Wasted skills
The Government and BAE use 'jobs' to justify indiscriminate arms selling because it is the one justification that the UK public is inclined to accept.
BAE does employ many workers with valuable skills. But this is not an argument for continuing to throw public money at the company, but rather one for funding areas that will make a beneficial use of these skills. The money should be being spent on projects that genuinely benefit the security and economy of the country, with the most obvious candidate being renewable energy technologies.
1) The bottom line is that BAE's workers are paid for by taxpayers
Procurement: equipment for the armed forces is paid for by taxpayers.
Research and Development: BAE makes great play of its high-tech work and its Research and Development, but in 2010 80% of this was funded directly by "customers", i.e. governments. Its 2010 R&D expenditure was £1,298 million of which £270 million was funded by the Group (BAE Annual Report 2010, p.35).
Exports: arms exports are subsidised. In the words of the Financial Times' Alan Beattie,
You can have as many arms export jobs as you are prepared to waste public money subsidising.
Financial Times, 10 August 2010
2. Spending public money on areas other than arms will create at least equivalent numbers of jobs
In response to a report from the Defence Industries Council, the Financial Times stated that
Financial Times, September 2009
Research in the US found that for each billion dollars spent on the military 8,555 jobs were created, while the same sum created 17,687 jobs in education and 19,795 in mass transit (other sectors are also given). The average pay for a mass transit worker was lower than for military spending but the pay for education workers was higher. The study did not cover renewable technologies.
3. The skills required for renewable technology are extremely similar to those in the arms sector, and there is an engineering skills shortage
Dept. for Business, Innovation & Skills, 13 July 2011
Perhaps the most telling comment has been provided by the arms industry itself. In September 2010, the President of General Dynamics UK (also Vice President-Defence of the arms industry's trade association) was trying to make the case for continued high spending on arms. He told the parliamentary Defence Committee that
Evidence to the Defence Cttee, 8 September 2010
Taking a more positive approach, Barry Warburton, the CEO of the West of England Aerospace Forum, said of last year's MoD budget cuts,
and
Insider, 1 November 2010
4. The renewables market is already large and, unlike the stagnant arms market, is growing swiftly and has massive potential
The introductory paragraph for a Jane's conference that took place in May 2011 states
Despite all the support which it receives from the Government, BAE's UK workforce is in long-term decline and its role in the UK economy is unexceptional. Jane's Defence Weekly (20 April 2011) projects that BAE's military manufacturing employment will decrease from the March 2011 figure of 32,700 to 18,900 in 2015.
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