Collated from a UKTI DSO survey of UK defence companies together with ‘rest of the world’ competitor data and released in compliance with a formal code of practice as ‘Official Statistics’ this morning UK defence exports for 2015 are shown to have been worth £7.7 billion, down by £800 million on the equivalent figure for […]
UK Defence (257) – Ringing The Ministerial Changes
With Secretary of State for Defence, Michael Fallon having thankfully been left in the position he has held for exactly two years, it was with little surprise although a considerable amount of personal disappointment that I learned on Saturday that Minister of State for Defence Procurement (MinDP) Philip Dunne has been moved from Defence to […]
Of Welcome UK Defence Procurement, Farnborough and New Pilot at No 10
I had not, as mentioned in my final pre Royal International Air Tattoo (RIAT) commentary piece last Wednesday, intended to write again until after the week long Farnborough International Airshow had finished. Cheered and boosted by what was an absolutely brilliant RIAT event, the best that I can ever recall in the many that I […]
UK Defence (246) – Political and Defence Comment Post Brexit
“Always remember that one enemy counterbalances six friends. Always remember that an enemy may one day need to be your friend”. Those words, said by the late merchant banker Siegmund Warburg over fifty years ago, have been ringing in my ears this past weekend and probably both relevant and appropriate to what we are observing […]