Tag: military industrial complex

Massive Explosion at Alberta Military Base Kills and Injures Troops, Hospitals Reportedly Full, ‘Significant Casualties,’ Defense Minister Says ‘Situation Active and Delicate’

An incident at Canadian Forces Base Wainwright in Alberta on Saturday sparked a major fire that spread beyond the base in high winds, and Defense Minister David McGuinty confirmed fatalities and injuries among military personnel.

Global News reports “at least seven people are dead and dozens more left injured.”

The report added:

A live-fire training exercise hit a gas line or gas well on the base causing an explosion around 4 p.m. MT, multiple Canadian Armed Forces sources told Global News.

A fire then broke out and spread, fuelled by wind gusts of up to 100 km/h that prompted much of Alberta to be under wind warnings on Saturday.

Officials were tight-lipped about details, but McGuinty said he was “saddened to share that there have been both fatalities and injuries as a result of an incident on the base.”

Keep reading

Report: U.S. Military Weighs ‘Mother of All Bombs’ for Potential Strikes on Iran

The U.S. military has developed plans for potential strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities and energy infrastructure that could include deploying the “Mother of All Bombs,” the largest non-nuclear bomb in the American arsenal, if President Donald Trump authorizes renewed attacks, according to a report Thursday.

The Pentagon has prepared additional strike options at Trump’s direction, including the possible use of the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB) bomb, CNN reported, citing “multiple U.S. officials familiar” with the planning.

One source said the proposed targets include “a lot of energy infrastructure,” with potential strikes envisioned before an American military withdrawal from the region.

Another said the plans contemplate using the massive weapon against Iranian nuclear facilities, including Pickaxe Mountain, a heavily fortified underground complex near Natanz that has drawn scrutiny over concerns Tehran could use it to conceal nuclear activities.

However, military officials have raised questions about whether the bomb, designed to devastate large surface areas rather than penetrate deeply buried structures, could effectively destroy facilities protected by hundreds of feet of granite.

“The MOAB is a massive information operation type weapon that is great for huge area clearance but not much else,” a source familiar with the plans told the outlet.

“It is definitely not designed as a deep penetration warhead,” the source added.

Unlike the specialized bunker-busting bombs previously deployed against Iranian nuclear facilities, the approximately 21,600-pound MOAB is designed primarily for widespread blast effects

Keep reading

Secret UFO Arms Race? US, China And Russia Battle To Unlock Mysterious Technology

The United States, China and Russia could be locked in a secretive new arms race involving unidentified flying objects, raising extraordinary questions about whether America’s biggest adversaries are competing to unlock technology that could transform modern warfare, according to the New York Post.

The possibility of a UFO arms race is drawing renewed attention as lawmakers, former intelligence officials and military veterans warn that Washington could be falling behind its geopolitical rivals in the race to understand mysterious aerial phenomena.

Rep. Eric Burlison (R-MO) has warned that America’s failure to release promised UFO information could give China and Russia a major propaganda victory, allowing the rival powers to portray themselves as more transparent than Washington.

“I think it would definitely be a misstep because of what we would be demonstrating to our people,” Burlison said in an interview with the New York Post. “We’re supposed to be the most transparent country in the world to its citizenry and if another country is able to be more transparent than the United States on this topic it would be a blemish on our otherwise pristine legacy on transparency.”

Former U.S. intelligence official David Grusch has also claimed, without public evidence, that China and Russia possess crashed UFOs, suggesting that America’s adversaries could be attempting to reverse-engineer technology of unknown origin.

Grusch made headlines in 2023 after testifying before Congress about alleged secret government programs dedicated to recovering and studying mysterious spacecraft.

In 2021, China publicly acknowledged investigating unexplained aerial sightings, including using artificial intelligence to analyze reports of mysterious objects.

The South China Morning Post reported at the time:

According to Wuhan-based researcher Chen Li from the Air Force Early Warning Academy, human analysts have been overwhelmed in recent years by the rapidly mounting sighting reports from a wide range of military and civilian sources across the country.

“The frequent occurrence of unidentified air conditions in recent years … brings severe challenges to air defence security of our country,” said Chen, in a 2019 report to a conference of senior information technology scientists in Beijing in 2019.

Russia’s interest in UFOs reportedly dates back to the Soviet era.

Keep reading

China used military-linked kindergarten to cultivate ties with Mitch McConnell’s wife and in-laws

A child soldier lies dead in a marsh from starvation.

