Category Archives: Ministry of Defence

‘Deniable fiddle’: the MoD, Saudi Arabia and a scandal half a century in the making

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Revelations about payments by Ministry of Defence are culmination of decades of British deal-making with Saudis

The revelation that the Ministry of Defence paid millions of pounds to a firm that would later be accused of being a conduit for secret payments to high-ranking Saudi officials is the culmination of a scandal that has been half a century in the making.

The £8m paid from an MoD bank account between 2014 and 2017 was in connection with a large defence deal, Sangcom, first struck in the 1970s.

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MoD signed £8m deal with firm later alleged to be conduit for secret payments to Saudi prince

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Project Arrow contract signed amid scramble to keep on track £1.6bn defence deal and ran until at least 2017

The UK Ministry of Defence paid millions of pounds to a company later alleged to have been a conduit for secret payments to high-ranking Saudi Arabian officials including a member of the royal family.

The MoD payments, worth £8m, were made under a contract codenamed Project Arrow that ran until at least 2017, according to documents that surfaced in a criminal trial.

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Two men acquitted of bribing Saudis in huge British defence deal

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Jury acquits Jeffrey Cook and John Mason after lawyers argue payments were authorised by UK and Saudi governments

Two men have been acquitted of paying bribes totalling millions of pounds to high-ranking Saudis after they argued that they had been unfairly prosecuted.

Jeffrey Cook and John Mason had been accused of bribing a Saudi prince and his associates to secure and maintain a huge defence deal for a British company. But on Wednesday, a jury in London acquitted them after lawyers argued the payments had been authorised by the British and Saudi governments.

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Minister tells of anger at Ben Wallace over Afghanistan death squad claims

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Johnny Mercer tells inquiry defence secretary did not say he knew of allegations before Commons told they were untrue

A minister has told an inquiry that he was angry with the former defence secretary Ben Wallace after discovering that UK special forces officers knew about Afghanistan death squad allegations before he described them as untrue in the House of Commons.

Johnny Mercer wrote to Wallace in August 2020 shortly after emails surfaced in the Sunday Times that showed senior special forces officers expressed serious concerns about the killings of 33 people in 11 night raids in the war-torn nation in 2011.

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UK minister says he ‘cannot disprove’ claims Afghans were unlawfully killed

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Johnny Mercer tells UK inquiry of reports SAS had killed civilians between 2010 and 2013

The UK’s minister for veterans, Johnny Mercer, has effectively admitted in front of a public inquiry that he believed members of the SAS had engaged in dozens of unlawful killings of Afghan civilians between 2010 and 2013.

Mercer told the inquiry on Tuesday that at one point, shortly after first becoming a minister in 2019, Mercer said he told the then defence secretary, Ben Wallace, that “something stinks”. His boss replied: “There is no new evidence, Johnny,” and the cabinet minster chose not to take any further action.

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UK special forces blocked resettlement applications from elite Afghan troops

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MoD conducts review but stands accused of conflict of interest while public inquiry investigates conduct of SAS in Afghanistan

Elite Afghan commandos who fought alongside the British military have had their applications to relocate blocked by UK special forces despite evidence that they had served alongside them in dangerous missions against the Taliban.

Documents leaked and shared with BBC Panorama show that Britain’s secretive special forces were given a veto power over resettlement, prompting claims that hundreds of Afghan veterans have been left in limbo or danger in their native country.

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MoD firefighters’ pensions delayed after Capita Group blunders

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Trade union Unite tells of concerns about 2025 contract to administer civil service pension scheme

Retired firefighters who were responsible for tackling blazes on military bases have been unable to access their full pension due to “numerous” blunders by the outsourcing group Capita, it has emerged.

Capita won a £525m contract to run the Ministry of Defence’s fire and rescue service in 2019, renaming it the Defence Fire and Rescue Project (DFRP) after the privatisation.

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UK action against Houthis ‘not an escalation’, says Grant Shapps

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Defence secretary says third joint UK-US assault on Iran-backed group is to protect lives and ‘preserve freedom of navigation’

The UK has joined the US for a third time in conducting a wave of airstrikes on Iran-linked Houthi targets in Yemen.

The defence secretary, Grant Shapps, said the fresh assaults were “not an escalation”, but instead were designed to “protect innocent lives and preserve freedom of navigation” in the Red Sea amid Houthi attacks on boats.

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UK committed to ‘protecting innocent lives’, says Shapps after Houthi attack

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British warship HMS Diamond targeted in Red Sea but no injuries or serious damage sustained

Grant Shapps said the UK remained “undaunted” after Iran-backed Houthis targeted HMS Diamond in the Red Sea during their latest round of strikes.

The defence secretary’s comments came after the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said that the Royal Navy warship HMS Diamond “deployed its Sea Viper missile system” to destroy the drone deployed by the Yemen-based Houthi group on Saturday. It said there were no injuries to the crew and no damage to the ship.

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Civil servant at MoD alleges sexual assaults by three male colleagues

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Woman came forward to Prospect trade union after feeling allegations were not sufficiently dealt with

A Ministry of Defence civil servant has told of being subjected to three separate incidents of sexual assault by male colleagues, after allegations emerged of a “hostile” and “toxic” culture at the department.

The woman came forward to Prospect, the trade union, after feeling that her allegations were not sufficiently investigated and dealt with by the Ministry of Defence.

