Death merchant Israeli Aerospace Industries should be kicked out of Australia.

(Above: Glorifying death by technology, Israel's Point Blank missile drone.     Image source: Asia Pacific Defence Reporter)

 Written by: Nick G. on 23 January 2023

An Australian government agency has worked hard to establish a branch of a notorious Israeli arms manufacturer in Australia.

It has been assisted to begin operations in Australia by the Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade), the Australian Government’s international trade promotion and “investment attraction” agency.

Israel Aerospace Industries opened an office in Australia is time to promote itself at Queensland’s 2021 Land Forces Australia arms expo.

It tried to come in innocuously, on the quiet, under the cover of having set up a joint venture (JV) with what was said to be an Australian company, Bis, to launch Auto-mate, a new company that will provide autonomous systems to the mining industry. Bis was formerly Brambles and is now privately-owned by US private equity companies Carlyle and Varde. So much for it being an “Australian company”!

Auto-mate means getting rid of jobs in the mining and transport industries. Something the government agency Austrade was apparently pleased to be involved with. According to its website:

Austrade played a pivotal role in bringing IAI and Bis' JV to fruition. Austrade provided market and customer research and analysis, connected IAI with relevant industry and government officials within Australia and targeted relevant companies for the JV.

Austrade has worked with IAI since 2013 to pursue a partner in Australia for autonomous/robotic mining and introduce potential partners and relevant institutions. Over the last two to three years, Austrade has assisted IAI to expand its presence in Australia and advised on ways and opportunities in which it can expand its role within Australia’s defence ecosystem.  

Oh well, that’s the Australian taxpayer’s dollar at work.

Loitering around the arms expo

But back to the armaments industry. At the Land Forces exhibition, AIA presented “awareness solutions including information gathering reconnaissance, surveillance, communication as well as a selection of loitering munitions capabilities.”

A “loitering munitions capability” is not something that hangs around street corners waiting to be picked up by Constable Plod.

A loitering munition (also known as a suicide drone or kamikaze drone) is a weapon system category in which the munition “loiters” around the target area for some time, searches for targets, and attacks once a target is located.

The 2021 version was the Harop drone.  

The new version, announced a couple of days ago, is the POINT BLANK electro-optically guided missile, that can, according to an AIA press release, “be carried in a soldier’s backpack. The system answers the battlefield requirement to provide tactical units ranging in size from small tactical teams to battalion level, with an independent and organic capability to increase their lethality. POINT BLANK allows these units to attack a variety of targets in real time with great precision and high lethality, without the need for support. The missile is hand-launched, operated by a single soldier, and can take off from and land vertically back to, the soldier’s hand.”

That description is the inspiration for the rather fanciful ad for the drone which sees a bird of prey taking off from a handler’s gloved fist and morphing into the missile drone.

What isn’t shown are the civilian casualties among the Palestinians of the Gaza Strip, or any other people fighting for their liberation from capitalist oppression and imperialist domination and control, as the loitering missile-loaded drone unleashes its firepower on targets selected by individual soldiers lurking kilometres away.

IAI and Australian guided missile manufacture

In June 2021, IAI signed a cooperation agreement with the Australian Missile Corporation (AMC), owned by Queensland based NIOA, owned by the family of federal politician Bob Katter’s son-in-law Robert Nioa. The AMC was established that year after PM Scott Morrison determined that Australia should manufacture its own guided missiles as part of US imperialism’s preparations for war with China. He had established the Guided Weapons and Explosive Ordnance Enterprise ("GWEO") program for that purpose.

Retired RAN Rear Admiral Lee Goddard, CEO of AMC, said in June 2022, “Our next steps will involve working with Defence and the GWEO Strategic Partners, Raytheon Australia and Lockheed Martin Australia, on a roadmap that meets the GWEO capability elements.”

As part of that roadmap, IAI is to provide Australia with a ‘very advanced autonomous maritime system’, although the details remain classified.
IAI charged with criminal conduct in Israel

Meanwhile, back in Occupied Palestine, IAI has had to deal with allegations of criminal conduct.

Israeli police arrested 13 people in March 2017 from IAI and private companies who either supplied or were supplied by IAI, on charges of corruption, aggravated fraud, money laundering, theft by public officials, illegal business practices, fraud and breach of trust.

“The covert investigation of this affair has thus far shown systemic criminal business practices and the suspicion of deep corruption, which is apparently common in the Israeli Aerospace Industries,” police said.

Then in 2020, The Times of Israel reported that IAI transferred at least $155 million in 2012-2014 to two companies that were reportedly used as a secret slush fund for Azerbaijan’s elite shortly after the company signed a $1.6 billion arms deal with Azerbaijan.

The bank accounts for these two offshore companies were serviced by the Russian bank International Financial Club, which is part owned by the wife of Sergei Chemezov, the CEO of Russia’s state-owned arms manufacturer and exporter, Rostec. In other words, a bank that is partly owned by the wife of a US-sanctioned Putin ally performed a key role in suspicious payments from two state-owned Israeli arms manufacturers to offshore companies reportedly controlled by members of the Azerbaijani elite. 

