The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. – Benjamin Franklin
BAE will announce the job cuts later this week, dealing a blow to the UK manufacturing sector, Sky News understands.
BAE Systems, Britain’s biggest defence contractor, is to axe more than 1,000 jobs this week in a bitter blow for Britain’s manufacturing industry.
Read moreBAE Systems to axe over 1,000 UK jobs amid Typhoon slowdown
“If you don’t read the newspaper you are uninformed, if you do read the newpaper you are misinformed.”
– Mark Twain
– The BBC, the Weapons Industry and War Propaganda (Global Research, April 8, 2015):
Last week the Chairman of Europe’s largest arms firm BAE Systems, Roger Carr, was appointed Vice Chairman of the BBC Trust. Will Carr’s close ties to the arms industry “get the best out of the BBC for licence fee payers” as its mission statement promises?
On the trust’s web site we can read the following:
“The BBC exists to serve the public, and its mission is to inform, educate and entertain. The BBC Trust is the governing body of the BBC, and we make sure the BBC delivers that mission.”
For many years, however, the BBC has been caught delivering weapons of mass deception, lying, censoring important stories and engaging in war propaganda on more than one occasion. Here are just a few articles we published about BBC lies and propaganda:
– RAF jets fly with 3D printed parts (BBC News, Jan 5, 2014):
RAF Tornado fighter jets have flown with parts made using 3D printing technology for the first time, defence company BAE Systems has said.
The metal components were used in test flights from the firm’s airfield at Warton, Lancashire, late last month.
– Robot warriors: Lethal machines coming of age (BBC News, March 4, 2013):
The era of drone wars is already upon us. The era of robot wars could be fast approaching.
Already there are unmanned aircraft demonstrators like the arrow-head shaped X-47B that can pretty-well fly a mission by itself with no involvement of a ground-based “pilot”.
There are missile systems like the Patriot that can identify and engage targets automatically.
And from here it is not such a jump to a fully-fledged armed robot warrior, a development with huge implications for the way we conduct and even conceive of war-fighting.
Description:
06/21/2012
A plane that can be flown without pilots is being tested out in preparation for its maiden flight in shared UK airspace later this year.
The plane, a BAE Systems Jetstream aircraft – The Flying Test Bed – is being put through its paces in a series of at least 20 flights over the Irish Sea and through UK airspace.
Although it will be pilot-free during the tests, there will be people on board able to take the controls if the need arises.
Read moreBAE Systems Tests Pilotless Passenger Airplane (Video)
Workers at BAE systems shipyard in Govan, move the lower block of the Queen Elizabeth class, Royal Navy Future Aircraft Carrier Photo: GETTY
The Serious Fraud Office dropped the investigation in December 2006, after intense diplomatic pressure from the Saudis. BAE was fined by US authorities last year after it admitted a relatively minor charge of making false statements. It faced no action in Britain over the Saudi allegations and until now the full details of the case have been kept secret.
However, a US cable given to the WikiLeaks website and obtained by The Daily Telegraph discloses the strength of the investigators’ case. Written four months after the collapse of the investigation, it shows the SFO had evidence that:
:: BAE paid £73 million to a Saudi prince who had “influence” over the Al-Yamamah defence contract and that there were “reasonable grounds” to believe another “very senior Saudi official” received payments;
:: The contractor was being covertly investigated by the SFO for carrying out a “potential fraud” against a government department;
:: BAE allegedly circumvented anti-bribery laws by making “substantial payments” to overseas agents employed by the Saudi government;
:: Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, then British ambassador in Riyadh and now a BAE Systems’ director, “had a profound effect” on the decision by Robert Wardle, then SFO director, to end the investigation.
It also details outrage among Britain’s allies who questioned claims that the case was being dropped on grounds of “national security”.
Read moreBAE Paid £73 Million To A Saudi Prince For Arms Deal
· Money moved via US bank
· £30m payments a quarter
· Sanctioned by MoD
Prince Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
The arms company BAE secretly paid Prince Bandar of Saudi Arabia more than £1bn in connection with Britain’s biggest ever weapons contract, it is alleged today.
