Labour & Elbit's £2 Billion Military Deal
September 3, 2025 | By Andrew Feinstein, Paul Holden and Jack Cinamon
Andrew Feinstein, Paul Holden and Jack Cinamon challenge why Israel's largest arms firm and a company mired in a corruption scandal are even being considered for training British troops.
Britain's Ministry of Defence might imminently award a 15-year contract, worth £2.5bn, to a consortium headed by the British subsidiary of the Israeli arms firm Elbit Systems and including the U.S. management consultancy firm, Bain and Company.
If successful, Elbit's consortium would be responsible for training as many as 60,000 members of the U.K. military.
The consortium seems well-placed to win the contract; it is, in fact, one of only two shortlisted and preferred bidders.
The Ministry of Defence has already given the consortium a £2m contract so that it can develop its proposals further.
This is unacceptable. And it is frankly unbelievable that this consortium is even in the running considering its track record.
Elbit Systems UK is the fully owned subsidiary of Elbit Systems Limited. Elbit Systems Limited is headquartered in Tel Aviv and is listed on both the Israeli and U.S. stock exchanges.
Elbit is one of the two largest Israeli weapons manufacturers and is central to the IDF's operations, providing 85% of its drones. Elbit International is also a major contributor to the F-35 fighter jet program, bragging that it plays a "critical role" in the "success of the world's most advanced fighter jet."
Francesca Albanese, U.N. special rapporteur on Palestine, April 10, 2024, during an EU Parliament public hearing on Gaza in Brussels. (The Left, Flickr, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
In July 2025, Francesca Albanese, the U.N. Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestine Territories, published an excoriating report setting out corporate complicity in Israel’s "plausibly" genocidal conduct in Gaza – for which she was subsequently sanctioned by Donald Trump.
Her report is clear that Elbit forms a central part of Israel's military-industrial complex, which has become "the economic backbone of [Israel]."
"Elbit has cooperated closely on Israeli military operations, embedding key staff in the Ministry of Defence," Albanese points out, further noting that Elbit provides "a critical domestic supply of weaponry."
Bain
But we're also deeply concerned about Elbit's partner, Bain and Company.
Bain and Company (not to be confused with the mega hedge fund Bain Capital, which confirmed to us that it is not involved in the Elbit consortium) is a U.S.-based management consultancy firm.
Bain's inclusion in the consortium's bid was first reported in 2023 by the U.K. military magazine, Shephard News, based on unpublished behind-the-scenes documents.
Bain has a sordid and shocking history. In August 2022, the Cabinet Office placed Bain and Company on a "blacklist," preventing it from getting any Cabinet Office contracts.
Jacob-Rees Mogg, the Tory Minister then responsible for the decision, explained that he had determined that Bain was "guilty of grave professional misconduct which renders its integrity questionable."
This was because Bain was at the centre of a huge political and corruption scandal in South Africa. It was, in fact, considered to be one of the most damaging and outrageous cases of so-called "state capture" that took place under the scandal-ridden presidency of Jacob Zuma.
State capture involved private actors and businesses colluding with politicians, like Zuma, to "capture" state institutions for corrupt gain.
In 2022, a major judicial commission of inquiry (the Zondo Commission of Inquiry, headed by Chief Justice Raymond Zondo) made damning findings about Bain's conduct in South Africa.
It found that Bain had worked closely with Zuma's acolyte, Tom Moyane, to plot to take over the South African Revenue Service (SARS) – South Africa's version of HMRC (His Majesty's Revenue and Customs).
Bain helped Moyane plan for his first 100 days in charge, while Bain consultants met secretly with Zuma to hatch long-term plans to radically "reform" SARS.
Under Moyane, SARS' well-respected units fighting serious organised economic crime were disemboweled; at the same time, Bain was awarded a lucrative "consultancy" contract. SARS is still recovering.
Please go to Consortium News to continue reading.
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Britain and Israel are tied at the hip tighter than siamese twins. Peter Mandelson is of course the British Ambassador to the US:
They apparently need highly functional $400,000 helmets in order to drop Boeing-manufactured JDMS off the pylons of F-35 aircraft on Gaza targets with pinpoint accuracy from 24,000ft altitude:
Blood sacrifice:
No kidding, you don't say:
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