The St Athan Defence Training Academy: the future of British education?

latest SGR Newsletter : Autumn *2008*

The St Athan Defence Training Academy: the future of
British education?

Stuart Tannock discusses the disturbing implications
of the Ministry of Defence's new multi-billion pound
training academy.

Britain's largest education and technology investment
project in recent memory has been developing quietly
under the public's radar. It is time we paid attention.
In January 2007, the Ministry of Defence awarded an £11
billion contract to the private Metrix Consortium
(see Box) to build a massive new training centre for the
British armed forces at the village of
St Athan in the Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales.

St Athan, which is expected to become one of the world's
biggest military training establishments when it opens
 in 2013, will provide specialist training in engineering,
communications and information systems technology
to all three services of the British military. For the
first time, it will centralise in one location military
training that is currently done in sites
across the country.

Supporters of St Athan emphasise that the Academy will
use state-of-the-art technology and training methods
such as neurolinguistic programming, e-learning technologies,
computer-based training, computer-aided instruction,
emulation, simulation and Web-based systems. St Athan, they
claim, "breathes life into the classroom of the future
model which for many years now has been anticipated by
futurologists and thought leaders in the education community."
St Athan represents a "model for training in this
country" that will enable Britain to realise Lord Leitch's
vision of gaining "world leadership in skills."

Why should any of this worry us? There is the fundamental
question of why we should support such a massive outlay of
taxpayer money on a military that is still involved in
fighting an illegal war in Iraq – and in a country,
Britain, that already boasts the world's second-largest
military budget.Beyond this, St Athan represents three
developments which should be attracting extended public
and political debate, but which instead have
received little attention, beyond a small, local campaign
against the Academy that sprung up in Wales after the
project was first announced.

First, St Athan is part of a political project of
privatising the British armed forces, and turns over
responsibility for military training to a private, for-profit
consortium. At a time when, across the Atlantic, US Congress
is holding investigations into abuses perpetrated by private
military companies such as Blackwater in Iraq, Britain is
rushing headlong down the same path of military privatisation
that the USA has gone down before. This privatisation,
moreover, makes the British government a direct
partner of one of the world's largest and most controversial
arms dealers,Raytheon, which is a core member of the St
Athan Metrix Consortium.

Second, St Athan represents a major leap forward in Britain's
participation in the global arms trade. The Metrix business
model for maximising profits at St Athan is to maximise the
amount of training it provides, through serving not just the
British military but militaries from around the world.
Between 2002 and 2005, the Ministry of Defence provided
military training to more than 12,000 personnel from 137
countries, many with poor human rights records.  With
St Athan, this trade promises only to increase.

Third, St Athan represents another step up in the ongoing
militarisation of British education. The Open University –
whose Vice-Chancellor, Brenda Gourley, claims that
universities should be "beacons that reflect the very
best of which the human spirit is capable"  – is a
direct partner in the Metrix Consortium. Schools around
the Vale of Glamorgan are making plans to train local
youth for jobs at the St Athan Academy, while colleges and
universities across South Wales, which have already
been extensively militarised over the past decade,
are exploring new Academy contract tie-ins. 

Indeed, one reason why we shouldn't expect Cardiff
University, the premier institution of research and
learning in the region, to lead any critical investigation
into the St Athan project is that, in 2005, it signed
a long-term strategic research partnership with QinetiQ,
another core member of the Metrix Consortium.

Promoters of the St Athan Defence Training Academy
claim that it represents the future of education
in Britain. Without public investigation, debate and
critique of St Athan and other military research
and education projects across the country, there is
a strong possibility that this will come true.
If it does, it will not be for the better of Britain
or anywhere else in the world.

Raytheon 'war profiteers'?

UVM anti-war group pushes divestment BurlingtonFreePress.com, VT - 13 May 2008

Halliburton, General Dynamics and Raytheon were asked last week to respond to their characterization as "war profiteers." Raytheon did not reply. ...

why is the OU so willing to get in to bed with War profiteers?

Academy link aim for new school plan

Apr 8 2008 by Peter Collins, South Wales Echo

LONG-AWAITED plans for a much-needed new school in Llantwit Major will be drawn up this summer with the aim of helping to prepare pupils for jobs at the multi-billion-pound Defence Training Academy in St Athan.
(What Jobs?)
The redevelopment plan at Llantwit Major Comprehensive School is part of a multi-million- pound school investment strategy
Consultants are carrying out design work for a new school at Cowbridge Comprehensive School and a planning application is expected to be put before councillors later this year.
Meanwhile, initial design work to replace St Cyres Comprehensive School, in Penarth, has started with a full scheme due to be ready by the second half of next year.
Bryan Jeffreys, the Vale of Glamorgan Council’s director of learning and development, said: “At Llantwit Major, initial design work is planned for later this year.
“The intention is to link the redevelopment of Llantwit Major school with the roll-out of the Ministry of Defence Training Academy at St Athan. The School Investment Strategy is a priority.”
The role of schools, colleges and universities in providing skilled workers for the academy is seen as vital to its success.
However, academy opponents have called for the Open University in Wales to sever links with the academy. The Open University is part of the Metrix consortium, which made the successful academy bid.

