Tag: military industrial complex

Waste of the Day: Military Owns 100+ Golf Courses

That may be an underestimate. The golf courses have been in watchdogs’ crosshairs for decades, with Sen. William Proxmire (D-WI) calling out the Pentagon in 1975 for spending $14 million per year maintaining 300 golf courses. The number of courses has seemingly fallen since, but the Pentagon has also removed some from its lists or listed separate courses as one facility.

Maintenance costs vary. One Army golf course in Virginia costs around $1 million per year to operate and spent $406,000 replacing golf carts in 2021. MIC.com reported in 2012 that a “very conservative estimate” of annual costs for all the golf courses is $140 million.  

The golf courses are banned from receiving money from Congress and are supposed to fund themselves with membership fees, private donations and other sources of revenue. Still, it’s fair to wonder why private donations to the military help pay for golf instead of actual warfighting capabilities.

There are also ways around the rules. The Government Accountability Office found in 1996 that 40% of military golf courses were losing money and using taxpayer funds to cover their losses.

The U.S. Armed Forces Retirement Home in Washington D.C. is technically not part of the DOD, and for years its golf course operated using taxpayer money and 50-cent deductions from military paychecks.

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Fury as top military schools are caught in secret underground plots to usurp Trump’s orders

Top military schools have faced a swift backlash after using underground means to discuss books and topics banned by the Trump administration.

Cadets and staff at the US Naval Academy have been creating non-governmental emails to chat about the banned ideas, including the likes of critical race theory.

The president has cracked down on what made up the curriculum at the school, with faculty saying they run their research through an AI tool screen their findings.

Words that are flagged include ‘barrier’, ‘Black’, ‘allyship’, ‘cultural differences’ and ‘The Gulf of Mexico‘. 

Professors have been told to teach that ‘America and its founding documents remains the most powerful force for good in human history’ after a memo Pete Hegseth. 

One unnamed professor told the Washington Post: ‘We at the Naval Academy are here to prepare young officers to command.

‘They need to know what we have learned from our study of politics and history and literature and languages.

‘We are failing them and we are failing in our jobs if we suppress some things we know are true and we parrot other things we know are false.’ 

They also said that students are feeling conflicted about the possibility of being deployed under the current White House. 

One professor said they had advised cadets to serve until they receive an order that they feel might be illegal. 

He told them if that point comes to ‘reject it rather than compromise yourself’. 

Graham Parsons, a former professor of philosophy at West Point Military Academy, left his position earlier this month in protest over the changes to the curriculum. 

He said that the entire US armed forces have been left up in arms over Trump’s reversal of DEI initiatives and social justice programs. 

Parsons told the outlet: ‘It’s a feeling of real whiplash. We used to raise the possibility in the military and beyond, there are still real structural problems with racism and sexism. That would not fly now.’ 

He stood down from his post after writing a scathing opinion piece for The New York Times. 

In it, he said: ‘I cannot tolerate these changes, which prevent me from doing my job responsibly. I am ashamed to be associated with the academy in its current form.’

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Another Layer of Nuance to the UFO Mystery: Baffling Otherworldly Encounters with Military Naval Vessels

Whereas many people might imagine a scene over a quiet country road, or possibly from the balcony of a high-rise apartment building in a metropolis-like city, or even from a moving aircraft, the fact is there are many sightings on record that occur over the seas, oceans, and other vast water networks of our planet. Although actual statistics differ, it is widely agreed that more than half of all UFO sightings occur over or near water. With this in mind, we might imagine that many of the ships and submarines, particularly military ones, would have encountered these otherworldly vehicles – and we would be right.

As usual, we will not have the time to explore every case; in fact, we only have time and space to scratch the surface of such encounters here, which could fill up entire volumes in their own right, and those are just the sightings from the modern UFO age. We will, though, explore some of the most interesting and detailed UFO encounters that have involved naval vessels in various stretches of water around the planet.

Without a doubt, one of the strangest and thought-provoking of these marine encounters was relayed in the book Military Encounters with Extraterrestrials: The Real War of the Worlds by Frank Joseph, and occurred in the late 1980s when the Cold War, albeit reduced in tensions, was still very much unfolding. According to the report, which came through an anonymous crew member of the US Navy submarine, the USS Memphis, the incident occurred ahead of a NASA space shuttle launch, with the submarine patrolling the waters around the launch site ahead of the mission.

