Martin-Baker (the Martin-Baker Aircraft Company Ltd) produces safety-related equipment for aviation, including ejection seats and “crashworthy” seats, safety-engineered seats designed to protect occupants during an impact.
Martin-Baker was founded in 1929 and is based near Uxbridge in the UK. It reports that it is serving 106 operators in 81 countries with over 70 aircraft types. Martin-Baker reported 2024 sales of UK£ 347 million. The company has applied for UK military export licenses to countries including: Israel, Pakistan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Afghanistan.
Ejection seats and crash seats for military craft
In addition to designing and producing the seats, Martin-Baker tests them and trains pilots on their use, and on pre- and post-ejection safety.
Martin-Baker has a subsidiary in the US, Martin-Baker America, that serves its Canadian and American clients. It manufactures ejection seats mainly for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. Martin-Baker’s Australian subsidiary, Martin-Baker Australia, serves as a maintenance hub for ejection seats on the Lockheed Martin F-35A, Boeing F/A-18 and EA-18 fighter jets, the Pilatus PC-21 training aircraft and BAE Systems Hawk jet trainer. It also serves the Australian Defence Force fleet. Martin-Baker also has a joint venture with arms company Safran, SMB, that manufactures ejection seats for French aircraft.
Recent contracts have included the provision of ejection seats to the Bangladesh Air Force and South Korean Air Force, and of trainer craft to the Indian Air Force.
Controversies
Martin-Baker makes the ejection seats for almost all F-35 strikers. F-35s are widely used globally, include by Saudi Arabia in Yemen and by Israel in Gaza. Every F-35 is assembled with contributions from a range of military aviation companies globally through the F-35 stealth combat aircraft programme, notably Northrop Grumman, Leonardo, and BAE Systems. UK industry makes 15% of every F-35 fighter jet; CAAT has calculated the value of UK components in Israel’s F-35s to be well over UK£ 500m.
Martin-Baker makes the ejection seats the Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jets globally. The Eurofighter Typhoon, manufactured by Leonardo with Airbus and BAE Systems, has been used by the Saudi military in its devastating attacks on Yemen over the past several years.
Despite contributing critical components to each of these jets, Martin-Baker has not attracted the same levelsof scrutiny as the better-known arms companies involved in the jet fighter programmes.
