People Against Genocide raids Ultra I&C Aberdeen facility

At approximately 3am on Sunday 9 August, a 2-person People Against Genocide (PAG) team broke into the Aberdeen facility of leading military tech and cyber warfare company, Ultra Intelligence & Communications (Ultra I&C).

Having entered the building, they barricaded themselves inside. The activists then set about dismantling equipment and computer equipment, in order to make it inoperable.

From inside the building, they also spray painted “For the dead children of Gaza” on the wall. And they obtained masses of documents from the weapons firm.

PAG has repeatedly targeted Ultra I&C facilities because it’s a key supplier to UAV Tactical Systems. UAV is a Leicester subsidiary of Elbit Systems, Israel’s biggest weapons maker. Elbit produces 85% of the Israeli military’s killer drone fleet, and 80% of its other weaponry and equipment.

Job listings for Ultra I&C’s Aberdeen site show that its work includes the manufacturing and maintenance of equipment. As well as working with Elbit, a data breach in 2024 confirmed that Ultra I&C, one of the main weapons companies operating in the UK, is also working directly with the Israeli military.

Previous actions against Ultra I&C

In June, PAG took action against the Ultra I&C Maidenhead facility. Four activists used modified suitcases, with lock-on devices, to barricade the plant, and shut it down.

Then, just a few weeks later, in July, PAG activists managed to get inside the Ultra I&C Tring plant. After barricading themselves inside, they destroyed satellites worth £3m. The Crown Prosecution Service claims these were about to be shipped to the Israeli military.

At the end of July, PAG visited the company’s Cambridge site, spray-painting slogans all over the walls in blood-red paint, telling it to “Drop Elbit”.

On 8 August, PAG targeted the Loudwater facility of Ultra Maritime, (also part of the Ultra group), at Knaves Beech Business Centre, Loudwater, High Wycombe. Activists smashed windows at the plant and covered the exterior walls in symbolic blood-red paint and graffiti.

The Aberdeen action coincided with the 20th anniversary of the action against Raytheon in Derry. Nine people broke into the facility to disrupt the supply of weapons for Israel to use against the Lebanese people in 2006. That action was part of a concerted local campaign in Derry against the factory. It resulted in Raytheon permanently shutting down in the area.

A spokesperson for People Against Genocide said:

Companies like Ultra I&C, which operate in our towns and cities, fuel and profit from the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Not only does Ultra I&C supply Israel’s biggest weapons firm, Elbit Systems, the firm also supplies the Israeli military directly. Previous actions have destroyed satellites made by the company, which were headed to Israel.

Since being appointed prime minister, the only message Andy Burnham has sent to the Israeli war machine is that it’s business as usual. His cabinet is full of Israeli stooges, and Britain is directly involved in the genocide in Gaza, which along with the pogroms on the West Bank, and the devastation of Southern Lebanon, is pushing the indigenous Palestinian people to the brink of annihilation.

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That’s why we can’t expect anything from the government, and must take direct action in order to intervene and disrupt the genocidal supply chain ourselves.

By working for Elbit, and for the Israeli military directly, Ultra I&C are up to their necks in bloodshed. By occupying their Aberdeen factory today, we aim to intercede in their production of deadly weapons to prevent further Palestinian bloodshed.

We have to shut these weapons firms down. Free Palestine!

Featured image supplied

By The Canary

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