Tag: military industrial complex

Report Sounds Alarm Over Growing Role of Big Tech in US Military-Industrial Complex

The center of the U.S. military-industrial complex has been shifting over the past decade from the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area to Northern California – a shift that is accelerating with the rise of artificial intelligence-based systems, according to a report published Wednesday.

The report – entitled How Big Tech and Silicon Valley Are Transforming the Military-Industrial Complex – was authored by Roberto J. González, a professor of cultural anthropology at San José State University, for the Costs of War Project at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International & Public Affairs.

The new paper comes amid the contentious rise of AI-powered lethal autonomous weapons systems, or killer robots; increasing reliance upon AI on battlefields from Gaza to Ukraine; and growing backlash from tech workers opposed to their companies’ products and services being used to commit or enable war crimes.

“Although much of the Pentagon’s $886 billion budget is spent on conventional weapon systems and goes to well-established defense giants such as Lockheed Martin, RTX, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics, Boeing, and BAE Systems, a new political economy is emerging, driven by the imperatives of big tech companies, venture capital (VC), and private equity firms,” González wrote.

“As Defense Department officials have sought to adopt AI-enabled systems and secure cloud computing services, they have awarded large multibillion-dollar contracts to Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and Oracle,” he added. “At the same time, the Pentagon has increased funding for smaller defense tech startups seeking to ‘disrupt’ existing markets and ‘move fast and break things.’”

Keep reading

We’ve Blown $1B In Ammo and Navy Secretary says, “Oh well”

We have an industrial base problem and an Administration that has this childish inclination to grab everything off the shelves, rip the boxes open, use some of the contents, throw the partially empty box away, and then lunge for another box on the shelf.

And like a child, they never pause to think where the boxes of stuff come from or ensure new boxes are placed on the vacant shelves.

It’s the mindset of the globalist utopian, just take, never give. They know how to consume, not create or produce. Classic projection – that’s what they accuse of everyone else.

We’re approaching 2 and ½ years of grabbing ordnance off the shelves and not really placing orders with signed contracts. The Biden officials will lecture industry endlessly about the woeful state of the industrial base and then not do two key things. Create more Government owned, Contractor operated plants and place signed orders.

Air Force Plant 44, the singular most important American missile factory, on the southern perimeter of Tucson International Airport, Arizona, where flights are landing daily with illegals and 9,000 illegals a day are streaming up from Nogales has plenty of room for expansion – but no signs of it. Contractors should not be expected to invest in capitalization and expansion when the buying patterns are psychotic which is why many leave the industry.

Keep reading

US Air Force secretly develops missiles that could obliterate Iran’s nuclear facilities by zapping their electronics – without harming civilians

The US Air Force has quietly deployed missiles that could destroy the electronics of Iran‘s nuclear facilities with high-power microwaves, rendering them useless, without causing any fatalities, DailyMail.com has learned exclusively.

Known as the Counter-Electronics High Power Microwave Advanced Missile Project (CHAMP), the missiles were built by Boeing’s Phantom Works for the US Air Force Research Laboratory and first tested successfully in 2012. They were deployed—meaning installed in various locations around the globe—and became operational in 2019.

This comes as Israel has conducted strikes in Iran in retaliation for Tehran’s unprecedented drone-and-missile assault earlier this week, defying US President’s warning that more attacks could plunge the Middle East further into conflict.

Mary Lou Robinson, then chief of the High Power Microwave Division of the Air Force Research Lab at Kirtland Air Force Base, previously confirmed to DailyMail.com that 20 CHAMP missiles were operational and ready to take out any military target, including nuclear facilities.

When asked for comment, Othana Zuch, an Air Force Research Laboratory public affairs officer, said that while ‘operational security precludes us from discussing specific operational applications for our technologies,’ the CHAMP missiles were considered a demonstration program and ‘we have since continued to develop advanced HPEM (High Power Electromagnetic) technologies’ building on the original demonstration.

Keep reading

AI Is Now Dogfighting With Fighter Pilots In The Air

Last year, the uniquely modified F-16 test jet known as the X-62A, flying in a fully autonomous mode, took part in a first-of-its-kind dogfight against a crewed F-16, the U.S. military has announced. This breakthrough test flight, during which a pilot was in the X-62A’s cockpit as a failsafe, was the culmination of a series of milestones that led 2023 to be the year that “made machine learning a reality in the air,” according to one official. These developments are a potentially game-changing means to an end that will feed directly into future advanced uncrewed aircraft programs like the U.S. Air Force’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft effort.

