MORE INFO ABOUT UNITED DEFENSE = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Posted on www.fnss.com: President and CEO: Thomas W. Rabaut Mailing Address: 1525 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 700, Arlington, VA Total employees: 5,700 Total sales: $1.2 billion Web Site: wwwuniteddefense.com United Defense is a leading manufacturer and supplier of armored combat vehicles and weapons delivery systems for American and- allied armed forces. UNITED DEFENSE BECAME A PRIVATE COMPANY IN 1997 WHEN THE CARLYE GROUP PURCHASED THE LIMITED PARTNERSHIP INTERESTS OF FMC CORPORATION AND HARSCO CORPORATION. The two companies had merged their half-century old defense businesses in 1994 to form a limited partnership. As a private company, United Defense continues the customer service, which gained its excellent reputation for affordable, quality products. Its extensive product line encompasses nearly all of the armored, tracked combat and combat support vehicles of the U.S. ground forces and critical gun and missile launching systems for U.S. naval forces. United Defense has an extensive product line. The Bradley Fighting Vehicle forms the core of American mechanized forces. Its combat value was proven in the 1990 Gulf War. Although production of new vehicles stopped in 1995, upgrades and remanufacturing still make it the best fighting vehicle in the world. The new A3 version offers capabilities for lethality and information dominance, surpassing older versions. Bradley is becoming a true family of systems with other variants such as command and control vehicles, battle command vehicles, air defense, fire support, and medical treatment vehicles. The M113 armored personnel carrier (more than 85,000 produced since 1960) is still in service around the world. The Mg armored combat earthmover; the M88A2 improved recovery vehicle, and the Grizzly counter-mine, counter-obstacle-breaching system assist the battlefield mission with their unique capabilities. CRUSADER, THE ADVANCED FIELD ARTILLERY SYSTEM, WILL REVOLUTIONIZE THE BATTLEFIELD WITH ITS RANGE, LETHALITY, AND COMMAND AND CONTROL FEATURES. Paladin will serve the artillery mission well until Crusader is fielded. Resupply Vehicles, Fire Direction Centers, Fire Support Team Vehicles, and Air Defense Vehicles also support artillery missions. = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Posted on wsws.com, May 16, 2002. The Crusader affair: A military-corporate oligarchy out of control By Patrick Martin The controversy over the proposed cancellation of the Army's new self-propelled artillery piece, the Crusader, sheds light on a fundamental characteristic of contemporary America: the increasingly brazen role of the military and corporate elite in dictating the policies of the US government. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld officially announced the cancellation of the Crusader at a news conference May 8, after a week of mutual backstabbing between two forces usually closely allied: the Bush administration and the congressional Republican leadership. The next day the House Armed Services Committee voted to retain $475 million in the Pentagon budget to fund the artillery system, and the full House followed suit a few hours later, including Crusader in the $383 billion bill authorizing the military's 2003-2004 budget. . . . United Defense Industries (UDI), manufacturer of the Crusader, would appear to be overmatched in a struggle against the likes of Lockheed-Martin or Northrop-Grumman. But it has an advantage which goes beyond the support of the Oklahoma congressional delegation: it is controlled by perhaps the most politically well-connected company in America, the $12 billion Carlyle Group, a private US investment firm headed by former Reagan defense secretary Frank Carlucci. The Carlyle Group employs an array of top former government and military officials, most notably the president's father, former president George H.W. Bush. While it is routine in corporate America to employ former government officials as well-paid lobbyists, Carlyle enrolls many as equity partners. It has made multimillionaires of Carlucci, former secretary of state James Baker, and former Bush budget director Richard Darman. Its stable also includes former Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Arthur Levitt, former British Prime Minister John Major and former Philippines president Fidel Ramos. Among its major investors, until their presence became an embarrassment last fall, were members of the bin Laden family of Saudi Arabia. United Defense Industries followed the example of its corporate parent, hiring three retired military officers as consultants or directors. William A. Owens was former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, J.H. Binford Peay III was an Army general and commander-in-chief of Central Command, while John M. Shalikashvili, also an Army general, is former chairman of the Joint Chiefs. UDI has proved to be a bonanza for Carlyle and its well-heeled investors since Carlyle created it in 1997 in a leveraged buyout that combined two older defense contractors, FMC Corp. and Harsco. By one estimate, Carlyle has turned a $173 million investment into dividends, capital gains and stockholdings worth $900 million in only five years. The relationship between the Carlyle Group's profiteering and the Bush administration's "war on terrorism" is particularly crass. Five weeks after the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Carlyle announced it would launch an initial public offering for United Defense Industries. In a prospectus filed last October 22 with the Securities and Exchange Commission, UDI declared: "The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, have generated strong Congressional support for increased defense spending..... We believe that domestic and international defense spending will grow over the next several years as a result of an increased focus on national security by the US government and its allies." On December 13, 2001, the House and Senate completed passage of the Defense Authorization Bill, which provided full funding for the Crusader and several other weapons contracts with UDI. The next day UDI went public, and company President and Chief Executive Thomas Rabaut was invited to ring the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange to celebrate the new initial public offering. The stock soared, and Carlyle raked in more than $237 million in that single day. A month later, the Bush administration released its fiscal 2003 budget, with another $475 million earmarked for Crusader. UDI's stock hit $30 a share. But since the effort to cancel the weapons system became public, the share price has fallen to under $22. Little wonder that UDI declared, in response to Rumsfeld's announcement that the Crusader would be shut down, that it would carry the fighronicle, Sunday, March 23, 2003. Score of area businesses feed military machine's need for gear by David R. Baker, Todd Wallack, Carrie Kirby, Chronicle Staff Writers . . . Bay Area's largest defense companies Company name Location Type of work 2002 Bucks (in millions) ------------ ---------------- --------- --------- Lockheed Martin Sunnyvale Missile/satellites $2,269 Bechtel San Francisco Construction 206 United Defense Santa Clara Tank development 155 = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = >From "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy" by Greg Palast, p. 145 of the hardcover edition. "Carlye is a holding and investment bank which, through its ownership of United Technologies and other arms makers, has become one of America's top defense contractors. It also has the distinction of having had both Bush pere and fils as paid retaininers. In 1999, the elder Bush traveled to Saudi Arabia as a Carlyle representative. JAMES BAKER, Bush the First's pro-Saudi Secretary of State, works for Carlyle; its chairman is FRANK CARLUCCI, Bush Sr's former defense secretary. The Bin Laden family held a stake in the secretive private company until just after the September 11 attack.