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3,000 jobs may be cut WASHINGTON — The Houston-area economy suffered a second blow Friday, with the U.S. Army rejecting a Sealy-based company's appeal to keep combat truck production in Texas, where it has been for 17 years. The Army's action to award the contract to a Wisconsin firm — following a review ordered by Congress' watchdog Government Accountability Office — could claim an estimated 3,000 jobs at the Texas plant in suburban Houston, with layoffs beginning later this year. Coupled with President Barack Obama's proposal last week to cancel NASA's $108 billion back-to-the-moon Constellation program, the Houston area...

BAE Systems targets 300 Typhoon exports BAE Systems will go head-to-head with the US in the lucrative fighter plane export market as it attempts to sell up to 300 Eurofighter Typhoons abroad to keep production going when domestic orders dry up. By Amy Wilson The biggest potential export markets for BAE and its consortium partners, EADS and Finmeccanica, are India, Japan and Saudi Arabia, which is already buying 72 Typhoons. An order from Switzerland could come as soon as next year and the consortium is also pursuing sales in Greece and Romania. It also has long-term ambitions in Brazil, Malaysia...

A former US military contractor who shot and killed a defenceless and handcuffed member of the Taleban walked free today after a judge decided he had been provoked by the Afghan’s brutality. The extraordinary case of Don Ayala, a former US Army Ranger...ended in a Virginia courtroom when he was sentenced to probation for the killing of Abdul Salam in November last year. US prosecutors...originally charged Alaya with murder....But the judge decided that probation was warranted under the circumstances. Alaya was also fined $12,500. Ayala had pleaded guilty to the voluntary manslaughter of Salam, an undercover member of the Taleban,...

BARROW, UK: BAE Systems workers today celebrated delivery of the 500th M777 howitzer to the US military. Weighing in at less than 4200kg, the revolutionary M777 is the world's first artillery weapon to make widespread use of titanium and aluminum alloys, resulting in a howitzer which is half the weight of conventional 155mm systems. BAE Systems Global Combat Systems' facility at Barrow-in- Furness is responsible for the prime contract management of the M777 programme, including direct customer liaison and acceptance of the weapon system in the US, control of the UK and US supply chain, engineering design authority and manufacturing...

ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- An Army contractor is facing up to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to manslaughter in the shooting death of a handcuffed Taliban member who had just set one of the contractor's colleagues on fire. Don M. Ayala, 46, of New Orleans, struck a plea bargain Tuesday in federal court in Alexandria, avoiding murder charges that could have resulted in life in prison. Ayala provided security on what the Army calls a Human Terrain Team, in which social scientists and anthropologists are embedded with combat brigades to help soldiers understand local culture. On Nov. 4, Ayala...

McLEAN, Va. -- An anthropologist has died of burns she got when was set on fire in Afghanistan in an attack that authorities say prompted her fellow contractor, a New Orleans resident, to kill an Afghan man. Greg Caires, a spokesman for military contractor BAE Systems, says Paula Loyd died Wednesday at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio more than two months after she was doused with fuel. The 36-year-old suffered burns over 60 percent of her body. Loyd's job with BAE was to help U.S. soldiers navigate local culture. One of Loyd's colleagues has been charged with second-degree...

If Russia and Sweden once again will find themselves in a military conflict (last time was 1809, when Sweden lost Finland), a wild stab in the dark of a guess would be that Gripens will play a role in fending off the bear. The SAAB Gripen suffered from some initial problems, but has turned out a very interesting and competent plane. This is, to a large extent, thanks to British BAE Systems. God save the Queen. In order to watch the recent "show off" at Linköping, Sweden, just click the link below.

Campaigning at BAE is rarely a cakewalk for Democrats, and if Jeanne Shaheen was under any illusion that she was going to have an easy morning of it, it was quickly punctured. “We protect those that protect us and we were deeply disappointed.” That was the event’s MC, Thomas Fitzpatrick, Vice President of BAE’s electronic warfare division. “….Deeply disappointed that the state Democratic party, on your behalf, characterized us as war profiteers,. bilking the public. I’d like to know what you were thinking at the time when you sort of let that stand, and to this day it still stands.”...

BAE to develop unmanned aircraft with British Defense Ministry14 Jul, 2008, 2127 hrs IST, AGENCIES FARNBOROUGH: BAE Systems PLC said on Monday it will develop an unmanned aircraft that can drop laser-guided bombs and fire missiles in a program jointly funded by Britain's Ministry of Defense. BAE announced the plans for the propeller-powered vehicle, known as Mantis, at the Farnborough International Airshow, outside London, and displayed a full-size model on the tarmac. The deal with the Defense Ministry, which covers the first phase of development and flight testing only, is designed to demonstrate the potential of a large unmanned aircraft...

The skies over Fort Worth, Texas, hosted a historic aviation milestone today when the most expensive plane on Earth—a modded version of the F-35 Lightning II that lands vertically like a helicopter—made its first flight. Its pilot certainly had the chops to do the job: He learned to fly short take-off/vertical landing (STOVL) airplanes when Jimmy Carter was president. Retired Royal Air Force squadron leader Graham Tomlinson, now employed by BAE Flight Systems, flew AV-8 Harriers (the first STOVL warplanes to see action) for 28 years, including time in the late 1980s as a test pilot qualifying the FA-2 Sea...