Details about the autonomous air-to-air test flight were included in a new video about the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) Air Combat Evolution (ACE) program and its achievements in 2023. The U.S. Air Force, through the Air Force Test Pilot School (USAF TPS) and the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), is a key participant in the ACE effort. A wide array of industry and academic partners are also involved in ACE. This includes Shield AI, which acquired Heron Systems in 2021. Heron developed the artificial intelligence (AI) ‘pilot’ that won DARPA’s AlphaDogfight Trials the preceding year, which were conducted in an entirely digital environment, and subsequently fed directly into ACE.

“2023 was the year ACE made machine learning a reality in the air,” Air Force Lt. Col. Ryan Hefron, the ACE program manager, says in the newly released video, seen in full below.

Keep reading

DARPA’s Defiant Fully Uncrewed Demonstrator Ship Will Hit The Seas Later This Year

Plans to test a new uncrewed surface vessel are making waves, with the company heading the project targeting the end of this year to put its demonstrator in the water. Serco Inc.’s Defiant testbed has been designed from the ground up with the knowledge that there will never be a human onboard while it’s at sea. Conceived as being capable of operating autonomously for months to years with minimal maintenance, the vessel is already being eyed by the Navy as a path to fielding a fleet of missile-laden drone boats in the future.

Defiant is being procured under the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) No Manning Required Ship (NOMARS) program, which aims to field a new medium uncrewed surface vessel (MUSV) prototype. The NOMARS program was launched in 2020, and Serco’s involvement in it stretches back to that time.

In 2022, the company was awarded a $68.5 million total-value contract to build, test, and demonstrate its solution as the prime contractor. This is all prior to the start of more rigorous at-sea testing, which a representative for Serco confirmed to The War Zone on the floor of the Navy League’s Sea Air Space symposium this week is scheduled to start in January 2025.

Keep reading

Other researchers who have compiled evidence that US military-public health-vaccination programs injure and kill people.

In studying American legal history, scientific fraud, drug manufacturing deregulation/non-regulation, and military/vaccination/public health/communicable disease/emergency management programs these last few years, I’ve found the work of other researchers who have traveled similar paths.

Some of these investigators are listed below, with examples of their work reporting on US government chemical and biological warfare, vaccination, communicable disease and population control programs; smallpox; polio; swine flu; avian flu; AIDS; brucellosis; anthrax; immune system disorders; cancer; public health emergency law, and related topics.

I’m posting the list for readers who may be interested in it.

It’s not a complete list of authors who have studied and written about these issues, and the listed researchers have not reached identical historical or scientific conclusions.

I haven’t read all of the works listed and I don’t find all of the conclusions I have read, to be equally plausible, credible or actionable.

I’ve read enough of their work to conclude that each researcher has studied some of the same things I’ve studied.

What do they have in common?

Each researcher has compiled evidence that US government statements about military, public health, and vaccination program objectives, historical events and scientific, regulatory data, have been demonstrably false for a very long time, and each researcher’s work has been suppressed and maligned, to prevent widespread public interest in it and access to it.

Some of the listed investigators have concluded that documented injuries and deaths caused by chemical and biological agents, including vaccines, deployed against foreign and domestic human targets, have been unintentional, unexpected effects of willed acts undertaken with benevolent intent.

Others have concluded that injuries and deaths have been intentional, planned, anticipated effects of willed acts undertaken with malicious intent.

Keep reading

MICROSOFT PITCHED OPENAI’S DALL-E AS BATTLEFIELD TOOL FOR U.S. MILITARY

MICROSOFT LAST YEAR proposed using OpenAI’s mega-popular image generation tool, DALL-E, to help the Department of Defense build software to execute military operations, according to internal presentation materials reviewed by The Intercept. The revelation comes just months after OpenAI silently ended its prohibition against military work.

The Microsoft presentation deck, titled “Generative AI with DoD Data,” provides a general breakdown of how the Pentagon can make use of OpenAI’s machine learning tools, including the immensely popular ChatGPT text generator and DALL-E image creator, for tasks ranging from document analysis to machine maintenance. (Microsoft invested $10 billion in the ascendant machine learning startup last year, and the two businesses have become tightly intertwined. In February, The Intercept and other digital news outlets sued Microsoft and OpenAI for using their journalism without permission or credit.)

The Microsoft document is drawn from a large cache of materials presented at an October 2023 Department of Defense “AI literacy” training seminar hosted by the U.S. Space Force in Los Angeles. The event included a variety of presentation from machine learning firms, including Microsoft and OpenAI, about what they have to offer the Pentagon.

The publicly accessible files were found on the website of Alethia Labs, a nonprofit consultancy that helps the federal government with technology acquisition, and discovered by journalist Jack Poulson. On Wednesday, Poulson published a broader investigation into the presentation materials. Alethia Labs has worked closely with the Pentagon to help it quickly integrate artificial intelligence tools into its arsenal, and since last year has contracted with the Pentagon’s main AI office. The firm did not respond to a request for comment.

