Tag: military industrial complex

As Hegseth Touts Autonomous Warfare Command, Human Rights Expert Pushes Civilian Protections

As the US military accelerates its adoption of autonomous weapons systems amid a growing global artificial intelligence arms race, one expert told Common Dreams on Wednesday that “greater action needs to be taken urgently” to protect civilians and ensure meaningful human control over rapidly developing technologies.

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told congressional lawmakers Wednesday during a House Armed Services Committee hearing on the proposed $1.5 trillion Pentagon budget for 2027 that the military will soon have a new “sub-unified command” dedicated to autonomous warfare.

Hegseth, who advocates “maximum lethality” for US forces, has expressed disdain for what he called “stupid rules of engagement” designed to minimize civilian harm. He has overseen the dismantling of efforts meant to mitigate wartime harm to civilians – hundreds of thousands of whom have been killed in US-led wars during this century, according to experts.

This “maximum lethality” ethos, combined with AI-powered systems allowing for exponentially faster and more numerous target selection, has raised concerns that have been underscored by actions including Israel Defense Forces massacres in Gaza and Lebanon, and US attacks like the cruise missile strike on a school in Iran that killed 155 children and staff.

“A sole focus on achieving maximum lethality is inherently incompatible with civilian protection,” Verity Coyle, deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s (HRW) crisis, conflict, and arms division, told Common Dreams. “If the United States truly seeks to protect civilians, it should forgo this limited focus and ensure it has guardrails in place that assess the proportionality of its actions and guarantee a distinction between civilians and combatants.”

“Under international humanitarian law, civilian protection requires that military actions abide by the principles of distinction and proportionality,” Coyle noted. “In other words, military actors must distinguish between civilians and combatants and ensure that the resulting harm to civilians from their actions would not be excessive in comparison to the perceived military gain.”

Experts on lethal autonomous weapons systems – commonly called “killer robots” – stress the need for meaningful human control. However, with industry-backed efforts afoot to ban state and local governments from placing guardrails on AI development, retaining such control could become increasingly difficult as the technology advances.

“The lack of serious guardrails… shows a troubling lack of concern for these real and immediate risks to civilians both in the United States and abroad,” Coyle said. “While we have seen some Congress members and state legislators express concern over these developments, greater action needs to be taken urgently.”

Asked about the “if we don’t build it, they will” mentality of many US proponents of unchecked AI development that is reminiscent of the Cold War nuclear arms race, Coyle said the United States is ignoring its “ability to set the global agenda and international humanitarian law norms.”

“As we see greater integration of AI in the military domain and resulting civilian harm, we need strong international leadership to respond to these threats, not states relinquishing their responsibilities,” she asserted.

Keep reading

Germany Aims to Become EU’s Strongest Military Force by 2039

Germany has now openly declared its intention to become the dominant conventional military power in Europe by 2039. What Berlin is doing is a structural shift that has been building quietly for years, and now it is being formalized in plain sight. The plan calls for expanding the Bundeswehr to roughly 460,000 personnel, including reserves, with about 260,000 active troops, effectively doubling the scale of its usable force compared to today.

What stands out is that this is taking place at the same time Germany’s economy is stagnating, with growth forecasts collapsing toward just 0.5% while inflation rises due to energy pressures and geopolitical tensions. You are witnessing the classic historical pattern where governments shift resources toward military buildup as economic conditions weaken. This is precisely how capital is redirected during periods of rising geopolitical risk.

Germany’s military budget tells the real story. The Bundeswehr is now operating with roughly €108.2 billion in 2026, making it one of the largest defense budgets in the world, and a dramatic departure from the decades when Germany refused to even meet NATO’s 2% threshold. Just a few years ago, Germany was spending closer to €80–90 billion annually, and now projections show spending rising toward €150–160 billion by 2029, or roughly 3.5% of GDP.

This is a staggering transformation. For decades, Germany deliberately maintained a weak military posture as part of the post–World War II settlement. Now they are not only rearming, but they are also explicitly stating they intend to be the strongest conventional force in Europe. That would have been unthinkable twenty years ago.

From the perspective of the Economic Confidence Model and the war cycle, this fits perfectly into the timing window we have been warning about. The arrays have been showing a convergence of civil unrest and international war cycles into 2026–2027. What we are seeing in Germany is not isolated. It is part of a broader shift across Europe, where governments are preparing for sustained conflict risk, not a temporary crisis.

Germany has also moved beyond simply increasing spending. They are restructuring the entire military system, including technology integration, AI-driven warfare, and logistics infrastructure that can support rapid deployment across Europe. This is preparation for long-term engagement capability, not defensive posturing. Once governments begin investing at this scale, they are not planning for peace. They are preparing for confrontation.