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Venezuela mounts military exercises as UK sends warship to support Guyana

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Nicolás Maduro orders ‘defensive’ manoeuvres as British Navy deploys vessel in territorial dispute

Venezuela’s president Nicolás Maduro has ordered more than 5,600 military personnel to participate in “defensive” exercises, after the UK deployed a warship to waters off the coast of Guyana in a show of support for the former British colony.

Maduro said he was launching an action “of a defensive nature in response to the provocation and threat of the UK against peace and the sovereignty of our country”.

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UK surveillance aircraft to search for Hamas hostage sites in Gaza

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MoD says any information on the potential whereabouts of captives will be shared with Israel

The UK will conduct surveillance flights over Israel and Gaza to search for hostage locations used by Hamas, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has said.

MoD officials said a range of unarmed aircraft would be used for the reconnaissance flights, including Shadow R1s, which are used for intelligence gathering.

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Women in UK military who report assaults face ostracisation, report says

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Exclusive: women tell study they were punished for breaking rules rather than supported when they reported incidents

Women in the British military who report sexual assaults are being ostracised and punished for breaching minor rules, research shows.

The forces’ “misogynistic and toxic” culture of “laddish” behaviour shapes the way it deals with and understands sexual assaults, according to the study, which is published in the Royal United Services Institution Journal.

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Calls for investigation into complaints of ‘toxic’ sexual behaviour at MoD

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Opposition and unions call on Grant Shapps to take action after 60 senior women report widespread abuse

Labour and civil service unions have called on the defence secretary, Grant Shapps, to launch an urgent investigation after 60 senior female staff at the Ministry of Defence reported a widespread culture of sexual assault, harassment and abuse by male colleagues.

The opposition party called on Shapps to take action to “root out this behaviour from top to bottom”, while the heads of the FDA and PCS trade unions called for a meeting with the department’s permanent secretary, David Williams.

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MoD revelations add to sexual harassment crisis within wider military

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Complaints compiled by 60 senior civilian women follow reports of rape, assault and bullying across forces

• 60 women at MoD complain of widespread ‘toxic’ behaviour
• ‘The eyes tracking me is awful’: edited extracts

It is impossible not to conclude from the latest revelations that the Ministry of Defence faces a crisis of sexism, an epidemic of harassment – and in some cases the allegations are far worse.

The complaints, compiled by 60 senior civilian women in the department, include allegations so comprehensive it gives the impression its culture of sexism is institutionalised.

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SAS shot dead two sleeping Afghans in war crime, public inquiry told

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Two children were seriously injured in 2012 incident, inquiry into 80 deaths hears

The SAS shot dead two Afghan adults who were sleeping in an incident in August 2012 in which two children were seriously injured, a public inquiry has heard.

The barrister representing victims’ families in a public inquiry into the killing of 80 civilians by the SAS in Afghanistan said the incident amounted to war crimes committed by British soldiers.

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Top issues in Grant Shapps’ in tray as new UK defence secretary

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Ben Wallace’s successor faces major issues on several fronts including Ukraine and a British military seeking more investment

Grant Shapps’ appointment comes at a time of the largest war in Europe since 1945, with Britain a key strategic partner for Ukraine as it seeks to kick out the Russian invaders. A central part of the job is public and private diplomacy, with the UK particularly keen to maintain its position as a bridge between Kyiv, always seeking new weapons, and an often cautious White House, already increasingly mindful of the looming 2024 election battle, most likely with Donald Trump.

Once Boris Johnson had been ousted from Downing Street, Kyiv looked to Wallace as an increasingly important figure, with the former defence secretary central in efforts to find a pathway for Ukraine to eventually join Nato and in ensuring long-term military support continues. Shapps will want to keep the long-term door to Nato membership open, but he may have give Kyiv candid advice and help it temper its not always realistic lobbying.

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Strikes suspended at UK munitions plant that supplies missiles to Ukraine

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Ministry of Defence agree to talks after 50 workers at site in Ayrshire were due to walk out over pay

A two-week strike due to hit a British munitions plant that supplies missiles to Ukraine has been suspended after the Ministry of Defence agreed to talks.

Nearly 50 workers at the site at Beith, in Ayrshire, which assembles the Storm Shadow and Brimstone missiles, had been due to walk out for a fortnight next Monday in a long-running row over pay and bonuses.

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Saudis ask to join UK, Italy and Japan’s joint air combat programme

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UK-backed move could help spread cost of developing fighter jet and drones, but may prove controversial

Saudi Arabia has asked the UK, Japan and Italy to be made a full partner in their joint effort to build the next generation of fighter jets, in a move backed by the British government.

Companies from the UK, Japan and Italy are working together to build a new fighter jet and other systems such as drones under the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP), also known as Tempest. The programme aims to deliver the first planes by 2035, a tight turnaround.

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SAS must be named in inquiry into alleged unlawful killings, says Afghan families’ lawyer

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MoD acknowledged at preliminary hearing that ‘UK special forces’ were present in Afghanistan

A partial admission by the defence secretary that UK special forces were present in Afghanistan risks discrediting a public inquiry investigating allegations of unlawful killings by the SAS, according to a lawyer representing victims’ families.

Richard Hermer KC said Ben Wallace had made only “a semi-concession” in a preliminary hearing on Wednesday, when the minister made a rare acknowledgment that “UK special forces” were present in Afghanistan.

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