{"id":44478,"date":"2026-05-21T18:31:02","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T18:31:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/44478\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T18:31:02","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T18:31:02","slug":"arms-dealer-bae-systems-rakes-in-record-blood-money","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/44478\/","title":{"rendered":"Arms dealer BAE Systems rakes in record blood money"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\tNews<\/a><\/p>\n

As imperialist tensions rise and Keir Starmer funnels money into arms, profiteers are cashing in from war and genocide<\/p>\n

By Arthur Townend<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tDownloading PDF. Please wait…<\/p>\n

Wednesday 18 February 2026<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tIssue 2994<\/a>
\n\t\t\t\t\"BAE<\/p>\n

Blockading BAE Systems during the height of Israel\u2019s genocide in Palestine<\/p>\n

The blood money is rolling in for BAE Systems<\/a>, Britain\u2019s biggest arms manufacturer.<\/p>\n

It published bumper sales figures on Wednesday, only a few days after Keir Starmer promised to pour billions more into arms spending.<\/p>\n

BAE\u2019S total sales were up 10 percent in 2025 at a staggering \u00a330.7 billion.<\/p>\n

And shareholders in the killing corporation were also sitting pretty as basic share earnings rose 6 percent.<\/p>\n

Chief executive Charles Woodburn attributed the bloody profits \u201cto the outstanding dedication\u201d of the company. \u201cIn a new era of defence spending, driven by escalating security challenges, we\u2019re well positioned,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The global war drive is putting pounds in the pockets of those who run killing operations for profit.<\/p>\n

BAE\u2019s biggest market is the US with Britain in second place.<\/p>\n


\n \"Large <\/a><\/p>\n

\u2018Don\u2019t buy Labour lies about arms spending and jobs\u2019: Andrew Feinstein<\/a><\/p>\n

The British state and BAE work hand in glove\u2014and not just because arms giant is one of the biggest recipients of public money. For example, BAE was central to the deal between Turkey and the British government to provide 20 Typhoon fighter jets, worth \u00a34.6 billion.<\/p>\n

But BAE doesn\u2019t just profit from Western imperialism. Its third biggest client is Saudi Arabia\u2014which currently has a large hand in the ongoing war in Yemen<\/a> and the devastation in Sudan.<\/p>\n

Woodburn is pushing Labour to spell out its defence investment plan. It\u2019s been delayed since the end of last year, but he said arms companies want \u201cclarity\u201d.<\/p>\n

But while BAE scores from militarism, workers are fighting for wages. Since 2 February, around 1,000 Unite union members have been on strike at the two BAE Lancashire sites.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2025, workers had a 3.5 percent pay increase imposed without any collective agreement. It\u2019s below inflation\u2014and below the 4.5 percent offer engineers received.<\/p>\n

Workers are right to fight for wages. But the Unite leadership is pushing for increased militarism to shore up jobs in the arms industry. Instead, it should be building on workers\u2019 action to use the existing skills and infrastructure to push a transition away from arms and towards socially useful production.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Labour government trumpets arms spending as a way of boosting jobs and growth. But arms spending creates fewer jobs than investments in education, health or climate\u2014and is a drain on resources.<\/p>\n

In 2024, for instance, it was revealed that BAE received \u00a31 billion in science subsidies over the previous 30 years. At the time, the Campaign Against the Arms Trade said, \u201cThis is money that could have been spent on research into technology that saves lives.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead, it\u2019s been used to fuel wars and develop the type of military equipment Israel is using in its genocide in Gaza.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"News As imperialist tensions rise and Keir Starmer funnels money into arms, profiteers are cashing in from war…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44479,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[21224],"tags":[16426,21234,8160,32],"class_list":["post-44478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bae","tag-arms","tag-bae","tag-bae-systems","tag-palestine"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116613997294993422","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44478"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44478\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}