End Australian complicity in weapons deals with Israel

The known unknowns

Firstly, what we don’t know. How does an obscure engineering firm in Tingala in Brisbane get to be part of the global arms trade with Israel? Sure , we’ve seen the Queensland government laud this new industry as a kind of khaki-led recovery after Queensland missed out on the IT boom. Also, we do not know the exact pathway of how the JDAM bomb parts that are manufactured at Ferra engineering get onto the F35As that have bombed Gaza into annihilation.

The F35 joint strike fighter costs about $A100 million each. The Australian government signed up to participate in its development and to purchase 75 F35s aircraft on 30 October 2002. Israel currently has 50 F35s flying sorties over Palestine and bombing Gaza.

Some of the weapons parts made at Ferra are heat treated at HTA Aerospace & Defense group in Coopers Plains in Brisbane Magan-djin. HTA identifies its key customers to be arms manufacturers, Lockheed Martin, Boeing Military, Northrop Grumman.

The Knowns

What “Fact check: is Australia exporting weapons to Israel” published in the Guardian seems to have missed is that Australia is in lockstep with United States that’s supplies weapons and funds to Israel so that it can ethnically cleanse Palestine.

The other fact that the Guardian misses entirely is that Australia supplies a German company, Rheinmetall, with munitions that end up in Israel. Neither the US, German, nor Australian governments dispute this. The author of this article could do well to read a book called “The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel Exports the Technology of Occupation Around the World”  by Antony Loewenstein.

It is not simply that Australian weapons are being used in the genocide. Both Israel and Australia are exchanging and perfecting weapons that export terror in the Middle East and elsewhere.

It is about time that Australian journalists did a little research and stop peddling denials by Australian governments,  state and federal. The Greens are the only party to have a realistic grasp of how badly this has damaged Australia in the eyes of the world. However, the Greens have been banging away at Australian government involvement in the F35 weapons program for over 10 years (since the days of Senator Scott Ludlum). To little effect. Ludlum resigned in dismay.

We post below an excerpt that appeared first in the Guardian. We include below photographic evidence of weapons manufacture of parts for the F35s mentioned in the article that appeared in the Guardian. The company with exclusive contracts with Lockheed Martin and Boeing is called Ferra Engineering and is located in , eastern suburb of Brisbane in Queensland.

The Evidence

Every F-35 flying worldwide contains weapons adapters produced by Ferra Engineering (source). The company is the sole global provider of the Alternate Mission Equipment (AME) weapon adapters. In delivering this product, Ferra undertakes complex supply chain management and sub-assembly.

Ferra also designs, manufactures and assembles approximately 100 other parts for the F-35 fleet on long term contracts including complex mechanical assemblies. The parts are supplied either directly to Lockheed Martin or through other original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) for on-sale to Lockheed Martin. (Source: Ferra submission to 2016 JSF Australian Senate inquiry.)

Ferra’s growth via the F-35 and other military aerospace program contracts means the company’s supply chain now includes more than 30 Australian-based companies. Ferra supplies the world’s largest military aerospace companies including Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Airbus and Raytheon.

Headquarters: 344 New Cleveland Rd, Tingalpa QLD 4173. +61 (0)7 3907 9800

At least the Guardian article acknowledges that F35 bomb parts are being made here in Australia and that F35As are bombing Gaza. How could they do otherwise with activists exposing their manufacture in these photographs below.

Informed sources have told us that munition shells for artillery used by Israel are manufactured at Rheinmetall  in Maryborough in Queensland.

If people are really interested , there are plenty of articles in these pages about how to get involved in actions against the arms trade with Israel. Just look for Shut-down Ferra

Ian Curr, editor, 14 June 2024

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Are Australian companies supplying parts that go into F-35 fighter aircraft?

Yes. A now-deleted paragraph on a Lockheed Martin website said: “As a programme partner, Australian businesses are supplying components for the entire F-35 fleet, not just Australian aircraft. Every F-35 built contains some Australian parts and components.”

In the latest Senate estimates hearing, defence officials confirmed that Australian businesses continued to contribute to the supply chain for items used in F-35 aircraft, although they stressed this was a longstanding arrangement going back about 20 years and that all such parts were “exported to a central repository in the United States”. To date, they said, Australian companies had “been able to contribute in the global supply chain for the Joint Strike Fighter program to a value now of over $4.6bn”.

In an operational update in November, a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces confirmed F-35 planes were being used to “strike terror targets and assist ground forces in very close proximity strikes”. In February, a Dutch appeals court found it was likely that F-35s were being used in attacks on Gaza, and a “clear risk” that parts exported from the Netherlands were “used in serious violations of international humanitarian law”.

When pressed by the Greens to confirm F-35 fighters were being used to bomb targets in Gaza, Australian officials insisted Australia was contributing to a “global supply chain” that was “directed by the United States” and that they “can’t speak for the IDF and how it engages in force deployment”. That prompted Shoebridge to tell the Senate committee there was “a moral vacuum at the heart of our export weapons scheme”.

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, later defended the arrangement, telling parliament Australia was “one of 18 like-minded nations including Norway, Denmark, Canada and [the] Netherlands, [that] operate the F-35 and contribute to its global supply chain”. He reiterated Australia’s calls for a ceasefire in Gaza.