Melchy
BAES get "rodded" with ITAR already. Don't forget that less than 20% of their workforce are British or work in Britain - don't be fooled by the "B" in their company title. There are lots of divisions within the company that cannot talk to other divisions within the same company because of ITAR! So I would not see ITAR as making anything worse should they merge with EADS.
Yes, there are some programs on the table that are very similar and so it would be wise to think that EADS/BAES programs would be rationalised. However, go-it-alone programs for BAES are finished - Harrier GR(done), Sea Harrier (done), Tornado F3 (done), Nimrod (done) and Hawk (almost done). Typhoon, Tornado and F35 don't need Warton as we can get them and support from one of the other collaberative partners (ie. EADS or LM). So with nothing likely on the books, UK MoD skint (thanks to raping of funds and supply of inferior equipment by the very same company) and a global cash crisis, I am not surprised at all. I see this as the only way that the aircraft manufacturing arm of BAES can survive - it looks to me the final death throws of a once great industry, let down by greed, poor politics, underperformance in delivery and poor contract writing (the latter by the MoD).
As some have said already, if this is the end then good riddance. Let's throw investment at our automotive industry that seems to be doing very well and giving great global export sales (Jaguar, LandRover, Mini, Triumph Motorcycles, Lotus...to name a few). Who knows, many of the UK's automotive names died, or nearly died, in the 70s and then bounced back with investment - wouldn't it be great to see Vickers, Avro, DeHavilland, Hawker, etc... bounce back in the future, like Supermarine has done with the Mk 26 Spitfire with an Australian entrepreneur? How about a restart of one of the famous names to build a Grob Tutor replacement, that could also be sold in the GA market as a British success like our new motorbikes and cars?
The B Word