The Red Army pauses to mourn the little martyr for a moment before the Long March moves on — and the kindergarten play ends.

It is graduation day in Shanghai and Elaine Chao is in attendance.

The date is June 14, 2026 and in several hours Chao’s husband, Kentucky Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell, will be rushed to a hospital on the other side of the globe.

Chao has been returning to this Shanghai kindergarten for decades, where she has repeatedly met with officials from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and an influence and intelligence arm called the United Front Work Department (UFWD), according to Daily Caller News Foundation translations of dozens of Chinese government and state-media reports.

Beijing uses the UFWD to steer foreign policy and “gain access to advanced foreign technology,” according to the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.

Named in honor of Chao’s grandfather, the kindergarten is being used by a United Front arm as a stage to cultivate ties with Chao, documents show.

Chao — whose Chinese name is Zhao Xiaolan — has received at least four Chinese government positions since 2008, including a Wuhan municipal advisory post as well as roles within the China Overseas Friendship Association (COFA) and the All-China Federation Of Returned Overseas Chinese (ACFROC) — both of which are UFWD arms, the DCNF recently reported. Chao’s three UFWD arm positions partially overlapped with her tenure as President George W. Bush’s Department of Labor secretary and/or her service as Department of Transportation secretary during President Donald Trump’s first term.

Chao’s spokesperson, Patrick O’Connor, denied she “held a position with a foreign government” and told the DCNF “[w]e are not aware she has met with representatives of UFWD entities” after being sent photos showing Chao meeting with CCP and UFWD officials.

“Such a suggestion disregards her nearly five decades of faithful service to the United States and is both unfounded and deeply insulting, hurtful and racist,” O’Connor added.

“Education has always been a primary focus for the family and its philanthropy. The secretary regularly visits schools in the U.S. and abroad,” O’Connor said in response to questions about why Chao had participated in events at the Shanghai kindergarten that variously featured Chinese military propaganda, CCP and UFWD officials. “This kindergarten is named after Dr. Chao’s father, and he has supported it for nearly four decades. The secretary was there to honor her father’s connection to the school, which is recognized as one of the best kindergartens in the region.”

Chao’s relationship with CCP and UFWD-affiliated organizations underscores how China intends to use political influence operations and information warfare to defeat the U.S. “without ever firing a shot,” Brandon Weichert, a geopolitical analyst and author of The Weichert Brief, told the DCNF.

“After more than 40 years of such operations, which have even influenced educational institutions in the U.S., it is clear that the United States has been completely outmaneuvered and overrun by the Chinese narrative,” Weichert said. “That even people like the wife of former Republican Party Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a former cabinet member herself, has become the face of a quiet campaign to influence the hearts and minds shows you how prolific — and profligate — the Chinese campaign has been.”

“We are on the slow, but steady path of being absorbed in China’s new empire without so much as any understanding that this is underway,” Weichert warned.

Keep reading

U.S. Military Lost or Damaged 81 Aircraft Worth Up to $3.3 Billion in Iran War, Report Says

At least 81 U.S. military aircraft have been lost or damaged since the war with Iran began, with losses totaling as much as $3.3 billion, according to a Congressional Research Service report released Oct. 5. The tally was compiled from statements by the Pentagon, U.S. Central Command, the Pentagon Inspector General and news reports, and the report’s authors noted the number of aircraft “may remain subject to revision due to multiple factors” [1].

The losses include some of America’s most advanced warplanes, including one damaged F-35A Lightning II stealth fighter and 12 F-15E Strike Eagle fighters that have been destroyed or damaged, according to the report [2].

The White House and the Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday. The report, updated Oct. 5, drew on military statements, news reports and findings from the Defense Department’s inspector general [3].

Fixed-Wing Losses Include F-15Es, F-35A, A-10s and E-3 Sentry

Twelve F-15E Strike Eagles were destroyed or damaged. Three were shot down in friendly fire over Kuwait on March 2, and another was shot down over Iran the following month [4].

One F-35A Lightning II stealth fighter was damaged when it came under fire from Iran on March 19.

The disclosures come as the financial cost of the war, which began Feb. 28 with coordinated U.S.-Israeli strikes, rises.

Drone Losses Led by 45 MQ-9 Reapers, Fleet Below Requirement

At least 45 MQ-9 Reaper drones were lost, with each estimated to be worth between $30 million and $50 million, according to the report.

