Tag: military industrial complex

Severity Of America’s Depleted Advanced Weapons Stockpiles Detailed In New Report

During the 39-day war with Iran, the U.S. used so many key offensive and defensive weapons that it will take three or more years to rebuild some of these stocks to pre-war levels, according to a new report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). The report, compiled by Mark F. Cancian and Chris H. Park, highlights concerns we raised long before and during Operation Epic Fury about the rapid expenditure of critical munitions and how that could affect a potential future fight against China. U.S. military leaders have suggested that the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) could be in a position where it would feel confident in launching an invasion of Taiwan by 2027.

The warning light on America’s magazine depth was blinking red long before Epic Fury. The stockpiles, especially of Standard Missile-3s (SM-3) and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptors, were degraded by more than a year of combat in the Red Sea region with the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels and several efforts to defend Israel. U.S. support for Ukraine, meanwhile, drained off supplies of Patriot air defense interceptors. We will address these issues in more detail later in this story. The weapon expenditure figures in the CSIS report only address Epic Fury, not previous U.S. engagements in the Middle East.

The most drastic setback to U.S. inventories involved the use of Tomahawk Land Attack Cruise Missiles (TLAMs) and THAAD and Patriot interceptors, according to CSIS. The think tank derived its expenditure figures from an internal analysis, which TWZ cannot independently verify.

Keep reading

Five Shameless Moments of Iran War Opportunism & Grifting

As the U.S. blockade on the Strait of Hormuz threatens an already tenuous ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran, many at home are looking to profit. Below are five examples of wartime grifters, profiteers, and opportunists absolutely outdoing themselves.

Lockheed Martin CEO: wartime Trump Pentagon a “golden opportunity”

Late last month, Lockheed Martin CEO Jim Taiclet lavished praise on the Trump administration for rolling out the red carpet to the defense industry.

“This is a golden opportunity right now based on who’s in government,” Taiclet told investors during an earnings call. He cited in particular officials’ “willingness to change” and “the demand that they have for what we do and what our partners in our industry do.”

That “demand” of course is war, and the administration has pretty much been in it since Trump’s 2025 inauguration, from supporting Israel in its Gaza and Lebanon operations, firefights with the Houthis, and now Iran. Lockheed has signed billions in contracts with the Pentagon since the beginning of the year, mostly to replenish missiles. Lockheed Martin also has an agreement with the Pentagon to quadruple its production of THAAD interceptors by 2027.

And the U.S. has used many of them both. As the Center for Strategic and International Studies found late last month, the U.S. has burned up over 45% of its Precision Strike Missiles (PrSMs) and roughly half of its THAAD and Patriot missile defense interceptors.

To refill these stocks, the U.S. is mulling a possible Iran war supplemental package — slated to cost an estimated $80 to $100 billion — to replace lost munitions and other military equipment. According to Mike Fredenburg in his reporting for RS in 2024, the U.S. pays way too much for each missile, a lot more than it should for say, a SM-2 missile ($1.2 million-$2 million a piece) or SM-6 (upwards of $5 million each), but since there are only a handful of prime contractors in the business, they can charge whatever they want.

As Stephen Semler, journalist and co-founder of the Security Policy Reform Institute, tells RS, “The interceptor shortage will be addressed in the military-industrial-congressional complex’s favorite way: throw money at the problem.”

Trump’s sons roll in the drone industry dough

Powerus, a drone firm funded by President Trump’s sons, Eric Trump and Donald Trump, Jr., received an Air Force contract for an unspecified number of interceptor drones last week. Bloomberg reported last month that Powerus is also in talks with the United Arab Emirates about a potential sale of drones that can counter Iranian attacks.

In recent months, the Trump brothers have gone all out on defense tech, lining themselves up to profit from the wars their father is waging. Besides Powerus, Eric Trump has invested in Israeli attack drone firm and DoD contractor Xtend, whose drones have seen use in Iran, through a multimillion dollar contract with an unnamed Middle Eastern government. Donald Trump Jr., for his part, backs drone parts startup Unusual Machines and is also a partner at defense- and tech-oriented venture capital (VC) firm 1789 Capital.

Keith Kellogg, Trump’s former special envoy to Ukraine, also joined Powerus as an advisor last month, mere months after leaving his diplomatic post — likewise positioning himself to cash in on his time in government.

Defense-contractor funded think tanker: Iran war is a bargain!

Last week, the Pentagon estimated that the Iran war has cost about $25 billion. Matthew Kroenig, a senior director at the defense contractor-funded Atlantic Council, called the low-ball price tag a “very good value.”

“The entire U.S. defense budget is roughly $1 trillion and designed to deal with China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran,” Kroenig wrote on X. “It only cost 2.5% of the annual defense budget to seriously degrade one of the four.”

But others have to pay for Kroenig’s bargain.

“I’m sure the farmers, trucking companies, and other small businesses that are going belly up because of soaring gas prices won’t be surprised to hear that a war industry funded think tank believes the Iran war is a ‘very good value,’” Ben Freeman, director of the Democratizing Foreign Policy program at the Quincy Institute, told RS.

