon systems, and provide support services over the next five years. Potential orders received under this BOA are expected later this year and will be carried out by BAE Systems' facilities in Minneapolis and Louisville.

"This agreement will give us the opportunity to continue to serve the U.S. Navy and provide our sailors with critical naval weapon systems and support services," said Dennis Morris, BAE Systems' president of Armament Systems.

The BOA covers a wide range of BAE Systems' programs including the transition of production of the Mk 110 57mm naval gun system; the overhaul, manufacture and upgrade of the Mk 45 5-inch naval gun for the Cruiser Modernization program, the Mk 75 76mm gun mount, the Mk 42 extended range guided missile handling mechanism, the Mk 32 surface vessel torpedo tubes (SVTT), and the Mk 36/53 decoy launcher systems (DLS); the manufacture of gun barrels; the overhaul of turbine pump ejection systems (TPES); and work associated with minor caliber guns.

"This BOA demonstrates to us that our employees have been successful in meeting the customer's needs -- and that's our priority - delivering solutions on time and on budget," said Morris.


BAE wins $8m US defense contract to develop GaN amplifier ELECTRONIC WARFARE

http://www.semiconductor-today.com/news_items/NEWS_2007/AUG_07/BAE_230807.htm

BAE wins $8m US defense contract to develop GaN amplifier
UK-based aerospace and defense contractor BAE Systems says that its Electronics & Integrated Solutions (E&IS) business in Merrimack, NH, USA has been awarded an $8m contract from the US Army Communications-Electronics Command to develop a 160 Watt gallium nitride power amplifier for communications, electronic warfare, and radar applications. Partnering BAE Systems on the program are materials supplier Rohm and Haas of Blacksburg, VI, USA and the University of Colorado.

The solid-state technology will replace the older traveling-wave vacuum tubes that are currently used to produce high-power radio frequency signals, and are intended to aid warfighters by more effectively disrupting enemy communications and radar signals, while protecting friendly communications.

“DARPA has identified BAE Systems’ GaN technology as an important material for future military applications in electronic warfare, radar, and air-to-ground, air-to-satellite, and ground-to-ground communications systems,” says Dr John Evans, the manager for DARPA’s Disruptive Manufacturing Technology program (through which it solicits proposals to reduce cost and time for production of military components). BAE Systems was chosen from among 40 bidders.

“Using this technology, we can develop systems that are significantly less expensive, more reliable, and lower in weight,” says Tony Immorlica, program manager of microwave device programs at BAE Systems. The first prototypes could be deployed by the end of the decade

Cannon for the U.S. Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS) program


http://digital50.com/news/items/BW/2001/07/14/20070822005666/bae-systems-congressional-community-and-army-leaders-celebrate-inauguration-of-elgi.html

BAE Systems, Congressional, Community and Army Leaders Celebrate Inauguration of Elgin Site
ELGIN, Okla.-(Business Wire)-August 22, 2007 - BAE Systems held a special inaugural ceremony in Elgin, Oklahoma to initiate work on BAE Systems - Elgin Operations, a 150,000 square-foot facility. The BAE Systems - Elgin Operations facility will be built by the city of Elgin in the Ft. Sill Industrial Park, and is scheduled to open in early 2009. Work at the new facility will initially focus on production integration and assembly of the Non-Line-of-Sight (NLOS) Cannon for the U.S. Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS) program.



Al Jazeera: Trail of the Dove - Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iuFyWX3Rz8

Al Jazeera: Trail of the Dove - Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jIPMQSpiiE
Al Jazeera: Trail of the Dove - Part 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dclFejuvrwg
An exclusive interview with one of Britain's leading investigative journalists and a former insider, the Trail of the Dove reveals the extent of surcharges, commissions and the $100 millon secret fund used by the UK's leading arms firm, BAE Systems, to grease the wheels of the biggest arms deals in British history.

Al-Yamamah 'The Dove' is the name of a series of massive arms sales by the United Kingdom to Saudi Arabia. It is Britain's largest ever export agreement, and the prime contractor has been BAE Systems and its predecessor British Aerospace, which earned £43 billion in 20 years.