In addition, from June 2016 to May 2017 IAI paid $ 2.8 million to a British Virgin Islands firm called Bakinshaat Group Ltd., whose website describes it as a construction company involved in government projects in Azerbaijan.

It has been widely reported that IAI is the top supplier of arms to Azerbaijan, including of lethal “loitering” drones that some analysts believe helped Azerbaijan gain an edge over Armenia in the recent hostilities in Nagorno-Karabakh.

In 1993, IAI established a marketing arm, Spacecom, for its AMOS satellites. In February 2016, Israeli police recommended bribery, fraud, breach of trust and extortion indictment against Labor and Social Services Minister Haim Katz. The case alleged that he intervened in internal IAI matters involving the workers union, in exchange for favours from IAI employees.

The head of IAI’s employee union is his son, Yair Katz.

Katz’s involvement occurred as IAI pressed the Israeli government to award it a contract for a new generation communications satellite even though a US rival’s bid was for only half the amount asked for by IAI.

In August 2016, with the IAI bid faltering, Spacecom shareholders agreed to sell the company for US$500 million to China’s Beijing Xinwei Technology Group, but the deal collapsed in September when the latest AMOS satellite was destroyed in a launch test.

The Israeli government subsequently awarded the contract for the new satellite to Spacecom and IAI in 2018 amid controversy, as allegations about political deal-making and a state bailout at the taxpayers’ expense clash with a government citing national security as justification for its decisions.

Throw them out

IAI, with its inglorious record of corruption, was nevertheless feted by Austrade which used Australian taxpayers’ money to pave the way for the company to set itself up here.

This is a company which is making a killing from the making of killing expertise.

It is an enemy of progressive humanity and should be widely exposed and condemned.

When we reported in 2021 on IAI’s presence at the Land Forces Expo, we said, “We must oppose IAI’s presence in Australia, and any cooperation between it and the Australian military.”

We repeat that call today. 

 

 

British arms manufacturer announces new initiative to engage with school kids

From this (above) to this (below)

 Written by: Nick G. on 29 June 2022

The South Australian-based subsidiary of British arms manufacturer BAE Systems has just announced a new program aimed at Australian schoolchildren.

It is the latest in a series of engagements with schools that go back over two decades.

The new program, Beacon, is described as a STEM outreach program aimed at Years 4-6 children and will initially involve 15 primary schools in SA, WA and NSW.

What is BAE Systems?

BAE Systems was formed in 1999 following the merger of aircraft and munitions manufacturer British Aerospace with several other European companies in competition with US arms manufacturers.

It is the largest arms manufacturer in Europe, and ranked the seventh-largest in the world based on applicable 2021 revenues.  In 2017, 98% of BAE Systems' total sales were military related.

In 2001, it merged with French and Italian missile manufacturers to create MBDA, which thus became the world's second largest missile manufacturer. Through MBDA, BAE Systems is indirectly involved in the production of nuclear weapons for the French, and is also the UK's only nuclear submarine manufacturer and thus produces a key element of the United Kingdom's nuclear weapons capability.

BAE Systems Australia is the largest arms contractor with the Australian government.

Involvement with schools

Arms manufacturers seek involvement with schools for several reasons. This is true of their operations in a number of countries, and not just Australia.

Their favoured method of operation is to offer resources to struggling schools in socially-deprived areas. The resources promise to involve students in solving “real world” problems and are often welcomed by teachers keen to find new ways of making education interesting and relevant. Whilst the connection of these companies to the manufacture of weapons to maim and kill people is not at the forefront of the resources, the involvement with schools as a donor or mentor helps to establish their broader social licence.  It is a PR exercise designed to prevent community opposition to the presence of their research and manufacturing facilities.

BAE Systems first became involved when its forerunner, British Aerospace took over Australian company AWA Defence Industries in April 1996. AWA had just established an “industry partnership” with the working class Salisbury High School in SA to the tune of $10,000 through which its personnel would be “working with the school to help shape the direction for education and training for students to match industry expectations and needs.”  

Salisbury High also had a relationship with Tenix Defence for some years and through this won a Prime Ministers Award for Excellence in Business Community Partnerships in 2006.  In 2008, Tenix was also taken over by BAE Systems. In selling its partnership to the students at Salisbury High, BAE reps choose not to detail the murderous application of their hundreds of products and services, which see daily use in terrorizing people throughout the world struggling to be free of imperialist domination and control.  Rather, it benignly states that it “brings students into the real-world, high-tech field of engineering, (and) exposes them to ‘market economy’ constraints such as deadlines and budgets.”  

In Australia, BAE sponsors The Smith Family's STEM education program for underprivileged children. 

It sponsors the FIRST Robotics Competition, an annual event that “helps inspire the next generation of scientists, engineers and innovators. A large-scale robotics competition, it brings together secondary school students and mentors from across Australia to build robots, to precise specifications, that perform in a competitive environment against teams from all over the world.”