On this particular night – October 24th going into October 25th, 1989 – the USS Memphis was around 150 miles off the coast of Florida, cruising at a depth of around 500 feet. While the mission had been completely textbook so far, on this particular evening, they were experiencing all manner of problems with their electronics. As the witness recalled, the crew quickly realized the “ship was malfunctioning…the tanks were blowing” and the “navigations ability and communication (were) totally lost!” Eventually, an order was given to bring the submarine to a stop so the crew could assess what was happening. However, moments later, the controls in the reactor began to malfunction, and orders were issued to shut it down, switch to diesel engines, and surface immediately.

As soon as the vessel broke the surface of the water, the witness made his way to his watch station. He looked out and could see that the night sky was now glowing “red like a neon sign” as heavy rain came down from above. Then, only moments after first looking out, he noticed a “large, inverted V-shaped” object moving on the port (left-hand) side of the submarine. The witness turned to the executive officer who was with him, who told him to remain at his post while he informed the captain. Several moments later, the captain arrived at the watch station.

By this point, using a laser range finder, they had determined that their vessel was around 600 feet from the nearest point of the strange craft, which was approximately 650 feet from their location. Moreover, they estimated that the furthest point of the object was around 3500 feet from them, suggesting that it was, in total, around half a mile wide.

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Trump Unveils $175 Billion Plan for ‘Golden Dome’ Missile Defense System

The Department of Defense has selected a design for President Donald Trump’s Golden Dome missile defense initiative, Trump announced on May 20.

“I’m pleased to announce that we have officially selected an architecture for this state-of-the-art system that will deploy next-generation technologies across the land, sea, and space, including space-based sensors and interceptors,” Trump told reporters at the White House.

In his first week in office, Trump signed an executive order directing the Department of Defense to devise a plan to implement his missile defense proposal.

“It should be fully operational before the end of my term. So we’ll have it done in about three years,” the president said.

Trump said the plan that the Department of Defense has selected should cost about $175 billion to complete.

The plan will meld new technologies with existing U.S. missile defense systems.

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Raytheon delivers advanced radar to U.S. for tracking hypersonic threats

The U.S. Missile Defense Agency has received the first AN/TPY-2 advanced radar system to defend against next-generation threats.

The new AN/TPY-2 system was built by Raytheon and comes equipped with a complete Gallium Nitride, or GaN, populated array, giving it greater sensitivity to missiles and expanding surveillance capacity while supporting the U.S.‘s hypersonic defense mission, according to the company.

“This is the most advanced version of AN/TPY-2 that Raytheon has built, leveraging years of investment and innovation to produce superior capability at a lower cost to the U.S. armed forces,” Sam Deneke, president of air and space defense systems at Raytheon, said in a statement. “As demand increases for missile defense of the homeland, the AN/TPY-2 radar is ready to meet the mission.”

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US to Spend $1 Trillion on Nuclear Weapons Over Next Decade

According to the Congressional Budget Office, Washington will spend $1 trillion from 2025 to 2034 on modernizing and operating America’s strategic arsenal.

“If carried out, DoD’s and DOE’s plans to operate, sustain, and modernize current nuclear forces and purchase new forces would cost a total of $946 billion over the 2025–2034 period, or an average of about $95 billion a year, CBO estimates,” the report says.

The spending includes $357 billion on operating nuclear weapons and delivery systems, $460 billion on modernization projects, and $130 billion in expected cost overruns. The CBO report notes that Pentagon plans often cost significantly more than projected.

The forecast in this year’s CBO report is $93 billion higher than the estimate produced last year.

“Weapons programs frequently cost more than originally budgeted amounts for a variety of reasons.” It continues, “If nuclear force programs exceeded planned amounts at roughly the same rates that costs for similar programs have grown in the past, they would cost an additional $129 billion over the next decade, $33 billion more over 10 years than CBO estimated in 2023.”

Washington is in the process of a major nuclear weapons upgrade. The US is developing a new bomber, an intercontinental ballistic missile, and a submarine capable of firing nuclear weapons.

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Trump, Saudis secure $600B investment deal to include billions in US defense weapons

President Trump on Tuesday secured a $600 billion commitment from Saudi Arabia to invest in the United States along with a multibillion-dollar defense partnership following a meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh.

The investment, according to a White House fact sheet, will strengthen energy security, defense, technology and access to global infrastructure and critical minerals. It includes a $142 billion defense and security deal that equips Saudi Arabia with state-of-the-art war equipment provided by dozens of U.S. firms.

The equipment includes air and missile defense and air force and space advancements.

The White House called the deal “historic and transformative for both countries” and said it brings in “a new golden era of partnership.”

Days after Trump’s inauguration, the crown prince first announced the Arab nation would invest $600 billion in the U.S. over the four years of Trump’s second term. The White House is detailing those investments following the meeting in Saudi Arabia.