Both the UK's National Audit Office (report never released) and The Serious Fraud Office (halted) conducted investigations into corruption allegations. Trail of the Dove has also had access to ministry of defence secret documents and ambassadorial official correspondence that shows the level of corruption in the British arms trade.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWwdJpJkyKg
Former Saudi Ambassador to the US, Prince Bandar bin Sultan received hundreds of millions of pounds in secret payments from Britain's top defence manufacturer with the knowledge of Prime Minister Tony Blair's government, according to the BBC.
The payments made by BAE Systems were actually a conduit to Bandar for his role in the multi-billion al-Yamamah arms agreement, Britain's biggest ever export deal signed in 1985, the state-funded broadcaster said it had learned Thursday.
The alleged bribes were said to have been discovered during a year-long inquiry conducted by Britain's Serious Fraud Office (SFO), but which was abruptly halted last December after Blair said the investigation was a threat to national security.
The dropping of the investigation also came amid concerns that it might jeopardize a new multi-billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia to supply Eurofighters.
The BBC said that the payments, believed to total more than Pnds one billion (Dlrs 1.9 bn), were sent to two Saudi embassy accounts in Washington, were written into the government-to-government arms deal contract in secret annexes.
Allegations previously made in the British press have also suggested that Mark Thatcher, son of the British prime minister at the time, was also involved in the deal.
The al-Yamamah deal included the supply of more than 100 Tornado aircraft and is estimated to have been worth over Pnds 40 billion (Dlrs 78 bn) over more than a decade.
The new claims, to be made in the BBC's current affairs Panorama programme next Monday prompted the head of parliament's committee which investigates strategic exports, Labour MP Roger Berry, to call for a proper investigation into the allegations.
Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman Vince Cable said that if ministers in either the present or previous governments were involved there should be a "major parliamentary inquiry".
"It is one thing for a company to have engaged in alleged corruption overseas. It is another thing if British government ministers have approved it," Cable said. (more) (less)






New Labour - Old sleaze - Saudis and BAE blackmail Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tibaAAS5Zk
New Labour - Old sleaze - Saudis and BAE blackmail Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMnIBMm9HBQ
New Labour - Old sleaze - Saudis and BAE blackmail Part 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEwJ72VCrzI
NOW WE KNOW WHY:- Tony Blair has defended the government's decision to halt the Serious Fraud Office's (SFO) investigation into alleged bribery surrounding BAE Systems' contracts with Saudi Arabia.

The prime minister told the House of Commons continuing the investigation would have damaged the UK's relationship with Saudi Arabia.

However, he refuted allegations the attorney general Lord Goldsmith had attempted to block a subsequent Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) investigation as "completely and totally unfair and wrong".

It had been alleged Lord Goldsmith had warned officials not to disclose information to the OECD investigation.

Quizzed in prime minister's questions, Mr Blair defended the decision not to pursue an inquiry.

He said: "First of all these allegations are strenuously denied by the Saudi royal family, secondly if we were then going to conduct an investigation then that might last two, three years into these allegations that frankly I think would lead absolutely nowhere.

"What it would lead to is the complete wreckage of a relationship that is of fundamental importance of the security of this country, to the state of the Middle East, and to our relationship with countries in the Middle East."

Mr Blair continued: "I was asked for my advice as to what damage this investigation would do if it continued. I gave that advice because of the huge importance of working with Saudi Arabia on the Middle East peace process, on counter-terrorism, on the situation in the Middle East.




BAE Systems Receives $12.5 Million Contract to Provide Emergency Escape Windows To U.S. Army

http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20070829005442&newsLang=en

MINNEAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--BAE Systems announced today it received a $12.5 million contract to provide 1000 Vehicle Emergency Escape (VEE) Window kits plus 2,000 spare VEE Window panels to the U.S. Army Tank-Automotive and Armaments Command (TACOM) for use on the up-armored M1114 High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV).

