It has been involved in several high-profile campaigns, including a legal challenge against the Serious Fraud Office's decision to suspend a corruption investigation into BAE Systems in 2007.

This makes previously difficult or inaccessible information available to public view and CAAT sees it as a valuable campaigning tool in helping to hold the government to account.

The Arab Spring of 2011 vindicated CAAT's focus on UK weapons sales to authoritarian regimes in the region,[5] and helped to give the campaign greater visibility in the media and with the public.

CAAT has long campaigned against BAE Systems, highlighting allegations of corruption and political influence, rebuking claims about jobs, attending AGMs as critical shareholders, and through legal action.

In September 1985 BAE was a signatory to the UK's largest ever arms deal, the Al Yamamah contract to sell and service military planes to the government of Saudi Arabia.

[6] Shortly after the contract was signed, corruption allegations emerged concerning bribes paid to Saudi officials through a £60 million pound slush fund.

There were also SFO investigations in BAE dealings in Chile, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Austria, Qatar, Romania, South Africa and Tanzania.

[8] However, on 14 December 2006 the Government, under the personal intervention of Prime Minister Tony Blair, discontinued the Al Yamamah probe on the grounds that its conclusions might embarrass the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and threaten Britain's national security.

[9] The campaign, in conjunction with The Corner House, mounted a legal challenge to this decision, to assess if in curtailing the investigation the government had acted illegally.

[12] On 30 July the House of Lords overturned the High Court ruling, and decreed that the SFO had acted lawfully in the interest of national security.

"[16] On 1 October 2009 the Serious Fraud Office announced that it would seek to prosecute BAE over bribery allegations in four countries: the Czech Republic, Romania, South Africa and Tanzania.

Simultaneously, BAE agreed a separate plea bargain with the US Department of Justice whereby it pleaded guilty to "conspiring to defraud the US by impairing and impeding its lawful functions, to make false statements about its Foreign Corrupt Practices Act compliance program, and to violate the Arms Export Control Act and International Traffic in Arms Regulations" and was fined $400 million.

In particular, the plea agreement reached failed to reflect the seriousness and extent of BAE's alleged offending, which included corruption and bribery, and to provide the court with adequate sentencing powers.

In response, on 1 March, the High Court granted an injunction prohibiting the Director of the SFO from taking further steps in its plea bargain settlement.

[24] On 25 July 2007 Gordon Brown announced that DESO would be closed,[25] a move condemned by Mike Turner, then Chief Executive of BAE Systems.

UKTI DSO is based at the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) in Westminster and also has staff in overseas offices in priority market countries.

CAAT has held a number of protest demonstrations outside their offices and has made many Freedom of Information requests to UKTI DSO on markets, meetings and arms fair activities.

It directed a sustained and concerted effort from academics, doctors and writers who used the company's products, who demanded that Reed Elsevier end their involvement with arms fairs on ethical grounds.

In collaboration with Stop the Arms Fair coalition, they organised demonstrations against DSEi in 2009 and 2011[32] focusing its efforts in central London as security made it difficult to protest near ExCel.

Daily reports on activists’ whereabouts were sent to Britain’s largest arms dealer by Evelyn le Chêne, a woman with a well-known record in intelligence work.

[34] The CAAT announced on 30 January 2023 that it was taking the British government to the High Court on charges that UK arms have contributed to breaching international humanitarian law, especially in the Saudi War in Yemen.

Supporters receive copies of CAATnews quarterly magazine, mailings and e-bulletins and are invited to attend an annual gathering, regional workshops and protests.

As a campaigning organisation, it is unable to take advantage of many of the benefits open to charities, but makes applications for charitable funding to a small number of trusts and foundations for its research and educational work.