A series of payments from the British firm was allegedly channelled through a US bank in Washington to an account controlled by one of the most colourful members of the Saudi ruling clan, who spent 20 years as their ambassador in the US.
It is claimed that payments of £30m were paid to Prince Bandar every quarter for at least 10 years.
It is alleged by insider legal sources that the money was paid to Prince Bandar with the knowledge and authorisation of Ministry of Defence officials under the Blair government and its predecessors. For more than 20 years, ministers have claimed they knew nothing of secret commissions, which were outlawed by Britain in 2002.
An inquiry by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) into the transactions behind the £43bn Al-Yamamah arms deal, which was signed in 1985, is understood to have uncovered details of the payments to Prince Bandar.
Read moreBAE Secretly Paid More Than £1 Billion Via US Bank to Saudi Prince, Sanctioned By MoD
Related info:
– Scientists Move Objects 5 Feet Using Tractor Lasers
– Laser beams used for the first time in naval warfare to shoot down planes
– US Air Force Zaps Drones in Laser Test
– Pentagon’s portable ‘thermal laser’ pain weapon may end up in police hands
– Military Laser Hits Battlefield Strength
– Boeing: We zapped a UAV with a laser
British engineers are developing a new type of defence system that uses lasers to incapacitate pirates by dazzling them
British engineers are developing a new type of defence system that uses lasers to incapacitate pirates by dazzling them as they approach a ship.
The non-lethal weapon, which has been developed by defence company BAE Systems, is effective against moving targets more than a mile away.
The company has started developing the laser in response to the growing threat from pirates to commercial vessels, particularly off the coast of Somalia where there have been several high profile hijackings.
The UK is broke, …
– Britain At Risk Of Worse Government Debt Crisis Than Greece
… but there is always more than enough taxpayer money left for corporate pals, Big Brother and the New World Order.
Eye in the sky: a Merseyside police officer tests a remote control helicopter Photo: John Giles/PA Wire
The use of unmanned aircraft for surveillance hit the headlines last week, after Merseyside Police had to ground their drone when it was discovered they were using it without a licence.
But a government-funded European group is pushing ahead with work aimed at showing that drones, known as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), can safely be used in civil airspace. Drones cannot be flown outside regulated areas at present because they are controlled remotely and do not have the ability to “see”.
The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) must be satisfied the aircraft has the same ability as a piloted plane to spot unexpected obstacles and take action to avoid them, before they will be let loose above Britain. The CAA also restricts the use of drones for surveillance because of concerns about invasion of privacy.
The European Defence Agency has hired aerospace and defence group EADS to research how communication via satellites can be used “for the integration of unmanned aircraft systems into European airspace”, with the goal of starting demonstration missions next year.
The study aims to show that satellites are reliable enough to allow uninterrupted communication between the drone and the person piloting it remotely, giving the aircraft an adequate “sense and avoid” capability to make it safe to fly in built-up areas and to share the sky with other planes.
Drones are of interest to the military and the police as surveillance tools, and could be used by immigration authorities for patrolling Britain’s coastline. But concerns have been raised because the UK is already one of the most “watched” countries in Europe, with the proliferation of CCTV cameras.
Read moreGovernment Is Funding Research To Get Drones To Fly Anywhere in Britain
Police forces all over the UK will soon be able to draw on unmanned aircraft from a national fleet, according to Home Office plans. Last month it was revealed that modified military aircraft drones will carry out surveillance on everyone from protesters and antisocial motorists to fly-tippers, and will be in place in time for the 2012 Olympics.
Surveillance is only the start, however. Military drones quickly moved from reconnaissance to strike, and if the British police follow suit, their drones could be armed — but with non-lethal weapons rather than Hellfire missiles.
