Tag: military industrial complex

Dear DOGE: Here’s How To Cut the Pentagon Budget by $100 Billion in 6 Easy Steps

America’s military budget is more than just numbers on a page – it’s a reflection of the priorities that shape our society. Right now, that nearly trillion dollar budget is bloated, inefficient, and far removed from the needs of everyday Americans. We’ve identified six simple yet effective ways to cut at least $100 billion from the Pentagon’s budget – without sacrificing even the most hawkish of war hawk’s sense of national security. Ready to take the scissors to that excess spending? Here’s how we can do it.

1. Halt the F-35 Program (Save $12B+ per year)

The F-35 is the poster child for military mismanagement. It’s a fighter jet that was supposed to revolutionize our military – except it’s plagued by cost overruns, delays, and underperformance. Despite a projected lifetime cost of over $2 trillion, this aircraft only meets mission requirements about 30% of the time. If we ended or paused the F-35 program now, we’d free up $12 billion annually. The military-industrial complex can afford a few less fancy jets that destroy land and lives, especially when they don’t even do their job right.

2. Reassess Long-Range Missile Defense (Save $9.3B+ per year)

For over half a century, we’ve sunk an eye-watering $400 billion into long-range missile defense systems that have never delivered. The cold, hard truth is these systems are ineffective against real-world threats. In fact, no missile defense technology has ever proven capable of neutralizing an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) attack. Cutting back on these programs would save us $9.3 billion per year – money that could be better spent on diplomacy initiatives that actually work.

3. Cut the Sentinel ICBM Program (Save $3.7B+ per year)

ICBMs were once the crown jewels of our nuclear deterrence strategy, but they’re outdated in today’s geopolitical climate. With more reliable and flexible platforms like submarines, bombers, and emerging hypersonic technologies, maintaining an expensive, high-risk ICBM arsenal makes little sense. Ending the Sentinel ICBM program would save taxpayers $3.7 billion annually, and even more in the long run, with total savings over its lifespan estimated at $310 billion. It’s time to face facts: we don’t need to keep pouring money into a strategy that no longer aligns with modern defense needs. Especially when the best nuclear deterrence system is ending nuclear weapons programs to begin with.

4. Cease Procurement of Aircraft Carriers (Save $2.3B+ per year)

Aircraft carriers are relics of a bygone era, costing billions to build and maintain, while becoming increasingly vulnerable to modern missile technology. These floating cities are no longer the symbols of naval power they once were. By halting new aircraft carrier procurements, we can save $2.3 billion a year – money that could be better allocated to ways that actually keep us safe in the 21st century like housing, healthcare or climate justice.

5. Cut Redundant Contracts by 15% (Save $26B per year)

The Pentagon’s bureaucracy is a cash cow for contractors – more than 500,000 private sector workers are paid to do redundant and often wasteful work. Many contracts overlap or go toward projects that are, frankly, unnecessary. Cutting back just 15% on these contracts would save $26 billion annually. That’s a massive chunk of change that could be reallocated to more efficient and effective defense projects. Want a starting point? Look no further than SpaceX’s lucrative contracts – it’s time we hold these companies accountable.Maybe DOGE knows a guy there?

6. Prioritize Diplomacy (Save $50B+ per year)

The best way to avoid unnecessary military spending is to prevent conflicts from happening in the first place. By focusing on diplomatic solutions instead of military interventions, we can scale back expensive overseas bases, reduce troop deployments, and use reserves and National Guard units more effectively. This shift could save up to $50 billion a year – and possibly as much as $100 billion in the long term. It’s about time we put our resources into creating peaceful solutions rather than preparing for endless wars.

What Could We Do with the $100 Billion in Savings?

The possibilities are endless when we take a more practical approach to national security spending. What could we do with the $100 billion we save? Here’s a snapshot of just some of the incredible investments we could make in American society:

  • 787,255 Registered Nurses: Filling critical healthcare gaps nationwide.
  • 10.39 million Public Housing Units: Making affordable housing a reality for families across the country.
  • 2.29 million Jobs at $15/hour: Providing good jobs with benefits, boosting the economy.
  • 1.03 million Elementary School Teachers: Giving our children the education they deserve.
  • 579,999 Clean Energy Jobs: Building a sustainable, green future for the next generation.
  • 7.81 million Head Start Slots: Giving young children a foundation for lifelong success.
  • 5.88 million Military Veterans receiving VA medical care: Ensuring those who served our country receive the care they earned.

