The U.K Defence Industry Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

The U.K Defence Industry - Essay Example Defence exports of the nation are worth almost  £5 billion on an average every year (The Telegraph, 2014). In the recent years however the share of government spending upon defence equipments have fell from 10% to 5%. The nation has had 21% share in the defence export market on a global scale from the year 2005 to 2010 (The Telegraph, 2014).The presence of a well developed export market has facilitated the creation of 65,000 jobs in the nation (Brauer and Dunne, 2004). The defence industry of the U.K successfully contributes  £12 billion value addition to the nation’s economy (The Telegraph, 2014). The major challenges faced by the industry are to work in alliance with the government, to assist reformation of the procurement processes, to encourage authorities to spend more on research and reform and to further develop the export capabilities. The Ministry Of Defence of the U.K is seen to follow an open competition policy (Neuman, 2006). The figure below shows some of the largest firms of the U.K in the defence industry in terms of revenue. Companies such as Rolls-Royce, Smiths Group Plc and BAE Systems rely on exports for their growth. Many such U.K based defence companies are looking towards selling their products in the emerging markets of the world which provide a greater opportunity for earning profits than the developed nations. The current paper analyses the general business and completion of three important defence firms of the U.K, namely Rolls-Royce, Smiths Group Plc and BAE Systems (Global Security, 2014). Rolls-Royce is the 16th largest contractor of defence equipments in the world (Neuman, 2006). The company is one of the pioneers in providing defence goods and services and caters to fulfilling the defence equipments and parts needs of many nations of the world.

Use of military drones in civilian operations and law enforcement and Research Paper

Use of military drones in civilian operations and law enforcement and the impact this will have in regards to the 1st and 4th Amendments of the United States - Research Paper Example In addition, their deployment assists in preventing â€Å"boots on the ground† war, hence making the US safer (Boon & Lovelace, 2014). Opponents on the other hand claim that drones lead to the emergence of more terrorists than the ones they kill. They further argue that drone strikes murder large numbers of innocent civilians, violating international law, are not under adequate congressional supervision, grossly infringes on the sovereignty of other countries in addition to making the terrors of war look as harmless as a video game(Mathews,2013). The most popular form of Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicles (UCAVs)-which basically are Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) armed with combat abilities-is the General Atomics MQ-1 Predator. Predators were for the first time deployed to Afghanistan nearly instantly after the terrorists attacks of Sept.11, 2001.In addition, predators carried out their initial ever armed operation in 7th October 2001 in Afghanistan. The General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper, which is a bigger UCAV, has the capability of hauling a higher payload and has been in service from 2007. The Joint Special Operation Command (JSOC) and CIA are presently jointly administering the current program. These drones are usually deployed in such countries as Yemen, Somali and Pakistan. Strikes in Pakistan for instance have been happening from 2004 and intensified in pace from the beginning of 2008 summer. Apart from a Yemen strike in November 2002, the Yemen and Somalia campaigns started in 2011.In addition, there have been accounts of st rikes occurring in the Philippines, however, the information there is unclear. Additionally, there have done that have been deployed in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya as part of America’s more conservative military operations in those nations (Boon & Lovelace, 2014). Predator drones are capable of carrying up to 2 Hellfire missiles, having warheads of around 20 pounds,