The flying robot fleet will range from miniature tactical craft such as the miniature AirRobot being tested by Essex police, to BAE System’s new HERTI drone as flown in Afghanistan. The drones are cheaper than police helicopters — some of which will be retired — and are as wide as 12m in the case of HERTI.
Watching events on the ground without being able to act is frustrating. Targets often got away before an unarmed drone could summon assistance. In fact, in 2000 it was reported that an airborne drone spotted Osama bin Laden but could do nothing but watch him escape. So the RAF has been carrying out missions in Afghanistan with missile-armed Reapers since 2007. From the ground these just look like regular aircraft.
The police have already had a similar experience with CCTV. As well as observing, some of these are now equipped with speakers. Pioneered in Middleborough, the talking CCTV allows an operator to tell off anyone engaging in vandalism, graffiti or littering.
Unmanned aircraft can also be fitted with speakers, such as the Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD), which could not only warn fly tippers that they were breaking the law but also be loud enough to drive them away.
The LRAD is a highly directional speaker made of a flat array of piezoelectric transducers, producing intense beam of sound in a 30-degree cone. It can be used as a loudhailer, or deafen the target with a jarring, discordant noise. Some ships now carry LRAD as an anti-pirate measure: It was used to drive off an attack on the Seabourn Spirit off Somalia in 2005.
LRAD makers American Technology prefer to call its product a device rather than a weapon, and use terms such as “deterrent tones” and “influencing behaviour.” Police in the US have already adopted a vehicle-mounted LRAD for crowd control, breaking up protests at the G20 summit in Pittsburgh last year, although there have been warnings about the risk of hearing damage.
The LRAD has been tested on the Austrian S-100 unmanned helicopter, and the technology is ready if there is a police requirement.
But rather than just driving them away, a police drone should be able to stop fleeing criminals in their tracks. Helicopters already mount powerful searchlights, and strobe lighting capabilities can turn such systems into effective nonlethal weapons. High-intensity strobes can cause dizziness, disorientation and loss of balance making it virtually impossible to run away.
This effect was first harnessed in the “Photic Driver” made by British company Allen International in 1973. However, it has taken improvement in lighting technology (such as fast-switching Xenon lights) and an understanding of the physiology involved to make such weapons practical.
A “light based personnel immobilisation device” developed by Peak Beam Systems Inc has been successfully tested by the US military, and work to mount it on an unmanned helicopter in the States is under way.
This sort of light would be too dangerous for a manned aircraft because of the crew being affected. But an unmanned “strober” could be a literal crime stopper, and something we could see deployed within the next couple of years.
Even the smallest drones could be used for tactical police operations. As far back as 1972 the Home Office looked at model aircraft as an alternative to rubber bullets, literally flying them into rioters to knock them off their feet.
French company Tecknisolar Seni has demonstrated a portable drone armed with a double-barrelled 44mm Flash-Ball gun. Used by French special police units, the one-kilo Flash-Ball resembles a large calibre handgun and fires non-lethal rounds, including tear gas and rubber impact rounds to bring down a suspect without permanent damage — “the same effect as the punch of a champion boxer,” claim makers Verney-Carron.
However, last year there were questions over the use of Flash-Ball rounds by French police. Like other impact rounds, the Flash-Ball is meant to be aimed at the body — firing from a remote, flying platform is likely to increase the risk of head injury.
Another option is the taser. Taser stun guns are now so light (about 150 grams) that they could be mounted on the smaller drones. Antoine di Zazzo, head of SMP Technologies, which distributes tasers in France, says the company is fitting one to a small quad-rotor iDrone (another quad-rotor toy helicopter), which some have called a “flying saucer”.
Read moreFuture Big Brother Police State: Meet the UK’s Armed Surveillance Robot Drones
BAE Systems (formerly British Aerospace) is Europe’s largest arms exporter
Where is the outrage?
“BAE’s settlement means that it has not been banned from bidding for government contracts in the US and UK.”
Pay $400m and everything is OK? Business as usual?