The Bottom Line?

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Scorch Marks in the Sand

Javelin, Stinger, M-777 howitzer, HIMARS, Excalibur, Switchblade, all manner of electronic warfare gizmos and counter-battery radars, Bradley IFVs, Stryker, Leopard, Challenger, Abrams, Patriot, JDAMs, HARMS, Storm Shadow, ATACMS … I’m sure I’m forgetting some.

Oh, yeah … remember in early 2022 when the unveiling of the Bayraktar strike drones was hailed with great fanfare? They were predicted to be the bane of the Russian army. Instead, it was a major embarrassment for the Turks.

That said, over the past year or so, those “savage barbarians” down in Yemen have shot-down a baker’s dozen of the once-vaunted US MQ-9 Reaper drones – supposedly vastly superior to the Bayraktar TB2.

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Inside the F-47: America’s Most Advanced Warplane Yet Signals the Future of U.S. Air Dominance

On March 21st, the United States Air Force and President Trump teased several potential technological advancements when they announced a $20 billion contract for Boeing Aerospace to build America’s Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) platform, the F-47, which is intended to ultimately replace the F-22.

Described in a statement from Air Force Gen. David Allvin as a “monumental leap forward” toward securing America’s air dominance well into the future, the F-47 is said to possess the capability to “outpace, outmaneuver, and outmatch any adversary.”

“With the F-47, we are not just building another fighter – we are shaping the future of warfare and putting our enemies on notice,” the General said.

“The F-47 will be the most advanced, most capable, most lethal aircraft ever built,” President Trump told reporters during an Oval Office press conference announcing the contract award. “Nothing in the world comes even close to it.”

The Development of the F-47 Focused on Technological Advancements

While the exact details of the technological advancements featured in the F-47 remain classified, The Debrief has reported on several technology tests and systems many expect to be included in the new NGAD fighter.

For example, when the Air Force sent out a highly classified solicitation to its industry partners for the NGAD program in 2023, then Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall said the NGAD fighter would be a “leap in technology” over the F-22, featuring such attributes as “enhanced lethality and the ability to survive, persist, interoperate, and adapt in the air domain.” Kendall later described the DoD’s X-plane program designed to test individual advanced technologies for the NGAD program as a “family of systems” approach where advanced hypersonic drones and possibly even directed energy weapons are integrated into the fighter’s overall operation.

In 2023, speculation grew about the body design of the NGAS fighter when military contractor Lockheed-Martin’s advanced technology division, Skunk Works, featured an unidentified, sleek, delta-winged, manned aircraft at the end of a video highlighting the company’s advanced fighter legacy. The video included images of the infamous SR-71, the U2 spy plane, the F-177 Nighthawk, and in-development projects like Project Carrera’s “Speed Racer.”

In 2024, contractor Pratt & Whitney announced testing of the XA-103 prototype to evaluate its Next Generation Adaptive Propulsion System (NGAP) designed to “improve speed, power, fuel efficiency, thermal management, and overall survivability” of any airframe equipped with the propulsion system. At the time, Jill Albertelli, president of Pratt & Whitney’s Military Engines business, explained that “continued government funding for sixth-generation propulsion development must remain a high priority to support critical platform milestones and warfighter readiness.”

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Trump Admin Chooses Boeing To Construct the ‘Most Lethal Aircraft Ever Built’

The Pentagon has awarded Boeing a billion-dollar contract to build the Air Force’s most advanced fighter jet, President Donald Trump announced Friday.

The Next Generation Air Dominance program will replace Lockheed Martin’s F-22 Raptor with Boeing’s F-47, a sixth-generation jet designed to operate alongside drones in combat. While details of the new jet remain classified, the aircraft is expected to feature stealth capabilities, advanced sensors, and new engines, Reuters reported.

“The F-47 will be the most advanced, most capable, most lethal aircraft ever built,” Trump said at the White House. “An experimental version of the plane has secretly been flying for almost five years, and we’re confident that it massively overpowers capabilities of any other nation.”

The new plane comes as part of a “family of systems” intended to “counter adversaries such as China and Russia,” according to Reuters. The contract is valued at more than $20 billion, with Boeing expected to receive hundreds of billions of dollars in orders.

