MBDA ... Missiles, Bombs
and Deadly Ammunition?
Northern Friends Peace Board
 Challenging Militarism Project
Signpost leaflet - March 2003
(click here for PDF version, 28KB)

When we hear about the huge arms company, BAE Systems, in the news media, it is normally in connection with major aircraft or ship-building contracts.  But what makes such equipment so deadly is what they carry.  Without their ordnance, they are simply expensive vehicles.  With it, they are instruments equipped to deliver death, damage and injury to military and civilians alike. 
 

And this is where MBDA comes in... 

MBDA is the acronym for the merged European missile production company, its full name being Matra BAE Dynamics Alenia.  Formed in 2000, it consists of parts of BAE Systems (in the UK), Finmecannica (in Italy), and EADS (European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company).  
In Britain MBDA has bases in Stevenage (research and production), Bristol (research) and at Lostock in Bolton (production). 
 

What MBDA produces 

Amongst other things…  

  • Air-to-air missiles such as the Meteor 

    • (“To ensure total target destruction, the missile is equipped with both proximity and impact fuzes and a fragmentation warhead that is detonated at the optimum point to maximise lethality”  - quotation from MBDA press pack) 
  • Ground-to-air missiles such as Jernas 

    • (“… fully automatic and easy to use and maintain 24 hours a day in all weather…”) 
  • Anti-tank weapons such as Kestrel

    • (“..small, lightweight and easy to use and will provide an unprecedented mix of lethality and mobility.”) 
  • Cruise missiles such as Storm Shadow

    • (“…capable of very high precision in the final phase and with high destructive power.”) 
  • Sea-launched missiles such as Exocet

    • (“…in production since 1972, and has achieved 93% hits demonstrated by customers.”)
In Bolton, local MPs have lobbied the Ministry of Defence to ensure that key contracts come the way of the MBDA plant in Lostock.  But recent studies have shown that, whilst the arms industry and government argues that it is good for the economy, it is in fact heavily subsidised … see our earlier leaflet on ‘Do Quakers support the arms trade?’. 

Remember 
 
The term ‘fire and forget’ is used widely in MBDA publicity materials to describe the nature of their missiles.  It seems -  rather like ‘collateral damage’ - designed to encourage us to ignore the reality that the effects of missiles and bombs is deadly.  Targets, structures, bases, command-and-control centres, communications facilities ... all these things tend to have people in and around them.  It may be easier to try to forget such a fact when firing a missile from a high-speed jet but occasionally in recent wars, the public has been given glimpses of the human cost.  
 

Commercial prospects 
 
A Rand Commission report in 2002 stated that missiles are expected to be a real growth area for arms manufacturers throughout the world.  Will we then be told that we have to develop more sophisticated weaponry to defend ourselves from the missiles that we and other arms manufacturing countries have sold to ‘rogue’ nations in future years?  Is this really a responsible way forward? 
 

Missile ‘defence’ 

MBDA has been involved in undertaking research into the possibilities of a ballistic missile defence system for Nato.  Perhaps more significantly, its component companies have reached agreements with US arms company Boeing to work on the US missile ‘defense’ programme.  They clearly have much to gain, if the US were to award contracts to them, and will no doubt be using any opportunities they can to seek to influence their own and the US government to engage them in this way.  
Members of the House of Commons Defence Select Committee seemed keen for work of this sort to come to the UK, in their recent consideration of the US request to use Fylingdales for missile defense.  Is this really the best way of deciding how to build peace and security in the world? 
 

Action ideas 

MBDA is just one cog in an increasingly complex machine that makes up the international arms industry.  It is important that, as active citizens, we find out about the kind of things that are going on in our own backyards, subsidised by our taxes.  Here  are just a few suggestions. 

  • If you have web access, spend some time searching (with search engines such as Google) for information about the activities of your local arms manufacturer (MBDA’s site is at: http://www.mbda.net) .  The archives of local papers can also be good sources of information.
  • Contact Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) for information they have on the company, and find out if there are ways in which you can use their resources and expertise to raise the issues locally.  Campaign Against Arms Trade, 11 Goodwin Street, London, N4 3HQ    tel: 020 7281  0297   fax: 020 7281  4369    Web: www.caat.org.uk
  • Contact other groups and individuals in the community – and  perhaps the local press – asking them to consider the morality and economic soundness of the arms industry.
  • Link up with other groups of concerned citizens through CAAT and Quaker networks to share ideas and perhaps arrange joint activities and acts of witness.
  • Consider holding silent vigils outside bases, or other forms of visible witness.  Quaker Peace & Social Witness have produced a simple pack with ideas for vigils – copies available from the NFPB office – see address below.
  • Contact senior managers in the company or other employees, to see if there is scope for dialogue.  Use the Oxford Research Group booklet on ‘Everyone's guide to achieving change’ (via the NFPB office), or invite NFPB to run a workshop on dialogue skills if you would like support for this type of activity.
 
     
    Northern Friends Peace Board
    Victoria Hall, Knowsley Street, Bolton BL1 2AS
    Ph: 01204 382330  E: nfpb@gn.apc.org  W:  www.gn.apc.org/nfpb