The US defence industry --which now includes British Aerospace Systems (BaeS)-- is clashing with the Franco-German defence consortium EADS --a conglomerate composed of France's Aerospatiale Matra, Deutsche Aerospace, which is part of the powerful Daimler group, and Spain's CASA. In other words, a major split in the Western military-industrial complex has occurred with the US and Britain on one side and Germany and France on the other.