“It’s important that our soldiers have the best equipment available to keep them safe on the battlefield,” said Dennis Morris, president, BAE Systems, Armament Systems. “The VEE Window is a cost-effective, life-saving tool for enhancing the safety of crews riding in up-armored vehicles in dangerous combat zones where rollovers and accidents are a significant threat.”

The VEE Window is a simple technology developed by BAE Systems that allows crews of the HMMWVs to remove the ballistic windshields in less than five seconds and quickly exit the vehicle during an emergency, such as a rollover or accident. The VEE Window meets current M1114 ballistic properties and will be installed by unit maintenance personnel in theater.

The VEE Window was approved for the M1114 HMMWV following a series of performance and safety tests conducted this summer by the Army at its Aberdeen Test Center. The tests evaluated the effectiveness of the device, as well as the window’s overall structural integrity and operational effectiveness in a rollover or accident-like scenario. The VEE Window kits will be delivered to Army personnel in November.

BAE Systems is exploring VEE Window applications for other tactical and armored vehicles, including M1151/1152 HMMWVs, the Army’s Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles, and the U.S. Marine Corps’ Medium Tactical Vehicle Replacement and Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle programs.


BAE brings in a pair of Army contracts
http://www.bizjournals.com/masshightech/stories/2007/08/27/daily5.html

A New Hampshire-based defense contractor reports it has won an $8 million federal research grant to develop a power amplifier for the U.S. Army.

A Merrimack, N.H., BAE Systems Inc. site is scheduled to develop a 160-watt gallium nitride amplifier to power communications and radar systems. The grant was awarded to BAE by the Defense Research Projects Agency (DARPA) for the U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center, based in Fort Monmouth, N.J. BAE is expected to share the grant with Virginia-based materials science company Rohm and Haas Co. and the University of Colorado.


In a separate development, a Massachusetts-based unit of BAE reports it plans to develop night vision goggles for the U.S. Army for an undisclosed contract amount. The Program Executive Office Solider, based at Fort Belvoir, Va., commissioned the work, according to company officials.

BAE Systems Inc. is the U.S. subsidiary of United Kingdom-based BAE Systems PLC. BAE Systems Inc. is headquartered in Rockville, Md. BAE Systems Information & Electronic Systems Integration Inc., a business unit of BAE Systems, is based in Nashua, N.H. BAE Systems PLC employs 88,000 workers worldwide and reported 2006 annual sales of $25 billion. The largest North American BAE operating group is the Electronics & Integrated Solutions group.


BAE already has an order from India for 66 BAE Hawk trainers, 42 of which are being built there.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601091&sid=aIVNGXZDbsww&refer=india

BAE Systems to Develop Enhanced Night-Vision Goggle For U.S. Army

http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20070827005480&newsLang=en


LEXINGTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--BAE Systems will design and develop a digitally enhanced night-vision goggle as part of the U.S. Army’s Enhanced Night Vision Goggle program. This next-generation goggle will use digital imagery to improve soldier mobility and situational awareness under all lighting conditions and in the presence of battlefield obscurants.

The helmet-mounted goggle will digitally combine video imagery from a low-light-level visible sensor and an uncooled long-wave infrared sensor on a single color display located in front of the soldier's eye. This digital technology will provide improved image quality and will enable imagery to be shared among soldiers, improving platoon effectiveness.

“This program will demonstrate the maturity and effectiveness of digital fusion technology and its benefit to the warfighter,” said Margaret Kohin, Advanced Systems program director for BAE Systems in Lexington, Massachusetts. “Applying innovative technology to help our soldiers complete their missions is an objective BAE Systems stands behind every day.”

The contract is managed by the Program Executive Office Soldier at Fort Belvoir, Virginia.

BAE Systems will incorporate its uncooled MicroIR® microbolometer sensor technology in the enhanced goggle. This technology also is used in the thermal weapon sights the company supplies to the Army. BAE Systems has two microbolometer foundries and has delivered more than 50,000 microbolometer-based imagers to date.