BAE also sponsors the FIRST LEGO League, which is the junior version of the Robotics Competition. It uses LEGO MINDSTORM robotics kits “to introduce upper primary students to real-world engineering challenges, in which they research and identify a problem, develop a solution for that problem, and share their solution with their community.” BAE has been sponsoring the competition and event since 2010 by “providing robotics kits to schools, mentoring the students and acting as judges, volunteers and the major sponsor for the final event.” 

BAE sponsors the Concept2Creation program which introduces a “product life cycle” approach to STEM education, “where secondary students work with industry mentors to take a product from concept, through research and development, production and quality assurance, to final creation and marketing. BAE Systems also provides sponsorship, mentoring support and helps to judge the Wetlands Environmental Management (WEM) Challenge of C2C, where secondary school teams design, manufacture and test a vehicle that can obtain multiple water samples from a wetlands environment.” 

In themselves, such projects have educational value – our concern is that they are the carrot on the stick of enticing young Australians into an uncritical relationship with multinational merchants of death.   

Beacon, but not lighting the way forward

Beacon is being offered as a five-day intensive camp or a 10-week program. It is currently advertising its program to teachers and schools. 

BAE Systems Australia CEO Ben Hudson justified the project, saying “At a time when the number of STEM students across Australia is falling, industry needs to step up to inspire more students to remain in STEM subjects so they might consider an exciting career solving some of the world’s biggest challenges. Our goal with this program is to promote diversity and inclusion in STEM on a national scale, to keep students engaged in their education and raise awareness of future career opportunities.”

Under the heading “Sign up your school for our new STEM outreach program”, one ad takes you to this BAE page with a list of questions “you might be looking for the answers to” such as “What is a wearable cockpit?” and “How do ‘stealth’ planes avoid radar detection?”.  There is also a link to teacher resources that include activities based around popular children’s stories. For example, an activity based on Hansel and Gretel encourages students to design a parachute or similar object and land it on a target area inside the witch’s house in order to help Hansel and Gretel escape.  The activity pages are colourful and branded with the BAE Systems name. 

Another ad is headed “Calling all Primary School STEM Teachers!” It takes teachers to the same BAE page.

What can be done?

Some branches of the AEU have policies that seek to prevent arms manufacturers having these sorts of relationships with schools. But with schools strapped for cash and resources, it cannot be left to education workers alone to take decisions arising from the ethics of the involvement of arms manufacturers in schools.

Parents and communities should also demand that there be no mentoring or preparation of students below the age of adulthood, 18 years, in military-related careers or careers in industries working for or profiteering from the military.

If there is to be greater corporate funding for socially equitable education, then it should only be through increased taxation on overseas-owned and local monopolies, and not by their direct sponsorship of curriculum-related matters.

There should be greater funding for career paths into employment that supports a sustainable future.

BAE Systems is not alone in trying to win favour through school partnerships.  Other major arms manufacturers that have ongoing programs with schools include Raytheon, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman.

To use a metaphor that these companies would understand, it is up to us to stop them slipping beneath the radar and getting away with winning social acceptance of war industries.

 

Kick IAI out of Australia!

 Written by: Nick G. on 27 May 2021

Less than a week after Israel was forced to agree to a ceasefire with Hamas following its vicious attacks on the people of the Gaza Strip, a leading Israeli military company has announced that it will open an office in Australia, and promote its wares at a weapons fair that is only a week away.

Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI)

• Provides surveillance technology for Israel's illegal wall that cuts deep into the occupied West Bank territory, expanding Israel’s theft of Palestinian land and resources.

• Produces the armor for the Caterpillar D9 bulldozer, largely used to demolish Palestinian homes and farms.

• Produces technology for fighter jets and the Heron TP, Israel's biggest drone that includes strike capacity and was used repeatedly in the attacks on Gaza.

 

It is is Israel’s major aerospace and defense manufacturer.

 

According to an announcement released today on the Australia-Pacific Defence Reporter website, “IAI looks forward to participating in the Land Forces Exhibition 2021 (June 1-3, Queensland, Australia). During the Land Forces exhibition, IAI will present a variety of land solutions such as end-to-end and cutting-edge sensors for force protection. Furthermore, IAI will present awareness solutions including information gathering reconnaissance, surveillance, communication as well as a selection of loitering munitions capabilities.” 

 

A loitering munition (also known as a suicide drone or kamikaze drone) is a weapon system category in which the munition “loiters” around the target area for some time, searches for targets, and attacks once a target is located. The image above is of IAI’s Harop loitering munition.

 

AIA already has a partnership with Australian-based company BIS (formerly Brambles and now privately-owned by US private equity companies Carlyle and Varde) to produce equipment and systems for autonomous mining operations (that is, operations that don’t require workers). 

 

There is little time to organise against IAI or the arms fair, but Australian friends of Palestine must find ways to oppose IAI’s presence in Australia, and any cooperation between it and the Australian military.