United Kingdom

In June this year, the UK will celebrate its annual Armed Forces Day, a national day of celebration praising British troops and their role in the world. The chosen town for the focus point of national activity, with members of the royal family visiting, an enormous parade and a military themed family fun-fair, is the medieval and heavily militarised town of Salisbury. While the national event is always the biggest, smaller events take place across the whole of the UK.

The British foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt has urged Germany to end it’s ban of weapons exports to Saudi Arabia. Hunt has written to his counterpart Heiko Maas, and described how the ban is impacting British companies ability to fulfil their own contracts with Saudi Arabia on a visit to Berlin to discuss Brexit.

This November, many activists from around the world took action against the militarisation of young people in their countries, cities and towns. This was part of a global action: the International Week of Action Against the Militarisation of Youth. Initiated by War Resisters' International, the week was held for the 5th time this year. 

A new report reveals that the British Ministry of Defence (MoD) is actively funding research into technology supporting the development of armed autonomous drones.

Next week (12-18 November) is the International Week of Action Against the Militarisation of Youth. For the fifth time, activists from across different countries will be organising events to raise awareness on how the military and military values are promoted to young people, and how we can challenge it.

In the United Kingdom, campaigners have been resisting arms fairs being held in their cities. In Glasgow, dozens of activists held noisy protests outside the Undersea Defence Technology exhibition and conference, held at the cities Scottish Events Campus (SEC). In Farnborough and London, activists protested against the Farnborough International Airshow - biannual, week-long event, combining a public air show with an international trade show attended by military delegations from all over the world.

On Thursday 2nd August, over 40 artists descended on the Design Museum in London to remove their submissions. The artists and activists who contributed pieces to the exhibition were protesting against the museum hosting an event that facilitated the arms trade.

Activists in Germany and the UK organised actions during public military days in their countries.

A new report from Corruption Watch UK covers a number of corruption scandals involving the Italian arms company Leonardo.

Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) have been granted permission to continue to pursue it's legal case against the British government regarding arms sales to Saudi Arabia. On 4th May two Court of Appeal judges granted CAAT permission to appeal, and the case will be heard by the Court of Appeal in the months ahead.

Elbit Systems, an “international defence electronics company” is Israel's largest weapons producer. Through it's subsidiaries around the world, the company produces a wide variety of high-tech products for the military and security industry.

On Monday 9th April ‘The People’s Weapons Inspectors’ blocked the gates of arms manufacturer Roxel in the UK, and attempted to inspect the site. The inspectors believe that the site is supplying weapons components that could be used by the Saudi Arabian military to commit war crimes against the people of Yemen.