Al-Yamamah: the case for the defence was written by son of former Chief of the Defence Staff (CDS) Jonathan Guthrie concerning investigations into an armaments deal by Britain and Saudi Arabia in the early 1980s for Tornado IDS strike aircraft, spares, training and support.
by Jeffrey Bradford 17 Apr 2008 05:57 PM
Jonathan put his finger on the issue with regard to the Al-Yamamah deal being something which looks less good with the benefit of hindsight.
It seems so long ago that the 1980s were the depth of the cold war in Europe, proxy wars being fought in Africa and the Middle East and Saddam Hussain being our bulwark against radical Islam in Iran.
Defence companies were involved in various deals which as they unwound subsequently have resulted in 'issues' Lockheed of America in the 1970s and Thales of France in South Africa more recently.
In addition Al-Yamamah was a major boost to the British engineering sector and it is questionable whether participation in Eurofighter could have been so robust had Al-Yamamah failed.
The tragedy today is a number of short-sighted decisions being made amongst nervousness regarding international scrutiny of the project - the Defence Export Service Organisation (DESO) has been abolished, Lord Drayson procurement champion has chosen to race automobiles and BAE Chief Executive Mike Turner has curtailed his career leading BAE at a crucial time in its international development.
Something is rotten in the state of Denmark and with hindsight it is not this deal.
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