Airbus and MOD accused of concealing role in Saudi bribery scheme as High Court set to hear whistleblower case

The allegations will be aired next week when the High Court hears an application to strike out whistleblower and retired Royal Signals officer Lt Col Ian Foxley’s legal claim against the MOD, the Department for Business and Trade and Airbus and one of its subsidiaries. 

The hearing scheduled for Monday 16 - Wednesday 18 March will consider the MOD and Airbus’s application to strike out Lt Col Foxley’s claim on the basis that it was brought too late. Lt Col Foxley says this argument is fundamentally flawed because he believes the key facts were deliberately concealed from him and the public for years.

In 2010 Lt Col Foxley raised questions about payments that were being made in relation to the MOD’s SANGCOM defence communications project in Saudi Arabia. He was later dismissed from his role and forced to flee Saudi Arabia in fear for his safety.

Fresh evidence contradicts Airbus’ long-standing public stance

In 2021, the Airbus subsidiary GPT (Special Project Management) Limited pleaded guilty to making multi-million pound bribes in relation to the SANGCOM project. In his Sentencing Remarks, Mr Justice Bryan found that the beneficiaries of the payments included HRH Prince Mit’eb bin Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, son of the late King Abdullah, and several other high-ranking Saudi officials. He said that in their efforts to conceal the corruption, GPT destroyed evidence and attempted to manufacture false evidence, whilst His Majesty’s Government was found to have facilitated the corrupt arrangements.

For more than a decade, Airbus - GPT's parent company during the relevant period - has distanced itself from wrongdoing at GPT. But following the release of documents from the criminal trial of two individuals connected to the SANGCOM project in March 2024, Lt Col Foxley’s legal claim states that Airbus was also aware of the corrupt payments and condoned them from the point of acquisition of GPT.

Lt Col Foxley’s legal claim also argues that newly disclosed documents reveal that information regarding the Government’s role in the corruption was withheld by the MOD in legal proceedings brought by a Private Eye journalist in 2014.

These revelations emerge as Airbus seeks to win the UK’s multi-billion-pound SKYNET 6 military satellite communications contract, which Lt Col Foxley says raises important questions for Government and the public about whether major defence contracts should be awarded to an organisation facing such serious allegations.

Paul Dowling, solicitor for Lt Col Foxley, said:

“It is quite astonishing that the Government and Airbus are arguing that our client has brought his claim too late, in circumstances where, we will argue, they have concealed their role in this corruption for years. The documents that have recently been made available to our client about Airbus’ role in this scheme paint a very different picture to that which Airbus has portrayed to date, and, our client believes, raise serious questions about whether the Government should be awarding future defence procurement contracts to Airbus.”

Hearing date

The High Court will hear the strike‑out application on Monday 16 – Wednesday 18 March 2026.