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The arms sales outfit hidden within the MoD
SOLOMON HUGHES uses FoI requests to discover how the Ministry of Defence has been made into both a salesperson and a customer for bombs, rockets, jets and other bits of kit
[Brett Hondow/Creative Commons]

THE Ministry of Defence (MoD) is so keen on selling British weapons to other countries — especially oil-rich Gulf dictatorships — that it has grown a new, powerful arms-sales unit.

Many people assume the MoD’s main duty is running the armed forces for wars and emergencies (like our current Covid-19 crisis), but it is also a keen seller of arms. 

This distorts defence policy and means there is an additional pro-arms sales department at the heart of government.

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