BAE Systems to Cut almost 2,000 Jobs - BBC News

BAE Systems is planning to cut almost 2,000 jobs in military, maritime and intelligence services, the firm says.

A total of 750 posts will go at the Warton and Samlesbury plants in Lancashire where parts for the Eurofighter Typhoon are manufactured.

BAE is facing an order gap for the Typhoon so wants to slow production before an expected order from Qatar.

In all, a total of 1,400 roles will go across England in the firm's air and information business.

Outside Lancashire, 400 posts will close in Brough, East Yorkshire, and 245 are being cut across RAF Marham and Leeming.

Meanwhile 340 maritime jobs will be lost in Portsmouth and Solent region and a further 180 posts will go in London, Guildford and other locations.

BAE Systems Poised to Announce 3,000 Job Cuts
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: BAE Systems, the defence giant, is expected to announce around 3,000 job cuts today, ending days of speculation about the scale of redundancies.

The move comes in the wake of the Government’s defence cuts and is understood to have been prompted by flagging sales of the Eurofighter jet.

The job losses are expected to be mainly at sites in its military aircraft division in Warton and Samlesbury in Lancashire, and Brough, East Yorkshire.

Union leaders said defence cuts had been a “hammer blow” to the defence industry but expressed fury that workers at the firm have been kept waiting for confirmation of the job losses.

Paul McCarthy, regional officer of the GMB, said it was a "disgrace" that workers heard via a leak to the media over the weekend that thousands of job losses were imminent.

"We are going to ask the company to launch a formal investigation to establish who leaked this information."

There is speculation that 900 jobs will be cut at Brough, 820 at Warton and 560 at Samlesbury, with hundreds more at smaller BAE sites. » | Murray Wardrop | Tuesday, September 27, 2011

BAE Names Hudson Head of U.S. Arm
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: BAE Systems PLC has tapped Linda Hudson as chief executive officer and president of its massive U.S. operations, a move that gives her a high-profile role as the first female chief executive of a major defense contractor.

BAE Systems Inc., which has about 56,000 employees and annual sales of approximately $20 billion in 2008, is the U.S. arm of the U.K.-based defense giant. She also was named to parent company BAE Systems PLC's board and as its chief operating officer.

A longtime defense executive, Ms. Hudson had been president of BAE's land and armaments group, which makes armored vehicles and played a key role rushing thousands of blast-resistant trucks to Iraq and Afghanistan.

In June, retired Marine General Tony Zinni was named chairman of BAE Systems Inc. and had been acting as chief executive officer on an interim basis after Walt Havenstein left to run another government contractor, SAIC Inc. Mr. Zinni will remain chairman.

The move is effective immediately. >>> August Cole | Monday, October 26, 2009

BAE Accused of £100m Secret Payments to Seal South Africa Arms Deal
THE GUARDIAN: More than £100m was secretly paid by the arms company BAE to sell warplanes to South Africa, according to allegations in a detailed police dossier seen by the Guardian yesterday.

The leaked evidence from South African police and the British Serious Fraud Office quotes a BAE agent recommending "financially incentivising" politicians.

In the arms deal, the new ANC government in South Africa agreed to spend a controversial £1.6bn buying fleets of Hawk and Gripen warplanes.

Critics said the country, beset by unemployment and HIV/Aids, could not afford it. The Hawks, rejected by the military, cost twice as much as Italian equivalents.

But the then South African defence minister Joe Modise and a key official, Chippy Shaik, insisted on the purchase.

BAE is accused in the reports of corrupt relationships with an arms tycoon, John Bredenkamp, recently blacklisted in the US for his links with Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe. Bredenkamp's blacklisting freezes his assets in the US.

BAE's former marketing director for southern Africa, Allan McDonald, has been speaking to police, the leaked files say. He allegedly told them Bredenkamp "gave progress reports directly to Mike Turner". Turner, who has been interviewed under caution by the SFO, stepped down last year as BAE's chief executive.

Bredenkamp-linked companies were paid £40m by BAE to promote the arms deal. According to McDonald, "Bredenkamp suggested identifying the key decision-makers, with a view to 'financially incentivising them' to make the right decision". >>> David Leigh and Rob Evans | December 6, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback & Hardback) – Free delivery >>>

Al Yamamah: BAE Bosses Detained by US Authorities
Photo of Mike Turner, chief executive of BAE Systems, courtesy of The Sunday Telegraph
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Two senior executives at Britain's biggest defence company were detained last week by American authorities investigating corruption allegations, the Telegraph has learnt.

Mike Turner, the chief executive of BAE Systems, was held with a senior colleague as they landed in America. Personal electronic equipment, including laptops and BlackBerries, was seized and examined before the pair were released.

The detentions are part of an investigation by the US Department of Justice into allegations surrounding the £43 billion al-Yamamah arms deal with Saudi Arabia. BAE has been accused of making tens of millions of pounds in illegal payments to Saudi officials, although the company maintains it has always acted lawfully.

In December 2006 the Government announced that the Serious Fraud Office was dropping its investigation into the al-Yamamah deal, prompting political controversy. America is continuing its inquiries.

The detention of the BAE executives, understood to have been at the George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Texas, has raised serious concerns at high levels of the Government about "heavy-handed" treatment.

The detentions follow the case of the "NatWest Three", British businessmen each sentenced to 37 months in prison in America this year, and threatens to harm US-UK relations in the run-up to the Group of Eight summit of leading industrial nations in Japan in July.

About the same time as Mr Turner and his unnamed colleague were being detained last week, a number of US-based BAE executives had their homes raided by authorities, The Telegraph understands. BAE Systems Inc, a subsidiary of British-based parent BAE Systems plc, has 43,000 employees in America.

A Foreign Office official expressed concern last night about the way Mr Turner and his colleague, who were on their way to a business meeting, had been treated. He said: "It was pretty heavy-handed. They had their laptops taken away and their documents photocopied."

British officials in Washington were informed of the incident on Monday when Mr Turner, a 59-year-old father of four, alerted military contacts at the embassy. He is also understood to have called contacts in the American government.

The Foreign Office official said it was clear that the American authorities were expecting the men's arrival. "They knew they were coming and they prepared the whole thing," he said. Mr Turner, who was back home in Britain this weekend, is expected to return to the US shortly in ­connection with the corruption investigation. BAE Bosses Detained by US Investigators over Saudi Case >>> By Patrick Hennessy and Tim Shipman | May 18, 2008

THE OBSERVER:
US Detains BAE Bosses over Saudi Contracts >>> By Gaby Hinsliff | May 18, 2008

THE TELEGRAPH:
Second BAE Boss Detained in US >>> By Russell Hotten, Industry Editor | May 19, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback - UK)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardback - UK)

BAE Systems Feels the Pinch
THE TELEGRAPH: Britain's biggest manufacturer, aerospace giant BAE Systems, is to shed almost 600 jobs at two military factories due to a slowdown in work.

Trade unions vowed to fight any compulsory redundancies at the factories, which work on the Hawk and Nimrod aircraft

Trade unions said they were shocked at the scale of the cuts and vowed to fight any compulsory redundancies at the factories, which work on the Hawk and Nimrod aircraft. Some 450 posts will be eliminated in Brough, near Hull, after BAE lost out last year on a contract to supply Hawk training aircraft to the United Arab Emirates. The rest of the cuts will hit BAE's site at Woodford, south of Manchester, which has shifted operations away from design and development to aircraft maintenance. BAE to Shed Jobs after Sales Slowdown >>> By Russell Hotten, Industry Editor | April 4, 2008

Mark Alexander