About BAE Systems

BAE Systems is the premier global defense and aerospace company, delivering a full range of products and services for air, land, and naval forces, as well as advanced electronics, information technology solutions and customer support services. BAE Systems, with 96,000 employees worldwide, had 2006 sales that exceeded $27 billion on a pro forma basis, assuming BAE Systems had owned Armor Holdings Inc. for the whole of 2006.


$519 million deal to supply the U.S. military with 1,170 mine-resistant ambush-protected vehicles

http://www.thestreet.com/s/merger-bolsters-bae/newsanalysis/general/10375090.html?puc=googlefi

OKLAHOMA CITY -- With its huge buyout of Armor Holdings, U.K. defense contractor BAE Systems (BAESY - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) may have very well gotten more than its money's worth.

Notably, just weeks before that transaction closed, Armor landed a surprise $519 million deal to supply the U.S. military with 1,170 mine-resistant ambush-protected vehicles. With similar MRAP business of its own, BAE has suddenly burst forward as a new leader in the multibillion-dollar MRAP game.

This story is the fourth installment in TheStreet.com's five-part series examining the top players in the multibillion-dollar MRAP bidding.

"In 2007 to date, BAE plus AH have captured ... No. 1 market share -- ahead of Force Protection (FRPT - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) and International Military and Government," a unit of Navistar (NAVZ - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr), noted JPMorgan analyst Harry Breach, whose firm has investment banking ties to BAE. Moreover, "we believe that further MRAP awards are likely later this year."



BAE demos DSL-esque military radio protocol
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/08/20/bae_dsl_via_link_16 /

According to BAE, "the demonstration included Internet Protocol (IP) connectivity, Voice over IP, mobile ad-hoc networking, streaming video, and imagery."

The share price of BAE Systems, Europe’s largest defence company, has risen 225 per cent.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/engineering/article2337229.ece

Symon Hill, a spokesman for the Campaign Against Arms Trade, said: “We think that most of the British public will object to the idea that these companies are profiting from war. While Iraqi civilians and British soldiers are dying, there are companies profiting from it.”

Accusations of making money from war are seen as unfair by the businessmen who run Britain’s defence industry. While the industry in the United States is loaded with former generals and admirals, British executives tend to be engineers or entrepreneurs. They are not career soldiers and get frustrated when they are presented as warmongers.


Revealed: official passes that give BAE access to the top at the MoD

http://www.guardian.co.uk/baefiles/story/0,,2149644,00.html

Incestuous' relationship must end, says MP
Lobbyist among 38 given free access to ministry

Rob Evans and David Leigh
Thursday August 16, 2007
The Guardian


The Ministry of Defence has given security passes to 38 employees of the arms giant BAE, allowing them to go in and out of the ministry's headquarters as they please, it has been revealed.
The disclosure has triggered accusations that the relationship between the MoD and BAE is too close and allows the arms company to exert too much political influence over the government. The MoD is refusing to disclose the names of the BAE employees with the official passes, or why they were given them, saying the information would breach their privacy and security. However, it is known that one has been held by BAE's chief lobbyist, Julian Scopes. The pass gave him access to the top levels of the ministry, enabling him to lobby ministers and senior officials and promote BAE's commercial interests.


BAE - $368 million to build and refurbish naval weapon systems,
http://www.epicos.com/epicos/portal/media-type/html/use ... ;jsessionid=1DC948DE7A201E05F88DA8A5F1D73E43.tomcat2?articleid=81859&showfull=false


BAE Systems Receives Navy Basic Ordering Agreement for Weapons and Support Services
(2007-08-24)
By: Copyright Business Wire 2007 , Business Wire

BAE Systems has received a Basic Ordering Agreement (BOA) from the U.S. Navy for up to $368 million to build and refurbish naval weapon systems, and provide support services over the next five years. Potential orders received under this BOA are expected later this year and will be carried out by BAE Systems' facilities in Minneapolis and Louisville.