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Why is the U.S. Military Involved in Fighting “Climate Change” at All?

President Trump’s Pentagon is making a bold move to refocus America’s military on its core mission – winning wars, not battling climate change. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is leading the charge to eliminate what he calls “climate zealotry” from defense spending as part of a broader effort to streamline military operations.

At a glance:

  • Trump administration plans to cut Pentagon climate programs as part of 8% budget reduction over five years
  • Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth states military should focus on “deterring and winning wars, not climate change”
  • Pentagon has already canceled multiple climate studies, including assessments of climate impact on African stability
  • Department of Defense Climate Resilience Portal has been taken down
  • Pentagon working with Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to eliminate what officials call “woke chimeras of the Left”

Trump Administration Refocuses Pentagon on Core Mission

The Trump administration is making significant changes to Pentagon priorities, cutting programs related to climate change as part of a broader initiative to reduce defense spending by 8% over the next five years. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has been explicit about the shift in focus, declaring that addressing climate concerns is not part of the military’s core responsibilities.

Defense Department spokesman John Ullyot reinforced this position, stating that “climate zealotry and other woke chimeras of the Left are not part of that core mission” of deterring, fighting, and winning wars. The administration’s efforts include reviewing contracts to eliminate billions in climate-related spending across the department.

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Judge Ana Reyes Blasted for ‘Disturbing,’ Unprofessional Ruling, Hectoring DOJ Attorney on What ‘Jesus Would Say’ About Trans Soldier Ban

A D.C. judge is being accused of being one of many “activist judges” who is using her position to stymie President Donald Trump’s agenda after blocking his de facto ban on transgender people in the military.

U.S. District Judge Ana C. Reyes, a Biden-appointee and the first openly lesbian federal judge in D.C., blocked the Trump administration’s transgender troops ban on Tuesday night, in part citing Hamilton, a Broadway musical beloved by liberals, to justify her decision.

“The Court’s opinion is long, but its premise is simple. In the self-evident truth that ‘all people are created equal,’ all means all. Nothing more. And certainly nothing less,” the order reads, differing from the Declaration of Independence which reads, “all men are created equal.”

“Women were ‘included in the sequel’ when passage of the Nineteenth Amendment granted them the right to vote in 1920. See Lin-Manuel Miranda, Hamilton: An American Musical (2016); compare U.S. Declaration of Independence (1776) with U.S. Const. amend. XIX (1920),” the citation reads. “That right is one of the many that thousands of transgender persons serve to protect.”

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Medical Surveillance Part 2: Tracking the Unvaccinated

Part 1 of “Medical Surveillance” revealed how contact tracing evolved into databases called real-time AI ecosystems. The data stored in these ecosystems ranges from medical records to genomic sequences that were largely collected using Covid-19 PCR tests. Health privacy laws were revised to enable an alarming amount of data sharing with public and private intelligence agencies for military operations. Using the Covid-19 scamdemic as a front, the military worked with so-called health authorities to weaponize Covid-19 statistics to target non-compliant or undesirable groups with mRNA vaccines, ventilators, and Remdesivir. In other words, it was a military operation that utilized covertly collected private medical and genetic data to deploy bioweapons. Targets were acquired using AI generated predictive behavior models provided by government intelligence agencies like Palantir. If that sounds disturbing to you, keep reading because that was just a warm-up.

The DELAYED REACTION THAT ENABLED THE ILLUSION OF THE PANDEMIC OF THE UNVACCINATED

As contact tracing phased into the background and the genome-collection method known as PCR testing was normalized, one more important piece of data needed to be collected: vaccination status.

The mockingbird media foreshadowed that vaccination status must be made public information because during a public health emergency everyone has a right to know their risk. Soon everyone would need to have a Covid-19 shot to travel, work, go to school, and participate in society. All this would inevitably lead to a vaccine passport. Yet there was no official way to track who was vaccinated in the healthcare industry.

The CDC and Medicare (CMS) announced new codes for tracking vaccination status that would go live on April 1st 2022. The update occurred exactly two years after the Covid-19 diagnosis code went live — on April fools’ Day. This time the emergency update was for the purposes of tracking vaccination status. It just wasn’t an emergency during the most aggressive portion of the vaccine campaign; the part where everyone had to get the shot in order for society to come out of lockdown and “go back to normal”. At any point during 2021, the CDC, CMS, or the AMA could have stopped the presses to do another emergency update to introduce a new code for vaccination status (or for adverse events, for that matter). They did not.