MINNEAPOLIS — The Army's top general said he saw the future when looking at a new artillery vehicle that can hit a target over the horizon while remaining lighter, faster and more fuel efficient than the vehicle it will replace. Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the Army's chief of staff, examined the so-called non-line-of-sight cannon with Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., at Minnesota defense contractor BAE Systems on Friday during a visit Casey said was meant to "check on our future." The cannon, a two-man combat vehicle with an automated ammunition system that can fire 155 mm projectiles with greater precision...

Clearly, the Justice department believes there is reasonable cause to think US law has been violated by the Bandar payments. Since the money actually came from a British government account, it could be argued that the UK state - rather than BAE as such - was the actor, and thus should be denied the export permit it is asking for.It appears that the British government's application to export American tech on 72 Eurofighters to the desert princes is the subject of some debate both among Capitol Hill politicos and at the Departments of State and Justice.Now the US State Department...

Can Five Air Forces All Be Wrong? by Lt. Gen. Tom McInerney Jed Babbin announced recently that he is opposing the USAF's decision to buy the KC-45A air refueling tanker from Northrop Grumman and its European partner, EADS. He bases this on two main points: "First, the warfighters need a tanker that isn't so big and heavy that is unable to deploy on many of the world's airfields; and second, the Air Force is taking an unreasonably high risk on the NG-EADS aircraft." Jed who is a respected friend and colleague has been gracious in allowing me to respond in...

The US Marine Corps has placed two follow-on delivery orders worth a total of $715m with BAE Systems for Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles. Under the new contracts, BAE Systems will build and deliver 1,024 Caiman-based Category I vehicles and 447 RG33 Category I and II vehicles (bringing the total to 3,150 Category 1 and 1,927 Category II vehicles respectively). BAE Systems anticipates that the Caiman award, worth $481.8m, will include spares and increased contractor logistic support. The RG33 order, worth $234m, involves the production of three special forces command vehicles, 51 ambulance variants and 393 RG33 Category II...

<p>1. Russians Suspected in Shooting of Kremlin Critic Near D.C.</p> <p>One year ago, Kremlin critic Paul Joyal was gunned down in the driveway of his suburban Maryland home. The case remains unsolved — but some see the hand of Russia in the shooting.</p>

February 15, 2008 Bribes inquiry was warned of ‘another 7/7’, court told Christine Buckley, Industrial Correspondent, and Fiona Hamilton Fraud investigators were told they faced the possibility of “another 7/7” and the likely loss of “British lives on British streets” if they pressed on with inquiries into Saudi Arabia’s arms deals, it was revealed yesterday. High Court documents showed that the Saudis threatened to cut off intelligence, potentially making it easier for terrorists to attack London, if the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) did not drop its investigation into alleged corruption in deals with BAE systems. After threats by the Saudis...

February 10, 2008 Saudi royal Prince Bandar Bin Sultan's assets frozen Grant Ringshaw PRINCE Bandar Bin Sultan, the former Saudi Arabian ambassador to America, has been hit by a court order in effect freezing some of his US assets, as part of a class-action lawsuit over bribery allegations at British defence giant BAE Systems. A Michigan pension scheme ? the City of Harper Woods Employees’ Retirement System ? has been granted a restraining order, according to documents filed in the US district of Columbia and seen by The Sunday Times. The order, granted last Tuesday, blocks Bandar from transferring out...

RAFAEL signs $25m deal with US Navy Armament Development Authority, BAE Systems land joint contract to supply US navy with advanced naval weapons systems. Contract second of its kind, to be completed by end of 2009 Naama Sikuler Published: 11.20.07 Israel's RAFAEL Armament Development Authority and US based BAE Systems announced Tuesday they were awarded a joint, $36 million weapons contract by the US Navy. The two will supply the US Navy with 62 Typhoon naval weapons systems by the end of 2009. The Typhoons are a range of remotely operated naval stabilized weapon systems, designed to combat ocean-based terror....

For true sci-fi fans, any mention of a real-world rail gun will draw an instant, slightly audible gasp. Instead of relying on chemical propellants—such as gunpowder—a rail gun uses magnetic “rails” to launch a solid, nonexplosive projectile at incredible speed. Theoretically, rail guns would be able to precisely strike targets at extreme ranges, and would negate the risks associated with carrying around tons of explosive ammo. More to the point, they’re cool-sounding, just like lasers. Which is why the news that BAE Systems has delivered a functional, 32-megajoule Electro-Magnetic Laboratory Rail Gun (32-MJ LRG) to the U.S. Naval Surface Warfare...

And that is the wonderful part of it. Saudis are beginning to be held accountable. The Saudi King’s visit was carefully managed. Aware that the best defense is an offense, he charged the British government with ignoring his warnings prior to 7/7. I am sure he was right. Londonistan is barely even Londonistan-even now. Responding to the charges of British bribery of high placed Saudis including the Yamanis, a Saudi officials argued that the fault was with the bribers not those bribed. At issues is the 43-billion-pound arms deal with Saudi Arabia which the British Fraud Office investigated until Blair.........