BAE Systems warns of damages due to shutdown

Britain’s top arms producer BAE Systems has warned that the persisting US government shutdown could financially damage the group.

“Impact to the group’s US operations would result from a protracted government shutdown,” BAE said in a statement.

The company said it has placed its staff at the US-based Intelligence & Security and Support Solutions businesses on unpaid leaves since the start of October as a result of the US government shutdown.

The US is locked in a political dispute between the Democrat President Barack Obama and his compatriots in the Senate on the one side and the Republican-led House of Representatives on the other for just over a week.

The House has so far refused to approve the government’s budget bill, rather opting for a bill that requires Obama to delay his key healthcare reforms by a year.

The Republicans have also blocked government efforts to raise the national debt ceiling that could lead to the first default in US history if the government’s statutory borrowing limit of $16.7 trillion is not raised by October 17.