Maybe BAE has now bought everybody with prostitutes, sports cars etc.:
– BAE System’s Dirty Dealings (CorpWatch)
– BAE accused of arms deal slush fund (Guardian)
Or BAE is now too important for the New World Order:
– Big Brother: UK Police Plan to Use Military-Style Spy Drones (Guardian)
The sanction came as the UK ended its six-year investigation of the company over allegations of bribery, and dropped charges of conspiracy to corrupt brought last week against an Austrian count accused of being a BAE agent.
The settlement will be seen as a victory for the US authorities, but an embarrassing climbdown for the UK’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) – which in 2006 was forced by the Government to drop its investigation into BAE in Saudi Arabia.
BAE is charged with conspiracy to “knowingly and wilfully impede” the authorities by making certain false, inaccurate and incomplete statements in relation to compliance with anti-corruption standards, thereby “defrauding the US”.
In a court filing, the US Department of Justice (DoJ) claims that BAE transferred more than £10m and $9m to Swiss bank accounts controlled by an agent with a high probability that a payment would go to a Saudi Arabian official in a position of influence.
It also claims that in the Czech Republic and Hungary, BAE paid more than £19m to an agent to secure leases of Gripen fighter jets, despite a high probability that part of the payments “would be used in the tender process to favour” the company.
The document also says that BAE “took steps to conceal its relationships [with intermediaries] and undisclosed payments to them” by using offshore shell vehicles.
The DoJ estimates that BAE gained more than $200m from various false statements to the US government from 2000 onwards.
Yesterday, Dick Olver, BAE’s chairman, sought to draw a line under the long-running investigation, indicating the company would plead guilty and apologise for past shortcomings. “None of these counts relate to corruption, bribery or conspiracy to corrupt,” he added.
BAE’s settlement means that it has not been banned from bidding for government contracts in the US and UK.
Read moreBAE Systems admits guilty to “defrauding the US”, fined $400m over Saudi payments
Not just in the UK: Police State: DRONES used to spy on AMERICANS!
Drones could be used for civilian surveillance in the UK as early as 2012. Source: BAE
Police in the UK are planning to use unmanned spy drones, controversially deployed in Afghanistan, for the ”routine” monitoring of antisocial motorists, protesters, agricultural thieves and fly-tippers, in a significant expansion of covert state surveillance.
The arms manufacturer BAE Systems, which produces a range of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for war zones, is adapting the military-style planes for a consortium of government agencies led by Kent police.
Documents from the South Coast Partnership, a Home Office-backed project in which Kent police and others are developing a national drone plan with BAE, have been obtained by the Guardian under the Freedom of Information Act.
Read moreBig Brother: UK Police Plan to Use Military-Style Spy Drones
It may have seemed like just another improbable scene from a Hollywood sci-fi flick – Tom Cruise battling against an army of robotic spiders intent on hunting him down.
But the storyline from Minority Report may not be quite as far fetched as it sounds.
British defence giant BAE Systems is creating a series of tiny electronic spiders, insects and snakes that could become the eyes and ears of soldiers on the battlefield, helping to save thousands of lives.
Prototypes could be on the front line by the end of the year, scuttling into potential danger areas such as booby-trapped buildings or enemy hideouts to relay images back to troops safely positioned nearby.
Soldiers will carry the robots into combat and use a small tracked vehicle to transport them closer to their targets.
Then they would swarm into the building and relay images back to the soldiers’ hand-held or wrist-mounted computers, warning them of any threats inside.
BAE Systems has just signed a £19million contract to develop the robots for the US Army.
Plans for a creature that can crawl like a spider are said to be well developed, and researchers eventually hope to be able to create creatures that can slither like a snake or fly like a dragonfly.
While some of the creatures will be fitted with small cameras, others will be equipped with sensors that will be able to detect the presence of chemical, biological or radioactive weapons.
Read moreRobobug goes to war: Troops to use electronic insects to spot enemy ‘by end of the year’
