So, the Libyan rebels are already meeting with major defense contractors. Officials from Italian defense giant Finmeccanica say they have met with representatives from the rebel movement to discuss buying helicopters along with border control and railroad technology. Wild. Apparently, the rebels plan on honoring millions of euros worth of conracts signed by the Gadhafi regime.
From Defense News:
Representatives of Libyan rebels fighting Col. Moammar Gadhafi have told Finmeccanica that they will honor the Italian firm’s Libyan contracts should they take over the country, a Finmeccanica official said.
Before civil conflict erupted in Libya in February, Finmeccanica was expecting to see between 250 million and 350 million euros in revenue this year from contracts signed with Gadhafi’s government, mainly covering border control systems, government service helicopters and civil transport.
The firm’s current backlog of orders from Libya stands at 800 million euros, 80 percent of which is related to transportation contracts, Finmeccanica has said.
“We have met with the interim government, and they have told us all present contracts would be confirmed,” said Finmeccanica CFO Alessandro Pansa, referring to the Benghazi-based rebels.
“They are interested in border control and railway systems,” he told analysts in a conference call April 28 to coincide with the release of Finmeccanica’s first-quarter results.
Finmac owns helicopter-maker AgustaWestland (who builds the AW109 pictured above) and train-builder AnsaldoBreda, (you’ve probably taken a ride on their subway cars).
{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
Not just Islamic rebel terrorist but there hiring people to arm them now yeah right.
Let the $$$ part begin…….
This IS a civil war folks
It's smart, keeps the defense industries on the fence at least. If they weren't going to honor them, they may, and their lobbyists may, decide they're not worth supporting.
Untrained militiamen with multi-million dollar weapons systems? I like where this is headed.
That said, if they want to buy all the factory defectives from the U.S. defense industry (they wouldn't know the difference) and pay in crude, I'm down for that.
I take it you didn't read the story huh? they didn't talk to the U.S., they talked to Italy.
not that those puny rebels are jihadists and devoted muslimans, who would be called taliban in the afganistan (and have gained their experience there and in iraq)…
can somebody please remind me why this no-fly zone started in the first place? because he "bombed" them or what?
So three days after the Italians announce that eight of their aircraft will begin bombing missions in Libya, the Libyan rebels announce that they’ll honour a quarter billion Euros of Italian defence contracts.
And you cynical bunch thought this war was about oil!
It is about oil, but also control of money.
lol the bankers have successfully overthrow another country with their dumb rebel tools. Do they honestly think they'll be able to pay it back? They'll be slaves just like all those other countries with IMF debt.
Yeah, if we could only get rid of all those evil bankers the world would be so much better…….
No, I would have supported this war even if Bush were still in the White House.
Now Berluscoi can heave a sigh of relief. Now that he can sell to the rebels, he doesn't have to kiss Gaddafi's ass any more.
oh, believe me, he loved those late night sex-parties! ;)
he will miss his tent-wearing friend…
He'll miss Warlock Gaddafi and his amazons..
I say let wait until the dust settles on this dog and pony show and see which way the wind blows. It might not blow well in the direction we want it and we will be in deep dodo then what are you going to say; well I didn’t know what was going down. This is like buying a milk cow with out seeing the cow and when you get it’s a bull