Sensitive military technology used by Britain and its allies is being offered for sale on the open market after a storage company used by a contractor went into liquidation, The Times can reveal.
Senior defence figures have warned that next week’s auction could pose a threat to national security, with the contents of a Norfolk warehouse, including components from helicopter defence systems and anti-roadside bomb “electronic armour”, due to go under the hammer.
They were placed into storage run by Used Equipment Surplus & Storage Limited (UES&S) on behalf of the Italian defence giant Leonardo and its clients, which include the British Army and Royal Navy.
Leonardo said the items were meant to be disposed of but they are instead due to be sold after a legal dispute between the two businesses put UES&S into liquidation last year.
Items for sale include several Guardian anti-IED jammers, which are used to counter radio-operated roadside bombs, and equipment used on Eurofighter jets and military helicopters to defend against hostile threats.
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Lord West of Spithead, former head of the Royal Navy, said he would be very nervous about them being sold on the open market. “There are items there that one wouldn’t want getting into the wrong hands because they can pull them apart and look at them,” he said. “I can think of a lot of al-Qaeda and Daesh people who would love to know how our anti-IED systems work.”
Lord Richards of Herstmonceux, former head of the armed forces, called for the Ministry of Defence to conduct a detailed examination of the items left at the warehouse, adding: “It does appear to risk our security.”
The entire contents of the warehouse are being put up for sale on February 6 because the liquidator says it has a duty to realise the highest possible value. An open day for buyers has been held, with another scheduled this week.
Andrew Feinstein, chief executive of Corruption Watch, an independent monitoring organisation, said that he was shocked by the equipment being sold because some was “still in use by British forces in areas of conflict”.
An MoD spokesman said it had conducted several site inspections but had “not found or been shown any sensitive equipment”. It said that “all our contractors follow strict security regulations when storing military equipment, and we have no reason to believe this has been breached”. However, defence sources admitted that MoD personnel had not been aware of the sensitive items until they were contacted by The Times. A Whitehall source said that “if the list [of sensitive items] had been sent across at any point, obviously we wouldn’t have sat on our hands”.
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Leonardo has offered to remove the contents of the warehouse and destroy them but has refused to pay for the items. It has warned the auctioneer that he could be breaking the Official Secrets Act or the Export Control Act.
The company has acknowledged in emails to the auctioneer that “a quantity of the equipment passed to UES&S for disposal will have held a classification of up to RESTRICTED”. It said this will have been owned by the MoD, other governments and, in some cases, by Leonardo directly.
Peter Hazell, the auctioneer, said that he had sought clarification from the MoD and Leonardo over whether assets were sensitive but “this has not been forthcoming”.
Leonardo said UES&S had “assumed responsibility for the legal disposal or scrapping” of the material. It said the liquidator now had “legal responsibility to care for the equipment” and to comply with the law. The company also said it and the MoD were “fully aware of the location and status of the equipment”.
