05/11/2007

Raytheon makes cluster bombs..now called SUBMUNITIONS

Explosive Investments Financial Institutions and Cluster MunitionsBriefing Paper by Netwerk Vlaanderen February 2007
Explosive investments

Raytheon (USA) produces the AGM154 Joint Standoff weapon (JSOW), an air-delivered bomb with some cluster munition variants. For example the AGM154A, the standard version, contains 145 BLU-97/B sub munitions. Also the Tomahawk cruise missile has amongst its variants a submunition warhead.(5)
(5) Website Raytheon (http://www.raytheon.com/), Viewed in February 2007.

The Norwegian Parliament considers that cluster weapons are in violation of fundamental humanitarian principles by breaching the principle of distinction between military and civilian targets. Other weapon systems excluded under these ethical guidelines are anti-personnel mines, nuclear weapons, chemical and biological weapons, incendiary weapons and blinding laser weapons.In the summer of 2005 the Fund excluded eight companies from its portfolio because they were considered to manufacture key components for cluster bombs. These companies are: Alliant Techsystems, EADS, EADS Finance, General Dynamics, L3 Communications, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and Thales. Disinvestment from these companies totalled almost NOK 2.2 billion (€ 271.8 million)

KBCKBC is a Belgium-based bank-insurance group with € 196 billion assets under management. In 2004 they worked out a policy on investments in the weapon industry. They decided to stop any investments in anti-personnel mines, chemical weapons, uranium weapons and cluster munitions. KBC argues “these weapons have caused great suffering to innocent civilians”.Their policy is applicable to all their activities including commercial banking, asset management and investment banking. KBC has not only worked out a clear and concrete policy, it has also implemented this policy in a strict and thorough way. In 2006 they updated their black list resulting in a publicly available list of nineteen weapon producers. KBC mentions seventeen of them as producers of cluster munitions: Aerostar, Alliant Techsystems, Aselsan, BAE Systems, EADS, Finmecanicca, Gencorp, General Dynamics, Honeywell, L-3 Communications, Lockheed Martin, Magellan Aerospace, Northrop Grumman, Poongsan, Raytheon, Rheinmetall and Thales. Singapore Technologies Engineering and Textron are excluded on the grounds of involvement in anti-personnel mines.

INSYS is contracted by the MoD to support the Royal Air Force's arsenal of RBL755s (INSYS's former incarnation, Hunting Engineering, manufactured the BL755). IMI is reported to be the manufacturer of the L20 Extended Range Cluster Shell used by the Royal Artillery. RAYTHEON is the prime contractor for the Tomahawk cruise missile and the JSOW AGM-154, both of which deliver BLU/97B submunitions (cluster bombs).'The final incriminating piece of evidence tying up RAYTHEON, the Israeli air force's terror campaign in Lebanon and its use of cluster ammunition comes from an Indymedia source:http://dc.indymedia.org/newswire/display/134864/index.php

The Cluster bomb feeling documentary on investment of Dutch pension fund in arms industryBanking Secrets documentary on investments of Dutch banks in arms industry and other dodgy projects.
Cluster bombs – Skeet warhead - The BLU-108 is capable of integration into a number of weapon systems:
BQM-109 Tomahawk, Raytheon Systems
SM-2 Land Attack STANDARD Missile, Raytheon Systems
MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS). Lockheed Martin
AGM-84H Standoff Land Attack Missile - Expanded Response (SLAMER), Boeing
AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM), Lockheed Martin

More information

(WO/2005/019764) MISSILE SYSTEM WITH MULTIPLE SUBMUNITIONS
A multi-staged missile (10) includes a booster (12) and a submunition delivery vehicle (14) that...www.wipo.org/pctdb/en/wo.jsp?wo=2005019764

Cluster bomb - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Some submunition based weapons can disperse non-munition payloads, such as leaflets .....

- Dumb Bombs
Submunitions are classified as either bomblets, grenades, or mines. ... Each of these delivery...

Friends of Lebanon M85 Submunition Cluster Bomb Petition
A petition to ban the manufacture and use of M85 submunition cluster bomb.

Hundreds of millions of people affected by 440 million cluster ...
Ninety-eight percent of cluster submunitions casualties are civilians killed and injured while...

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