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We’re #1 in Selling Weapons!

We’re #1 (once again) in selling weapons! Amazingly, the USA now accounts for 43% of the world’s trade in deadly weaponry. No country beats more plowshares into swords and pruning hooks into spears than America, which is also, obviously, the most Christian nation in the world.

Let’s take a look at a useful chart from Stephen Semler (be sure to check out his blog on Substack)…

Finding #1: The US is the world’s largest arms dealer

The US accounts for 43% of global arms exports, more than the next seven largest arms-exporting countries combined. All the countries outside the top eight account for less than 17% of the worldwide total.

For another perspective on America’s record-breaking year of selling deadly weaponry, check out this column by Lenny Broytman.

Way back in 2012, I wrote a column for TomDispatch: “Weapons ‘r’ us,” in which I examined America’s dominance of the weapons trade. Here’s what I wrote back then:

Yes, we’re the world’s foremost “merchants of death,” the title of a best-selling exposé of the international arms trade published to acclaim in the U.S. in 1934. Back then, most Americans saw themselves as war-avoiders rather than as war-profiteers. The evil war-profiteers were mainly European arms makers like Germany’s Krupp, France’s Schneider, or Britain’s Vickers.

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US Army’s Joint Light Tactical Vehicles Never Passed Required Armor Testing

In news that we’re certain will have Adam Schiff laying out a multi-national, multi-planetary conspiracy that can only be stopped by impeaching Donald Trump tomorrow, a new report from Bloomberg found that from 2017 to 2019, employees at Evraz North America Inc., a Russian-owned steel manufacturer, falsified quality control tests on armor plating used in the JLTV, according to an internal report and company officials.

The Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV), the U.S. Army’s successor to the Humvee, is designed to protect troops from bullets, mines, and explosives. At its Portland, Oregon facility, workers skipped mandatory hardness tests and fabricated results for about 12,800 armor plates, which were falsely labeled as approved. Some of these plates later developed cracks, raising concerns about their reliability in combat.

Oshkosh Defense LLC, a major military vehicle manufacturer, was a key customer for Evraz’s armor plates. The company produces the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV), marketed as a “go-anywhere, do-anything” light tactical vehicle. Primarily used by the U.S. military, the JLTV has also been provided to Ukraine, Israel, Brazil, and Lithuania. As of last year, over 22,000 JLTVs had been built, each expected to last around 20 years, the report says.

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What happens if the robot army is defeated?

Many of the national security establishment’s leading voices say America’s military needs to rapidly modernize by embracing the digital future through adopting Artificial Intelligence, network-centric warfare, and uncrewed weapons.

Some even claim that such technology has already fundamentally changed the nature of war. The Pentagon’s technologists and the leaders of the tech industry envision a future of an AI-enabled military force wielding swarms of autonomous weapons on land, at sea, and in the skies.

However, before the United States fully mortgages its security to software code and integrated circuits, several questions must be addressed. Assuming the military does one day build a force with an uncrewed front rank, what happens if the robot army is defeated? Will the nation’s leaders surrender at that point, or do they then send in the humans?

The next major question is, what weapons will the humans wield? It is difficult to imagine the services will maintain parallel fleets of digital and analog weapons. Judging by current trends, Pentagon leaders are much more likely to invest the bulk of their procurement budgets in purchasing autonomous or “optionally manned” systems like the XM30 Mechanized Infantry Combat Vehicle.

Those promoting such a future appear ignorant of a very simple truth: war is a human endeavor. Wars are fought to serve human ends. The weapons used are only the means to achieve those ends.

The humans on both sides of a conflict will seek every advantage possible to secure a victory. When a weapon system is connected to the network, the means to remotely defeat it is already built into the design. The humans on the other side would be foolish not to unleash their cyber warriors to find any way to penetrate the network to disrupt cyber-physical systems.

The United States may find that the future military force may not even cross the line of departure because it has been remotely disabled in a digital Pearl Harbor-style attack.

Technology certainly has its place in the military. Uncrewed aerial vehicles fill many of the roles traditionally performed by pilots flying expensive aircraft to take just one example. In certain circumstances, troops on the front lines should have the ability to employ technology directly.

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