The Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) hosted in London this week has arrived at a moment to savour for arms companies. The bi-annual exhibition where representatives of arms firms congregate alongside their customers is taking place with global military spending at a record high – in part the result of rearmament following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and geopolitical competition in the Pacific.
Lurking under the surface of festivities at London’s ExCeL centre is a British arms procurement system described as “broken” by two parliamentary inquiries this year. The financial accounts of the multinationals that supply the Ministry of Defence (MoD) reveal an industry propped up by state subsidy – to the benefit of international shareholders – and structural flaws in the UK’s most active area of industrial strategy.
Even beyond the fundamental entwinement of the industry with civilian deaths as a result of UK foreign policy, or the leading role of the UK’s arms export customers in global conflicts, the supposed economic benefits often used to justify arms production actually flow to private shareholders. Over the past decade, the MoD’s leading suppliers have paid their shareholders billions despite high-profile failures in defence programmes.