Call for OU to quit St Athan consortium

Call for OU to quit St Athan consortium
ic Wales, United Kingdom - 3 Mar 2008 Peter Collins South Wales Echo
Members of the “No to the Military Academy” campaign have staged a demonstration outside the Cardiff offices of the OU as part of the National Day of Action ...

http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/news/cardiff-news/vale-glamorgan-news/2008/03/03/call-for-ou-to-quit-st-athan-consortium-91466-20545572/

OPPONENTS of St Athan’s defence training academy have called on the Open University in Wales to withdraw from the consortium behind the project.

The OU is a member of the Metrix consortium, which also includes multi-national training and research companies like Raytheon and Qinetiq, which made the successful bid for the multi-billion-pound academy to be built at RAF St Athan in the Vale of Glamorgan.

Members of the “No to the Military Academy” campaign have staged a demonstration outside the Cardiff offices of the OU as part of the National Day of Action for University Ethical Investment.

Anne Greagsby, spokeswoman for the campaign, said: “The proposed military training academy at St Athan will be built and run by a consortium which includes multinational arms companies. It will train not only British service personnel, but those from any regime or private military company willing to pay. We call on them the OU to withdraw.”

Rob Humphreys, director of the OU in Wales, met the campaigners outside his offices for a “useful and amicable discussion”.

He added: “As a partner in the consortium, the Open University is committed to delivering the highest quality support to this endeavour.

“The university has helped more than 100,000 services personnel and their families fulfil their potential through education. Participation in the St Athan project will help us to continue that work.”

Open University collusion with Arms Dealers

The Open university is a key partner in the Metrix Consortium.

What is the Metrix Consortium doing?

Creating a proposed military training academy at St Athan which will be built and run by a consortium which includes major multinational arms companies, and will train not only British service personnel, but those from any regime or private military company that can fork out the ready cash. The whole St Athan project has a bitter cold heart. It addresses a future where international conflict can only be solved by violence, accepts the widespread death and maiming, misery and suffering caused to innocent people by militarism and ignores the permanent environmental damage caused by wars and conflict. It does nothing to deliver the Wales that people in this country want – a Wales that honestly addresses global warming and other environmental problems, champions human rights, teaches our children that violence solves nothing, does not invest in the arms trade, encourages valuable, long term employment and delivers decent public services.

Raytheon is one of the world’s largest producers and dealers of weapons of mass destruction. Raytheon produces cluster bombs, bunker buster bombs, depleted uranium weapons, nuclear missiles, thermobaric weapons, and the Silent Guardian Heat Ray, criticised by Amnesty International and the UN Rapporteur on torture for its “potential to be used for torture and ill treatment” Raytheon is a major arms exporter, selling weapons to countries such as Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Indonesia. Raytheon Cluster Bomb Boast In fact, Raytheon itself says that it is a manufacturer of cluster bombs. To this very day, Raytheon continues to advertise its cluster bombs on its corporate website.

UNETHICAL INVESTMENT

Recently we learnt that the Norwegian Government pension fund has dropped a further three companies involved in producing nuclear weapons or cluster munitions in addition to Raytheon, Serco, another Metrix partner, is dropped. I call on the Welsh Assembly government to have a full investigation of Raytheon's role in producing cluster bombs and other weapons of mass destruction. I challenge Rhodri Morgan to tell us why he was so keen to work with Raytheon.”

Other Metrix partners include EDS and QinetiQ. EDS is the company responsible for messing up the Child Support Agency and the Inland Revenue's Tax Credits systems and for the disastrous unworkable MOD new computerised payroll system. Mark Serwotka, PCS general secretary, said: "It is astounding that the MoD is prepared to reward failure by handing over billions more pounds of taxpayers' money to a consortium that has failed to deliver what it said it would.”

QinetiQ, the privatised and research and development wing of the MOD, one of Britain’s most blatant war profiteers, was recently heavily criticised by the National Audit Office.

Already half the St Athan White Elephant (package 2) has been has been dumped by the government as too expensive. Politicians have been promising thousands of jobs – for which there is no firm basis in truth. PCS - the union that represents many MOD staff who also oppose the privatisation of military training - says the predicted number of jobs in package one has fallen from 1500 to 1100.

What did Raytheon actually have to say on the subject?

“Raytheon has never manufactured cluster bombs, but in the past we have been associated with their manufacture because of our contract to produce a missile that can carry different types of munition payloads, determined by the customer. One configuration allowed it to carry cluster bomb payloads, which were not produced by Raytheon. But in any case, Raytheon has completed its contracted production run for this particular missile, and we have no plans to resume production.”

In other words - yes, we made the delivery system for cluster bombs. Of course we knew the delivery system would be used for this purpose. But we’re not making any more at present because the US and Israeli air forces have enough to continue maiming civilians for the foreseeable future.

Norwegian government pension fund & Serco

http://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/stories/2008/01/07/daily56.html

http://news.monstersandcritics.com/business/news/article_1386050.php/State_pension_fund_sells_shares_in_munitions_companies

SERCO http://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/gen/company.html?gcode=CA7E1AC425FD42A2A539900C67B6705D

Norwegian government on Raytheon

Recommendation on Exclusion of Cluster Weapons from the Government Petroleum Fund Oslo, 16 June 2005

...Corp, L3 Communications Holdings Inc, Raytheon Co, Lockheed Martin Corp, Alliant Techsystems...from the Government Petroleum Fund. Raytheon Company produces, according to its own web-site, 3 http://www.raytheon.com/products/stellent/groups/public..

PCS DEFENCE INSTRUCTIONAL OFFICERS

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=9629850934

EDS http://metrixconsortium.blogspot.com/2007/12/eds-coporate-incompetance.html