The Reaper, used for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, close air support and combat search and rescue, accounted for more than half of the losses [5]. The scale of the Reaper losses tracks with earlier independent reporting: Iran destroyed approximately $1 billion worth of U.S. Air Force MQ-9 Reaper drones during the conflict, according to a Bloomberg report published May 21, representing roughly 20 percent of the Pentagon’s pre-war inventory of unmanned aerial vehicles [6].

The drone losses have forced the Air Force to look at alternatives. The service more than doubled the value of its contract with DZYNE Technologies, now part of Ondas, for long-endurance surveillance drones that could complement the MQ-9 Reaper and help fill intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance mission gaps following the reported heavy losses in the U.S.-Iran conflict [7]. The seizure of a U.S. Navy Dive-LD uncrewed underwater vehicle by Iran near the Strait of Hormuz in September also handed Tehran a rare opportunity to study and potentially reverse-engineer a sophisticated undersea surveillance asset, a setback for the Pentagon and drone maker Anduril [8][9].

CENTCOM Estimates War Cost at $43.6 Billion

U.S. Central Command estimated last month that the total cost of the war in Iran had grown to $43.6 billion — a $5 billion increase from August. Weapons costs also jumped by more than $6 billion in just over a month, from $21.7 billion listed in the latest Congressional Budget Office report to $28.1 billion in the latest figures, according to the report.

The Congressional Research Service report attributed the aircraft loss figures to its analysis of available data.

The White House and the Pentagon did not immediately respond to requests for comment, officials said. The Congressional Research Service published a similar report in May that put the number of lost or damaged aircraft lower, reflecting the accumulating toll of a conflict that has now run more than seven months since U.S. and Israeli forces commenced military strikes on Feb. 28.

Report Details Aircraft Losses as War Costs Rise

The Congressional Research Service report lists 81 U.S. military aircraft lost or damaged in the Iran war, valued at up to $3.3 billion.

CENTCOM’s $43.6 billion war cost estimate and the weapons cost increase were provided in the report. No immediate comment was issued by the White House or the Pentagon, according to the report. The report’s authors said the tally was compiled from statements by the Pentagon, U.S. Central Command, the Pentagon Inspector General and news reports, and that the “number of aircraft may remain subject to revision due to multiple factors” [1].

Keep reading

British Raven System Burned by Ukrainian Defector Intel

The British public is still being told that every new shipment of weapons to Kiev is a righteous investment in democracy. The reality on the ground in the Sumy direction is simpler and far uglier. A Raven air defence system, one of the specialised short-range launchers London rushed into service for Ukraine, has been destroyed by a Russian Lancet. The strike did not come from routine reconnaissance. It came from coordinates provided by a Ukrainian soldier who had had enough.

That soldier was not a high-ranking defector or a carefully cultivated agent. He was a man inside the system who decided the beatings, the corruption, and the forced service were no longer worth enduring. He contacted Russian intelligence, gave the precise location, and the Lancet did the rest. The Raven, estimated at six to eight million pounds, is gone. Each of its ASRAAM missiles costs roughly a quarter of a million pounds. British money, British engineering, British political capital — all of it converted into scrap by a single tip from the other side’s own ranks.

The Raven itself is a classic example of the improvised Western approach. Engineers took surplus ASRAAM missiles, mounted them on Supacat trucks using launch rails stripped from retired RAF aircraft, and shipped the result to Ukraine in record time. Thirteen systems were delivered. Official claims spoke of hundreds of engagements and high success rates against drones and cruise missiles. Those claims now sit alongside the wreckage near Sumy. Mobility and “shoot-and-scoot” tactics were supposed to keep these systems alive. They did not survive the moment a Ukrainian soldier decided his own command was the greater threat.

Keep reading

Trump admin firing squad will be first military execution in 65 years

The planned December execution of former Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who was convicted in 2013 of murdering 13 people at a military base and trying to kill many more, is set to be highly unusual.

Not only will the Dec. 3 death sentence be livestreamed for the very first time in American history, according to an Oct. 8 announcement by Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth, but it will also be the first military execution in the United States in about 65 years.

Hegseth confirmed on social media his plan to offer a live viewing feed of the killing – an announcement that has sparked bipartisan criticism and comparisons to public executions carried out by authoritarian regimes.

Start the day smarter. Get all the news you need in your inbox each morning.

Hasan was an army psychiatrist who opened fire on fellow service members on Nov. 5, 2009, inside the Soldier Readiness Processing Center, at Fort Hood, Texas, where soldiers were preparing for deployment. He was shot several times by responding officers and is now paralyzed from the waist down. His victims included soldiers and one civilian employee.