Keep reading

Manta Ray High-Endurance Underwater Drone Unveiled

Northrop Grumman has completed the construction of its first full-scale Manta Ray uncrewed underwater vehicle, or UUV, prototype. The company is developing the drone under the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Manta Ray program, which seeks to demonstrate critical technologies for a new class of very long-endurance payload-capable UUVs. 

The news was announced by Northrop earlier today, along with the release of the first image of its full-size testbed, seen in the feature image of this article. Now that its assembly has been finalized, the next step will be to actually test it, which Northrop has previously said will take place at some stage this year.

While details on the overall dimensions of the prototype have not been made public, Northrop describes it as an “extra-large glider” that draws inspiration from the “graceful glide” of the manta ray. In mimicking the shape and movement of the fish after which it’s named, Northrop’s drone features a lifting body that has sea glider-like properties, but is not a glider in the true sense of the term (i.e., it does not strictly employ variable-buoyancy propulsion alone instead of thrusters or propellers to move it forward).

In the video below, released by Northrop in 2022, we see computer-generated footage of Manta Ray being propelled via four small propellers. Imagery of the full-size testbed released by Northrop today also shows the presence of rear propellers, of which there appear to be two, rather than four.

Keep reading

Chemical drums filled with toxic waste are dug up in New York ‘cancer hotspot’ – where families have been warning for years they are being poisoned

Chemical drums filled with toxic liquid have been dug up in a New York neighborhood where residents say there has been a mysterious rise in cancer over the years. 

Construction workers unearthed six barrels of chlorinated solvents and waste oil petroleum, which had been dumped within the Town of Oyster Bay in Long Island.

The drums were buried by North Grumman when it operated an aerospace facility in the town from the 1950s to 1990s.

Officials fear the waste may have leaked into the soil and is on the way to public drinking supply.

The town is home to more than 17,200 people who have long raised concerns about the Grumman Aerospace waste, specifically a four-mile-long carcinogenic plume flowing underground that they claim contributed to a rise in cancer diagnoses. 

Residents have also found toxic compounds in their attacks and the soil – and a family of three living close to the park were all stricken with cancer.

So concerned were locals about health issues that the state health department conducted a study into cancer diagnoses in the town in 2013.

The three-year researcher found no higher overall cancer rates in a 20-blocka area surrounding the former Grumman property.

But officials noted that there were scientific limitations that made it nearly impossible to link residential cancer clusters and pollution.

What officials did find is that within a one-block area, all those diagnosed with cancer were younger than expected.

Oyster Bay Town Supervisor Joseph Saladino told local ABC 7: ‘The discovery of the drums in these coffin-like vaults is further proof that Grumman created an environmental graveyard of contaminants right here in this park.’

Bethpage Community Park was closed around 20 years ago over soil contamination concerns, but the site is nestled among homes and community centers.

Keep reading

Washington Abandons All Norms To Arm Israel

Despite the U.S. not vetoing a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza during the month of Ramadan, the Biden administration continues to prove itself as a major obstacle to peace in the Middle East.

Washington has previously used its veto powers to block three UNSC resolutions on Gaza, staying true to its role as the main political and economic backer of Israel with its steady supply of arms to support the military offensive. However, by abstaining from voting on Resolution 2728 (2024), it was successfully passed with 14 votes in favor. While the U.S. did not strike down the resolution, eyebrows have been raised after numerous U.S. officials described the resolution as “non-binding.”

“Of course, we still have Israels back. As you and I are speaking, we are still providing tools and capabilities, weapon systems, so Israel can defend itself,” said the White House National Security Communications Advisor, John Kirby, in a press interview. “Again, no change by this non-binding resolution on what Israel can and cannot do in terms of defending itself,” he added.

Additionally, both the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations (UN), Linda Thomas-Greenfield, and the U.S. State Department spokesperson, Matthew Miller, have repeatedly referred to the resolution as “non-binding.”

All UN Security Council resolutions are binding, as is made clear under Article 25 of the U.N. Charter: “The Members of the United Nations agree to accept and carry out the decisions of the Security Council in accordance with the present Charter.” Additional confirmation can be found in the 1971 advisory opinion on the question of Namibia by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) which established that all UNSC resolutions are indeed legally binding.

Despite the indisputability of the resolution being binding, Washington continues its attempts to jump through hoops to discredit this fact. The U.S ambassador to the UN argued that since the resolution does not fall under Chapter VII of the UN Charter and therefore does not authorize the use of force to implement it.

Richard Gowan, a former senior official at the UN who currently works at NGO International Crisis Group, provided his insight on Washington’s interpretation in an interview.

“It is clear that the resolution does not contain any enforcement mechanism of its own, and if other Council members proposed sanctions against Israel for non-compliance, the U.S. would veto them,” he said. “So ultimately the resolution is an important diplomatic sign about the need for a ceasefire, but it has little force.”

Keep reading