Commonwealth Group

The Commonwealth Group is a British multinational conglomerate primarily involved in the defence, security, aerospace, advanced technology, and motorsport sectors. Headquartered in London, it maintains operations worldwide, and, along with BAE Systems, is one of two major British defence industrial concerns. Ranked amongst the largest defence companies worldwide, it further possesses a significant and historically long-standing, albeit intermittent, presence in the motorsport industry, with the group exercising a direct involvement through the Caterham F1 Team, a wholly-owned subdivision, and indirect links through the supply of software, components, and engineering support to a considerable number of racing teams across multiple disciplines, including close, long-term technical partnerships with Team Penske in IndyCar, ART Grand Prix, Team Macmillan, and the McLaren Group.

History

The Commonwealth Group can track its origins back to the state-sanctioned formation of the British Commonwealth Motorsport Association, ostensibly intended as a showcase to bolster global confidence in a faltering British manufacturing sector; in truth, the arrangement primarily functioned as a facade for the nationalization of struggling industrial concerns Alvis and Armstrong Siddeley. Nevertheless, the team excelled on circuit, albeit dogged by speculation of surreptitious involvement with respect to British espionage abroad. The stewardship of appointed executive Sir Edward Palmerston proved sufficiently successful to compel the government to engineer the merger of six major British defence concerns, Blackburn Aircraft, A.V. Roe and Company, the De Havilland Aircraft Company, Folland Aircraft, the Alvis Car and Engineering Company, and the Hawker Siddeley Group, under the auspices of a new statutory corporation, Commonwealth Defence and Aerospace plc, that would eventually form the structural foundations for the Commonwealth Group. Immediately under pressure from significant declines in British defence spending, Commonwealth abandoned its involvement in Grand Prix racing during the early 1960s, eventually finding stable footing through the success of the Buccaneer, Hunter, Harrier, Nimrod and CVR(T) programmes. It additionally maintained a significant presence in civilian manufacturing via the production of trams, railcars, and diesel-electric locomotives. Along with British Aerospace, Commonwealth was an important partner in the development of the SEPECAT Jaguar, the Concorde, the Panavia Tornado, and the Eurofighter Typhoon, and attracted significant controversy over its heavy involvement in the Al-Yamamah arms transaction and its sales of precision-guided munitions, cluster munitions, and advanced arms to states with a poor record of human rights protections. Following its acquisition of Matra Marconi Space in 1995, the company reorganized itself as the Commonwealth Group.

The Commonwealth Group is heavily involved in several major defence projects, including the Eurofighter Typhoon and the Joint Strike Fighter programme, and remains one of the foremost manufacturers of precision-guided munitions, sensor suites, and armoured vehicles. It further maintains a significant presence in the civilian market through the production of commercial turbofan engines, various commercial applications of military technology developed through the Applied Technologies division, and scientific and commercial satellites. Furthermore, after an intermittent and discontinuous history in motorsport following the withdrawal of its initial Grand Prix effort, the Commonwealth Group is presently an important actor in global motorsports, as both a directly involved party through its management of the highly successful Caterham F1 Team, and as a critical node in the global motorsport component supply chain.

Organization

The Commonwealth Group's corporate headquarters is located in Canary Wharf, London, whilst its primary manufacturing and R&D facilities are situated in Cheltenham, England. It is organized according to the following subdivisions.

Commonwealth Defence Systems

Primarily responsible for the design and manufacture of advanced munitions, military sensor suites, and military satellites.

Commonwealth Aerospace

Designs, manufactures, and supports major aerospace subcomponents, commercial and military aircraft engines, and avionics suites.

Commonwealth Land Systems

Responsible for the design and manufacture of armoured combat vehicles, small arms, advanced artillery pieces, missile launchers, and infantry protective equipment.

Commonwealth Data Collection and Solutions

An all-encompassing entity within the Commonwealth organization, the Data Collection division is responsible for maintaining an interlinked, synergistic network facilitating information flows between the various specialist divisions, with the intent of encouraging a general, organization-wide cross-pollination of knowledge and expertise, as well as offering the capability of rapidly constructing a multi-disciplinary solution in regard to a specific development obstacle. The Data Collection division further offers data analysis suites, security solutions, and other data science services to external military and civilian consumers.

Commonwealth-Judd Propulsion Technologies

Acquired in 2014, the Judd division primarily concerns itself with the development of advanced land and marine propulsion solutions, with applications pertaining to both the diesel-hybrid power units in CLS products, and the gasoline-hybrid Formula One power unit powering the Caterham Grand Prix racing car. It has further played an advisory role toward the development of the M640TQ power unit installed in the McLaren MP4-31 Le Mans prototype, and is presently investigating the viability of hydrogen in supplanting the internal combustion engine as the primary mechanism for propulsion.

Commonwealth Applied Technologies

Acts as a conduit for the commercialization of technologies developed for defence and motorsport applications and as the primary vendor for the resulting products in the civilian market. Applied Technologies is additionally the primary contractor for the development, sale, and support for specialized electronics and engineering equipment, such as standardized racing electronic control units and control systems for offshore oil rigs. It is also the primary party responsible for the Human Performance Laboratory, under the auspices of which it operates the specialized Driver Performance Laboratory development racing team in conjunction with specialist race engineers and mechanics from Caterham.

Commonwealth-Caterham Advanced Motorsport Technology Division

Acquired in part in 2016 from Tony Fernandes, before subsequently acquired outright, Caterham is fully responsible for the operation of multiple championship winning Caterham F1 Team, as well as supplying expertise and personnel as operational and engineering assistance to other outfits. Due to the highly-rapid and fluid environment of Grand Prix racing, Caterham further serves as an important ideational locus for the production and diffusion of efficient management systems and solutions, in addition to serving as a high-intensity, high-duress testing environment for prototype technologies originating from other specialist divisions.

Corporate Governance

Following the retirement of the original chairman and chief executive, Sir Edward Palmerston, in 1990, overall operational control was handed down to his son and present CEO and Chairman, Alec Palmerston. Edouard Martel, the original team principal of the Caterham F1 Team, was retained in his role upon Commonwealth's acquisition of the team. The Data Collection division, as a consequence of its comprehensive mandate within the group, exercises considerably greater autonomy in comparison with the other divisions, and is presently managed by Chief Division Executive David Baldwin.

Corporate affairs are further subject to oversight by a Board of Directors, which has occasionally been reported to be in conflict with Palmerston over Commonwealth's recent expansions into the motorsport sector.