Keep reading

Shutting Down the War Machine

Right at this moment, we are witnessing an unprecedented shift of resources from domestic investments in the United States to the military-industrial complex (aka the war machine). The only comparable period in our history was the buildup to World War II, when the United States confronted a powerful adversary in Nazi Germany with designs to control not just Europe, but the world. The current buildup is breathtaking in scope and will certainly prove devastating in its impact — not just on this country’s foreign and domestic policies but also on the economic prospects of average Americans.

When, in 2023, my colleague Ben Freeman and I first conceived of our book, The Trillion Dollar War Machine, we viewed it in part as a cautionary tale about just how high the Pentagon budget might rise in the years to come (absent pushback from Congress and the taxpaying public). By the time our book came out in November 2025, however, the Pentagon budget had already topped the $1 trillion mark and, only recently, President Trump has proposed to instantly add another $500 billion to that already staggering figure and to do so in a single year’s time. And imagine this: such a proposed increase alone is higher than the total military budget of any other nation on Earth. Mind you, the current high levels of spending have already underwritten a provocative, unnecessary intervention in Venezuela and a region-wide war in the Middle East, and the larger costs of all this in human lives and damage to the global economy are guaranteed to shape the lives of the rest of us globally for years to come.

To add insult to injury, the Pentagon announced that it would seek a $200 billion supplemental appropriation to pay for its war on Iran, which has spread across the Middle East. That $200 billion would have been in addition to the $1.5 billion proposed for the Pentagon’s future budget. According to an analysis by Pentagon budget expert Stephen Semler, the Iran war, which started on February 28th with Israeli and U.S. air strikes on that country, cost the United States more than $28 billion just in its first two weeks. And to put that in perspective, $28 billion is more than three times the Trump administration’s proposed annual budgets for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Environmental Protection Agency (at a time when the climate crisis and the need to head off future pandemics are essential to the health and security of all Americans). Worse yet, it’s all for a completely senseless war that should never have been started.

As President Trump alternates between engaging in negotiations to end the war and threatening to wipe Iran off the map — or even just walking away to bomb another day — there are reports that the supplemental budget request to pay for the war on Iran will shrink from the proposed $200 billion to $98 billion. And that $98 billion will include other things in addition to war costs, including disaster relief and aviation modernization.

Keep reading

Palantir’s Draft Push Collides with Washington’s Automatic Registration Machine

In 1777, Thomas Jefferson warned John Adams that a national military draft would rank among the most hated measures imaginable. Colonists had rebelled against British press gangs. That grievance made the Declaration of Independence. Nearly 250 years on, a $350 billion data giant echoes the idea. Palantir Technologies, fresh off zero federal taxes on $1.5 billion in U.S. income, just called for universal national service. Timing? Perfect. Or ominous.

The company’s manifesto hit X last Sunday. It boils down 22 points from CEO Alex Karp’s 2025 book, The Technological Republic, co-written with Nicholas W. Zamiska. One line stands out: “National service should be a universal duty. We should, as a society, seriously consider moving away from an all-volunteer force and only fight the next war if everyone shares in the risk and the cost.” (Fortune)

Palantir didn’t invent the draft. America tried it first in the Civil War. Then World War I. World War II. Korea. Vietnam. The last call came December 7, 1972. Jimmy Carter mandated male registration in 1980. Now comes the shift. Starting December 18, 2026, Selective Service goes automatic for men 18 to 26. No forms. No opt-out nudge. Government databases do the work. President Donald Trump’s National Defense Authorization Act locked it in. (Time)

Why now? Compliance dipped. Selective Service says automation streamlines everything, frees staff for readiness. It pulls from Social Security, DMV, student loans, immigration records. Citizens. Immigrants. Undocumented. Dual nationals. Green card holders. All in, within 30 days of turning 18. “This statutory change transfers responsibility for registration from individual men to SSS through integration with federal data sources,” the agency states. (Newsweek)

Palantir stays silent on direct ties. No contract announced for Selective Service. Yet speculation swirls. The firm holds a $10 billion U.S. Army deal for software and analytics. (U.S. Army) Its platforms run Project Maven, the Pentagon’s AI targeting tool. Reports link it to Gaza strike lists for Israel. (Mother Jones) Over half its revenue flows from government. 2026 guidance? $7.18 billion to $7.2 billion, up 70%.

And taxes. Zero federal in 2025, thanks to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. (ITEP) Karp once framed the mission bluntly: “scare enemies and, on occasion, kill them.” (The Guardian) The manifesto adds layers. Silicon Valley owes a “moral debt.” Remilitarize Germany, Japan.

