United Defense
United Defense Industries , headquartered in Arlington , Virginia , was one of the largest arms companies in the world until 2005 . Today United Defense Industries is part of BAE Systems Land and Armaments .
history
United Defense was once part of the Bean Spray Pump Company, founded in 1883 . As the Food Machinery Corporation (FMC) , the former Bean Spray Pump Company received a major order from the US Army for the construction of land vehicles (tanks, etc.) for the Second World War . FMC then spun off several divisions, including the armaments division, which was renamed United Defense Industries (UDI) over time. UDI was 100% bought out of FMC around 1960 and run as an independent company that developed into one of the largest armaments companies in the world and employed more than 35,000 people in its heyday. In 2000 UDI took over the Swedish weapons manufacturer Bofors Weapon Systems AB . UDI's portfolio also includes:
- Barnes & Reinecke, a company specializing in the engineering of war vehicles
- FNSS, a joint venture with a Turkish armaments company to manufacture tanks for the peacekeeping mission in the Balkans, as well
- a company for repairs to naval ships.
United Defense is known for its tanks and artillery systems, but it also produces naval guns, rocket launchers and precision ammunition . Probably the most important customer was the United States Department of Defense . This made it an incentive for British defense company BAE Systems to take over United Defense for $ 3.97 billion in cash in 2005 . Up until the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, Salim bin Laden , who died in 1988, was Osama bin Laden's older brother and was involved in United Defense through the Carlyle Group , an American private equity firm.
The majority of the group was in private hands from 1960 until the takeover by BAE.