Keep reading

US To Deploy Anti-Ship Missile System To Japanese Island Near Taiwan

The US military will deploy an anti-ship missile system to Japan’s westernmost island of Yonaguni, which lies just 68 miles east of Taiwan, an unprecedented move that will ratchet up tensions with China.

US Marines will deploy with the Navy-Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System, or NMESIS, as part of Keen Sword, the largest joint US-Japanese biennial military exercise.

The NMESIS has a range of about 115 miles, putting it within striking range of vessels patrolling the eastern coast of Taiwan. According to The South China Morning Post, China has stepped up coast guard and naval activity in the area in response to maritime boundary talks announced in May between Japan and the Philippines.

Song Zhongping, a Chinese military expert, told China’s Global Times that the deployment increases the risk of miscalculation between the US and China and that Beijing may respond by conducting its own military drills in the area.

The Okinawa Defense Bureau first disclosed the deployment on October 1, and it will also include a Marine Air Defense Integrated System, or Maidas, a ground-based air defense system also used by the Marine Corps’ littoral force.

The first Marine Littoral Regiment was established in 2022 as part of the Marine Corps’ Force Design strategy, which is explicitly focused on preparing for a potential conflict with China. The idea was to create mobile Marine units equipped with anti-ship missiles and other weapons that can rapidly deploy along what is known as the First Island Chain, a string of archipelagos stretching from Japan’s southern islands through Taiwan and the Philippines and into the southern South China Sea.

Keep reading

Trump visits Baltimore County, showcasing $3.7B investment led by Anduril Industries to strengthen U.S. naval fleet

In a major defense manufacturing expansion, President Donald Trump visited Sparrows Point in Baltimore County, Maryland, on Tuesday to showcase a $3.7 billion investment led by defense technology firm Anduril Industries, aimed at strengthening the nation’s naval fleet.

The public-private initiative centers on establishing a state-of-the-art “software-defined” manufacturing facility, known as Arsenal-2, on the historic grounds of the former Bethlehem Steel site at Tradepoint Atlantic.

The new complex is designed to bolster submarine production by deploying advanced digital assembly tools, modern manufacturing automation and high-tech software workflows — alongside skilled industrial labor.

The high-tech shipyard will focus primarily on fabricating key structural assemblies and gating hardware for the U.S. Navy’s nuclear-powered attack submarines, specifically targeting critical bottlenecks in the production of Virginia-class vessels.

Administration officials highlighted that producing complex components — such as torpedo tube assemblies and pressure hull segments — at the Baltimore site will relieve existing capacity constraints across defense supply chains, effectively providing up to nine million hours of annual labor capacity and boosting nationwide Virginia-class submarine production by an estimated 15%.

The facility will scale gradually, beginning with vital submersion-safe structural components before expanding toward more complex sub-assemblies as quality standards are met.

Keep reading

Stockpiling Begins: Neros Awarded $100 Million Pentagon Contract For Kamikaze Drones

US defense company Neros Technologies, which focuses on Category 1 one-way attack drones, was awarded a $100 million contract under the Department of War’s Drone Dominance Program for 14,000 drones and explosive payloads.

The award, under the Drone Dominance Program’s Gauntlet II, prioritizes Archer AI, the Category 1 FPV attack drone. Its automated kill chain lets the FPV fly to an operator-selected target, a huge advantage in battle zones where electronic warfare jammers, such as those targeting radio frequencies and GPS signals, dominate.

Neros CEO Soren Monroe-Anderson stated:

“We’ve developed our Archer FPV system to be highly modular and easily adapted to end user needs. Pairing real warfighter feedback with our deep engineering talent is the reason Neros is the only manufacturer to have placed in the top three across two fundamentally different mission sets, deep strike and close quarters battle, with the same drone platform.

Ultimately, Drone Dominance is a test of two things: can competitors build high-performance drones? And can they produce them in massive quantities with short notice? We’re the only manufacturer to receive multiple bonus awards for Gauntlet I based on our delivery speed. We’re ready to fulfill this next batch of 14,000 drones, and more whenever the Department of War signals need for them.”

The announcement comes after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth revealed that Autonomous Warfare Command, dubbed “AutoWarCom,” will become operational in the fall of next year and will accelerate the DoW’s purchases across all drone categories. 

Keep reading