A five-month trial of seven British men accused of plotting to smuggle liquid explosives onto transatlantic airlines in August 2006, so as to blow them up in mid-flight, ended in September. The jury was unable to convict the seven on the most serious charges, leading prosecutors to say they would apply for a re-trial. The jury had found three of the seven guilty of the lesser charge of ‘conspiring to kill’ using liquid explosives, but was not convinced of the case that they had specifically sought to blow up the airliners on flights to the US and Canada from London’s Heathrow airport. No verdict was reached on the four other men, and an eighth man was acquitted of all charges. The Director of Public Prosecutions said that an application would be made to retry the defendants on all counts, including a count that each defendant had ‘conspired to detonate improvised explosive devices on transatlantic passenger aircraft’.

After the plot was discovered in 2006, investigators suggested that if successful it would have been as big or bigger, in term of loss of life, as the September 11 2001 attacks in the United States. The trial heard that a memory stick owned by one of the suspects had details of flights from Heathrow to the US and Canada departing in August and October 2006. The bombs would have been made from mixing hydrogen peroxide with an organic substance such as tang, which is used to make soft drinks. The three defendants who were convicted (Abdulla Ahmed Ali, Assad Sarwar, and Tanvin Hussain) admitted that they planned to carry out an attack, but said it was a publicity stunt against US and UK policy in Iraq, and that they did not intend to blow up the airliners. The prosecution case was weakened by the fact that there was no evidence that a bomb had been made or that airline tickets had been bought.

There are currently no major conventional military threats to the UK. However, the country’s fear of an international terrorist attack remains high; before the mid-2007 scare provoked by failed attacks in London and Glasgow, memories remain fixed on July 7 2005, when four bombs were detonated across London’s transport system. A similar attack was launched two weeks later but the bombs failed to explode, signalling the organisation’s commitment to continue its campaign on British soil.

The defence industry is benefiting from a range of multinational programmes and major procurement projects within the UK. Rationalisation and internationalisation of the industry continue, and the announcement of an agreement over the second tranche of the Eurofighter’s Typhoon is good news for the British defence industry and employment levels generally. So too is confirmation of the order for two new 65,000-tonne aircraft carriers, which will be the largest warships ever built in the UK. The MoD also made a large number of procurements during 2006-2007, reflecting the UK’s continued commitment to the US-led war on terror. Plans to restructure the defence industry to meet the long-term needs of the armed forces could lead to the UK becoming less sensitive to where platforms and systems are built.

Involvement in multinational programmes is expected to increase UK arms exports over coming years.

These projects should enable UK firms to gain defence contracts for the supply of components, subsystems and structures. Regardless of the strength of the UK defence industry, there are perpetual reports that the British armed forces deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan are inadequately equipped – as such, a significant domestic demand exists should the funds be found.