Former Defence Secretary Michael Fallon watches as the first piece of steel for the next generation of nuclear submarines is cut in the plate production manufacturing facility at BAE Systems. Phil Noble/PA Images. All rights reserved.President Eisenhower famously used his farewell address to warn future US governments to “guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military–industrial complex”. What he foresaw was a “potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power” through the development of the arms industry and its dependency on arms sales abroad to sustain itself.
The Department for International Trade proudly announces on its website that on a rolling 10-year basis, the UK remains the world’s second largest exporter of arms, with a 9% share of the global defence export market in 2016. Government pride is based upon jobs, balance of payments, and maintaining an independent defence-manufacturing base. The defence sector makes up 10% of the British manufacturing base and those defence exports sustain 55,000 jobs.
Dr Liam Fox, the Secretary of State for International Trade, mounted an unashamed defence of Britain’s arms sales at the opening of the world’s biggest weapons trade exhibition in London this autumn. Fox said, “Britain is a global leader in defence and that should be celebrated… we must work to defend and promote the established defence industry.”