This lands amid the seventh week of U.S. action in Iran. Tensions simmer. Automatic registration isn’t a draft. But it builds the list. Critics see a data grab. Edward Hasbrouck, draft researcher, warns it props up war planning. Selective Service seeks broader data sharing with law enforcement, even abroad. (Hasbrouck.org)

On X, reactions mix alarm and shrugs. One user ties Palantir directly: “They will use existing gov databases (think Palantir) to find and register them.” (X post by @allenanalysis) Another calls it fearmongering: “This has always been a thing… now it is automatic. That is the only change.” (X post by @CarmineSabia) Palantir’s post drew shares, but no company reply to Fortune.

Keep reading

Japan Lifts Ban on Weapon Exports In Break With Post-WW2 Pacifism

Pacifist post-war Japan is no more.

Emperor Hirohito announced Japan’s capitulation on August 15, 1945, and the instrument of surrender was signed on September 2, aboard the USS Missouri, ending WW2.

Since then, Japan turned its back on the martial aspect of its society and embraced pacifism.

But now, over eighty years later, Japan has scrapped most of its restrictions on weapons exports as it boosts both its own military and its arms industry.

Bloomberg reported:

“The cabinet of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on Tuesday approved changes to defense export rules that will for the first time since World War II allow overseas shipments of weapons. Previously, companies could only export military equipment for use in operations related to rescue, transport, warning, surveillance and minesweeping.

’These decisions are intended to safeguard Japan’s security and further contribute to the peace and stability of the region and the international community amidst rapidly evolving changes in the security environment’, Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara said in a press briefing after announcing the decision. ‘At the same time, the government will uphold the fundamental principles of a peaceful nation that have been built over more than 80 years since the end of the war’.”

Keep reading

USAF Explains Additional F-15EX Buys During Budget Brief

AFP attended the four hours of budget briefings at the Pentagon yesterday as part of the Pentagon Press Corp.

The Department of the Air Force’s Fiscal Year 2027 President’s Budget request marks a fundamental strategic shift. This budget departs from previous practices and makes a conscious effort to prioritize investment in modernization and readiness, recognizing both as essential and non-negotiable. With a total request of $338.8 billion, this 38% increase over the FY26 enacted position is a generational investment designed to supercharge our Defense Industrial Base, sharpen our military readiness, and secure enduring Air and Space superiority.

The budget truly is procurement wish list dream for all of the services, which we will write more about later today.

Part of the procurement buy for fiscal 2027 includes 24 F-15EX aircraft, in a sustained production run to more than 260 airframes.

I question the Air Force officers delivering the briefing about concerns we have heard from retired flag officers about the vulnerability of the F-15EX in a high-threat environment as shown by 4 F-15s being shot down during Operation Epic Fury, by far the aircraft impacted by hostile and friendly fire.

The answer I received was the need primarily in the Pacific of an airframe that can load a large amount of weapons for possibly stand-off offensive fires.

Keep reading

‘Insulting’: AES sent victims’ family $50 gift card, T-shirt in wake of deadly TN explosion, attorney says

Attorneys for the families of two victims in last year’s deadly munitions plant explosion are condemning Accurate Energetic Systems’ “reckless” behavior before the tragedy and the company’s “insulting” response.

In a Thursday press conference, the legal team representing the families of victims Steven Wright and Reyna Gillahan said Accurate Energetic Systems rejected their $150 million pre-litigation demand. Their rejection came 45 minutes before the attorney’s deadline of Monday afternoon.

“We got an announcement of their defense, which their position is that workers’ compensation in Tennessee is the exclusive remedy for any injury in the workplace,” said attorney Darren Richie.

He said that the $150 million demand on a tight deadline may have seemed “outrageous,” but that was intentional.

“I wanted AES to tell me I was being outrageous. So I could turn around to them and tell them, no, your conduct and behavior, AES, is outrageous,” he said.

The press conference offered new insights into AES’s communication with families in the wake of the deadly explosion and how the victims’ loved ones grieve.

WSMV4 has reached out to AES representatives for comment on these accusations.

AES offers victims’ families ‘insulting’ gift card, shirt

So far, AES has done three things for the victims of the people killed after thousands of pounds of explosives detonated at their Hickman County plant: hosted a barbecue food truck event and sent them a $50 Walmart gift card and a T-shirt with a picture of their deceased loved one, according to Richie.

“Needless to say, that’s insulting,” he said on Thursday.

The lawyer also expressed shock that AES has declined to give families the contact information for their insurance.