As part of the deal, Saudi Arabian company DataVolt is moving forward with plans to invest $20 billion in artificial intelligence data centers and energy infrastructure in the U.S., and top companies such as Google, Oracle, Salesforce and Uber, among others, are investing $80 billion in technologies in both countries.

Also included in the deal are infrastructure projects American companies Hill International, Jacobs, Parsons, and AECOM are taking on in Saudi Arabia, including at King Salman International Airport, to total $2 billion in U.S. services exports.

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State Department Approves $3.5 Billion Missile Sale to Saudi Arabia

The State Department has approved a $3.5 billion sale of air-to-air missiles to Saudi Arabia ahead of President Trump’s planned visit to the country.

The Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) said the sale includes 1,000 AIM-120C-8 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles, related equipment, and US government contracting services. The missiles can be fired by Saudi Arabia’s fleet of US-made F-15 fighter jets.

President Trump is scheduled to arrive in Saudi Arabia on May 13 and is expected to announce a series of new arms sales to the Kingdom. According to Reuters, he could unveil over $100 billion in weapons deals.

Axios has reported that, on May 14, Trump will attend a summit in Saudi Arabia of leaders from the Gulf Cooperation Council states, which include the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, and Oman.

The visit to Saudi Arabia will mark Trump’s second foreign trip after his brief visit to Italy for Pope Francis’s funeral. According to Middle East Eye, the Saudis have made clear to the administration that they don’t want to discuss normalizing relations with Israel.

Saudi officials have made clear that normalization is off the table as long as the genocidal war in Gaza continues. “Saudi Arabia is serious not to be tricked into anything that regards Israel during the upcoming visit. It was made clear in DC,” an Arab official told MEE.

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A Big Spike in Defense Spending requires a Different Approach as DOD Spending Tops $1 Trillion

The current appropriation for the Fiscal Year 2025 Department of Defense budget is capped at $892.5 billion, the largest ever.  However, with the worldwide arson campaign of the Chinese Communist Party, the U.S. Military is finding itself outpaced significantly by China in many important metrics such as shipbuilding, nuclear forces, cyber, and others.  The U.S. Navy is firing missiles at a rapid rate to keep open the Red Sea, but their ships are rusting and behind on maintenance.

Congress is now working on a $150 billion immediate supplemental for the DOD which will bring it to over $1 trillion in spending, another first.  The threat of the Chinese led alliance of Russia, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela, and South Africa is real and being projected right to the beaches of America with Chinese fighting age males making boat runs into Florida from their forward staging bases in the Bahamas and Chinese and Russian Bombers conducting regular patrols on the West Coast of the U.S.  The increase in defense spending is badly needed – but there needs to be Inspector General and Congressional vigilance to ensure the large budget increases are used judiciously to build capability and lethality not slothful bureaucracy.

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Bringing Back Medium Range Ballistic Missiles Fast Tracked Under Proposed $150B Defense Boost

The U.S. Army could be in line to get nearly $640 million in extra funding for new medium-range ballistic missiles (MRBM), including ones capable of hitting ships at sea.

Work on MRBMs, a long-range strike capability the Army has not had since the end of the Cold War, is one of a slew of efforts that would be accelerated by a $150 billion defense spending package recently proposed by members of Congress. The Army is already looking at a medium-range version of its Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) short-range ballistic missile, but the legislation on the table now may also point to a new design in the works.

The current Republican Party chairs of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees rolled out the proposed multi-billion-dollar defense spending legislation yesterday. If passed and signed into law, it would provide funds to accelerate work on a host of advanced capabilities across the U.S. military, including, but certainly not limited to the Air Force’s F-47 and Navy’s F/A-XX sixth-generation stealth fighter programs, the B-21 Raider stealth bomber, the Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile, a new sea-launched nuclear-tipped cruise missile, new medium landing ships for the U.S. Marine Corps, and President Donald Trump’s Golden Dome missile defense initiative. Additional funding to help expand the U.S. defense industrial base to meet these and other demands, as well as spur further research and development, is also part of the package.

When it comes to Army MRBMs, the spending plan includes four separate provisions amounting to a combined $639 million:

  • “$175,000,000 for production capacity expansion for next-generation Army medium-range ballistic missiles”
  • “$50,000,000 for the accelerated development of Army next-generation medium-range anti-ship ballistic missiles”
  • “$114,000,000 for the production of Army next-generation medium-range ballistic missiles”
  • “$300,000,000 for the production of Army medium-range ballistic missiles”

The legislation does not name any specific Army MRBM program, and TWZ has reached out for more information.

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