Embattled American aerospace giant Boeing is locked in a legal row with a data centre specialist that counts the former MI5 spy chief among its directors.

Boeing Defence UK, which sells Apache and Chinook helicopters to the Ministry of Defence, is suing a subsidiary of Ark Data Centres, a provider of computer-hosting services to clients requiring high levels of data security.

The dispute is understood to relate to the provision of services at Ark’s Spring Park. The facility is close to MoD Corsham in Wiltshire, home to the ministry’s global operations and security control centre, which acts as a nerve centre for UK military operations around the world.

Data centres are high-security warehouses that host servers on behalf of governments and companies.

The legal case