"This agreement will give us the opportunity to continue to serve the U.S. Navy and provide our sailors with critical naval weapon systems and support services," said Dennis Morris, BAE Systems' president of Armament Systems.

The BOA covers a wide range of BAE Systems' programs including the transition of production of the Mk 110 57mm naval gun system; the overhaul, manufacture and upgrade of the Mk 45 5-inch naval gun for the Cruiser Modernization program, the Mk 75 76mm gun mount, the Mk 42 extended range guided missile handling mechanism, the Mk 32 surface vessel torpedo tubes (SVTT), and the Mk 36/53 decoy launcher systems (DLS); the manufacture of gun barrels; the overhaul of turbine pump ejection systems (TPES); and work associated with minor caliber guns.

"This BOA demonstrates to us that our employees have been successful in meeting the customer's needs -- and that's our priority - delivering solutions on time and on budget," said Morris.



BAE wins $8m US defense contract to develop GaN amplifier ELECTRONIC WARFARE

http://www.semiconductor-today.com/news_items/NEWS_2007/AUG_07/BAE_230807.htm

BAE wins $8m US defense contract to develop GaN amplifier
UK-based aerospace and defense contractor BAE Systems says that its Electronics & Integrated Solutions (E&IS) business in Merrimack, NH, USA has been awarded an $8m contract from the US Army Communications-Electronics Command to develop a 160 Watt gallium nitride power amplifier for communications, electronic warfare, and radar applications. Partnering BAE Systems on the program are materials supplier Rohm and Haas of Blacksburg, VI, USA and the University of Colorado.

The solid-state technology will replace the older traveling-wave vacuum tubes that are currently used to produce high-power radio frequency signals, and are intended to aid warfighters by more effectively disrupting enemy communications and radar signals, while protecting friendly communications.

“DARPA has identified BAE Systems’ GaN technology as an important material for future military applications in electronic warfare, radar, and air-to-ground, air-to-satellite, and ground-to-ground communications systems,” says Dr John Evans, the manager for DARPA’s Disruptive Manufacturing Technology program (through which it solicits proposals to reduce cost and time for production of military components). BAE Systems was chosen from among 40 bidders.

“Using this technology, we can develop systems that are significantly less expensive, more reliable, and lower in weight,” says Tony Immorlica, program manager of microwave device programs at BAE Systems. The first prototypes could be deployed by the end of the decade

Cannon for the U.S. Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS) program

http://digital50.com/news/items/BW/2001/07/14/20070822005666/bae-systems-congressional-community-and-army-leaders-celebrate-inauguration-of-elgi.html

BAE Systems, Congressional, Community and Army Leaders Celebrate Inauguration of Elgin Site
ELGIN, Okla.-(Business Wire)-August 22, 2007 - BAE Systems held a special inaugural ceremony in Elgin, Oklahoma to initiate work on BAE Systems - Elgin Operations, a 150,000 square-foot facility. The BAE Systems - Elgin Operations facility will be built by the city of Elgin in the Ft. Sill Industrial Park, and is scheduled to open in early 2009. Work at the new facility will initially focus on production integration and assembly of the Non-Line-of-Sight (NLOS) Cannon for the U.S. Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS) program.



BAE wins $36.3M contract from Navy


http://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/stories/2007/10/29/daily2.html

BAE wins $36.3M contract from NavyMinneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal - by Carissa Wyant Staff
BAE Systems gets $15M Army contract
LaBarge receives $5.7M BAE contract
BAE gets $8 million Army Depot contract
BAE Systems said Monday it won a $36.3 million contract from the Navy for a gun system.

The company was awarded a contract by the U.S. Naval Surface Warfare Center for the 62 MK 38 MOD 2 Machine Gun Systems, which will be delivered between July 2008 and June 2009.

The remote-controlled gun system is currently in service on eleven ships.

The order calls for a total of 243 systems through 2015.

BAE said the systems will be assembled and tested at its Louisville, Ky., facility.