“That is a professional courtesy that gets exchanged all the time to facilitate resolution of claims. But they denied it. That shows us how they really feel about their employees,” he said.

He said the team plans to file a lawsuit to demand more from AES.

“And besides saying, oh, I’m sorry, providing some barbecue, gift card, and a t-shirt, they’re acting as if nothing happened. And they’re acting as if they don’t bear any responsibility,” he said. “Well, there’s more than a hundred ways that they bear responsibility here. I want them to step up and take responsibility.”

Keep reading

Air National Guard Leaders Urge Congress To Fund Dozens Of New Fighter Jets Annually To Reverse ‘Oldest, Smallest, Least Ready’ Air Force

Leaders of the Air National Guard are pressing Congress to dramatically accelerate fighter jet procurement, warning that the U.S. Air Force is operating at historic lows in age, size, and readiness.

In a letter sent earlier this month to key congressional appropriators, adjutants general from 22 states with Air National Guard fighter units called for funding at least 72 new fighter jets in the fiscal 2027 budget, with an optimal target of 108 aircraft per year across the entire Air Force.“

The United States Air Force is the oldest, the smallest, and the least ready in its 78-year history,” the letter states. “We must build a fighting force that will win,” reports Stars and Stripes.

The signatories argue that simply shifting older “legacy” fighters from active-duty units to the Guard and Reserve does not constitute true modernization. “Cascading legacy fighters from the active component to the reserve component is NOT recapitalization,” they wrote.

Specific Procurement RequestsThe generals are urging Congress to approve multiyear procurement authority for:

  • A baseline of 48 F-35A Lightning II and 24 F-15EX Eagle II fighters per year.
  • Scaling up in future years to 72 F-35As and 36 F-15EXs annually, reaching the 108-aircraft target.

These new jets would replace aging fleets of F-15C Eagles, A-10 Thunderbolt IIs, and F-16 Fighting Falcons still in service.

Keep reading

Belgium seizes arms shipment sent from Britain to Israel

Two shipments from Britain of military components bound for Israel have been seized in Belgium, which has banned aircaft carrying military equipment for Israel from stopping in the country or using its airspace. 

Last month, the British news website Declassified, Belgian NGO Vredesactie, Irish news website The Ditch, and the Palestinian Youth Movement alerted authorities in Brussells of a shipment travelling from Britain to Israel through Liege airport. 

The consignments left Britain on 23 March and were siezed at Liege airport in Belgium on 24 March.

They were searched by a specialised engineer who found “fire control systems and spare parts for military aircraft”, which had not been properly declared.

Belgian authorities reportedly opened a criminal investigation into the affair but have declined to name the firms involved in the complaint.

Keep reading

Last US Convoy Exits Syria After Brutal 14-Year Regime Change Proxy War

Widespread reports on Thursday say the very last US military convoy has finally departed Syrian territory, with the years-long occupation of the primarily northeast oil and gas rich sector over in a ‘mission accomplished’ fashion.

It brings to a final close the 14-year long bloody proxy war which overthrew the Assad government and ultimately installed a pro-US/Saudi axis puppet, in the person of founding Syrian Al Qaeda Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, now known as President Ahmed al-Sharaa.

Hundreds of thousand of people lost their lives in the regime change war, with the country and its economy left in a sanction-starved and conflict-demolished state of ruins.

The US-backed Syrian Foreign Ministry declared Washington had decided to “complete its military mission” in the country. “The Syrian state is today fully capable of leading counter-terrorism efforts from within, in co-operation with the international community,” it said, happy to now be back in control of the domestic oil and gas supply.

The ministry “welcomes the completed handover of military sites where United States forces were previously present in Syria to the Syrian government,” adding that “the handover of these sites was carried out … in full coordination between the Syrian and American governments.”

While Pentagon propaganda had for years touted an ‘anti-ISIS’ mission, the real purpose of the troop presence was to cut off Damascus under Assad of its sovereign natural resources, and to arm and prop up a Kurdish-Arab coalition called the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). 

All the while, the CIA supported Sunni hardline jihadists who were indistinguishable from ISIS in their ideology in the fight against the Syrian Army, and the civilian population which often largely supported the secular Ba’ath government. The broader strategy has long been to destroy the Tehran-Baghdad-Hezbollah ‘Shia axis’ – even if that meant using ISIS as a tool of regime change.

Ironically, in the process of this US handover of oil and gas facilities back to post-Assad Damascus, the Kurds were thrown under the bus. Their dream for an autonomous enclave (Rojava) once again proved illusory, and in the long term the Kurds will find themselves at the mercy of Sunni fanatics on the one hand, and Turkish state under Erdogan on the other.

Keep reading