Defense manufacturer BAE is based in Rockville, Md., with its armament-systems operations in Fridley.

http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20071029005895&newsLang=en
BAE Systems’ Infrared Seeker Successfully Guides THAAD Interceptor to Target
KAUAI, Hawaii--(BUSINESS WIRE)--A Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptor – successfully guided by a BAE Systems’ infrared seeker – directly hit and destroyed an incoming target during an Oct. 26 test here at the Pacific Missile Range Facility.

The test was conducted by the U.S. Missile Defense Agency and Lockheed Martin, the THAAD weapon system’s prime contractor and systems integrator.

“In this test, THAAD missile intercepted its target at a higher altitude than any other test to date,” said John Watkins, BAE Systems’ THAAD program manager in Nashua, New Hampshire. “This test, combined with three previous intercepts, shows that THAAD can successfully take out an enemy ballistic missile.”

THAAD is designed to defend U.S. and allied soldiers, military assets, and population centers from the threat of ballistic missile attacks. The sophisticated system destroys enemy warheads through direct “hit-to-kill” technology. “It’s like hitting a bullet with a bullet,” Watkins said.

The BAE Systems seeker provides infrared imagery of the targeted warhead to guide the interceptor to its target. This success is part of THAAD intercept testing that will continue through 2009. Upcoming tests at the Pacific Missile Range in Hawaii will be conducted against increasingly complex targets outside the earth’s atmosphere.

BAE Systems began work on seekers for missile defense in the late 1970s. Initial work on the THAAD seeker began in 1991. The seeker development program started in 2000 and is scheduled to conclude in December 2007. A manufacturing contract awarded in December 2006 will lead to the delivery of the first unit equipped in fiscal year 2009.

About BAE Systems

BAE Systems is the premier global defense and aerospace company, delivering a full range of products and services for air, land, and naval forces, as well as advanced electronics, information technology solutions, and customer support services. BAE Systems, with 96,000 employees worldwide, had 2006 sales that exceeded $27 billion on a pro forma basis, assuming BAE Systems had owned Armor Holdings, Inc. for the whole of 2006.


http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/prnewswire/NETH06225102007-1.htm

BAE Systems and General Dynamics Sign Collaborative Agreement to Support Modernization of U.S. Army Heavy Combat Vehicles

October 25, 2007: 10:00 AM EST


WARREN and STERLING HEIGHTS, Mich., Oct. 25 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- BAE Systems and General Dynamics Land Systems, a business unit of General Dynamics , have signed a memorandum of agreement to work collaboratively in support of the U. S. Army's Heavy Brigade Combat Team modernization plan, which will upgrade, modernize and achieve commonality on BAE Systems' family of Bradley fighting vehicles and General Dynamics M1 Abrams tanks, the primary combat vehicles of the Army's Heavy Brigades.

The agreement, developed with the Army's encouragement, defines how both companies will work with the Army's Project Manager for Heavy Brigade Combat Team, and the Abrams and Bradley Product Managers, to jointly translate warfighter requirements into capabilities through collaborative design and development of common solutions. The agreement also establishes the basic process for collaborative specification and product development and provisions for the common procurement of material to support system evolution on both companies' combat vehicles.

"As the Army adds capability to the Heavy Brigade Combat Teams, they desire common solutions to reduce logistics burdens, to lower development costs, and to make Soldier training easier," said Mark Roualet, senior vice president and chief operating officer General Dynamics Land Systems. "BAE Systems and General Dynamics have responded with an agreement that harnesses the expertise of the world's premier combat-vehicle developers to provide our customers the technology and capability they require in the 21st century."

"This agreement is the natural conclusion of initiatives started under the leadership of Kevin Fahey, the Army's Program Executive Officer, Ground Combat Systems to achieve greater commonality within the Heavy Brigade," said Raj Rajagopal, president of BAE Systems' Ground Systems business. "It is a win-win for the U.S. Army, BAE Systems and General Dynamics, and illustrates how our partnership with the Army continues to evolve and apply best industry practices to the benefit of our customer and the American taxpayer."