The total cost of the Iran war has been a point of contention. Critics challenged the Pentagon’s $25 billion estimate; U.S. officials have since told CBS the conflict has cost around $50 billion. Last month, Harvard economist Linda Bilmes predicted taxpayers will pay at least $1 trillion for it in the long term. And none of these estimates include the broader impact of the war on the global economy.

According to the Quincy Institute’s Think Tank Funding Tracker, the Atlantic Council has received nearly $13 million from Pentagon contractors since 2019.

Keep reading

US Approves “Homing All The Way Killer” Missile Support Sale To Ukraine

The US State Department has officially cleared a $108.1 million hardware and sustainment package to keep Ukraine’s frontline air defenses online, after there’s not been much in the way of big dollar headlines concerning Washington’s longtime military support to Kiev of late.

The cash injection targets the maintenance and optimization of the US-designed HAWK system – which is short for the “Homing All the Way Killer” surface-to-air missile system.

Depending on the exact missile variant deployed, the platform handles tactical interceptions of enemy aircraft, drones, and cruise missiles at operational ranges spanning 25 to 30 miles.

The newly approved sale reportedly does not provide new systems, which would bring a much higher price tag, but is instead focused on keeping existing legacy systems operational.

The State Department’s Thursday news release detailed a transaction which featured long-term systems support, including erectable mast trailers, major technical modifications, spare parts, consumables, software support, and contractor engineering services – per a media redout.

The statement sought to provide ongoing justification from the Trump admin’s Ukraine policy:

“This proposed sale will support the foreign policy and national security objectives of the United States by improving the security of a partner country that is a force for political and economic stability in Europe,” it said.

The Defense Security Cooperation Agency has formally notified Congress of the package, and is expected to sail through, after which the contract will be mostly fulfilled by Colorado-based defense contractor Sierra Nevada Corp.  

Ukraine originally integrated the HAWK into its arsenal at the tail end of 2022 via a $400 million security assistance package. And last year Washington authorized a foreign military sale dedicated to a HAWK Phase III upgrade and related sustainment.

Ukraine could see a new rush by Western partners to supply and update air defense systems across the war-ravaged country, given the air war is steadily escalating.

Russia earlier this month sent a record 1,500+ drones and missiles against Ukrainian cities in only a 48-hour period. This was immediately on the heels of a successful 3-day ‘Victory Day’ ceasefire having held, which was backed by President Trump.

Keep reading

In the Midst of Europe’s Rearmament Frenzy, Britain Is Revealed To Only Have Drones for One Week of War

The UK is unprepared for any kind of military confrontation.

US President Donald J. Trump was criticized for calling his weak European allies ‘paper tigers,’ but he was, as usual, right.

In the case of the ‘once greatest ally,’ the United Kingdom, the lack of preparedness is shocking.

Today, reports arise that under PM Keir ‘Not-a-Churchill’ Starmer, Britain only has enough drones for one week of war with Russia.

The Telegraph reported:

“The military’s stockpile of drones is so low that it would vanish within days of war breaking out with Moscow.

Defense chiefs fear that Vladimir Putin could be ready to invade Europe by the end of the decade if a peace deal is struck with Ukraine.”

Keep reading

Iran Rapidly Restoring Industrial Base & Military Strength, US Intel Says, Presenting Strategic Challenge for Trump

New U.S. intelligence assessments are raising serious questions about the outcome of the recent conflict with Iran, suggesting that despite weeks of intense military strikes and claims of its industrial base being ‘obliterated, Tehran has been able to rapidly rebuild key elements of its arsenal.

The findings, according to various reports, complicate the strategic picture for Donald Trump, who now faces mounting pressure over whether to escalate the conflict again or risk losing whatever gains were achieved.

According to multiple intelligence sources, Iran has been rebuilding its military capacity far faster than initially expected. Officials say the timeline for recovery has exceeded prior estimates.

“The Iranians have exceeded all timelines the [intelligence community] had for reconstitution,” one U.S. official said.

The rebuilding effort took place during a six-week ceasefire that followed a major American-Israeli bombing campaign earlier this year. That pause appears to have given Tehran critical time to regroup.

American and Israeli forces launched strikes beginning in late February, targeting missile infrastructure, military facilities, and defense production sites. The goal was to significantly degrade Iran’s ability to project power in the region.

While the strikes caused damage, intelligence assessments now indicate the impact may have been limited. Analysts say Iran’s core capabilities were reduced—but far from totally eliminated.

Keep reading

Germany Becomes A Ukraine War Lab, and a Staging Ground For a Forever War On Russia

In February, under the white light of a Bavarian assembly hall, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and German Defense Minister, Boris Pistorius, walked past rows of unfinished drones. The joint venture hosting them, linking Germany’s Quantum Systems with Ukraine’s Frontline Robotics, is already producing aircraft for Ukraine, plans to scale toward 10,000 units a year, and has already sent its first batch east. This is what Berlin now calls support for Ukraine, not crates on a runway, not old equipment hauled out of Bundeswehr depots, but German soil giving Ukrainian war design an industrial home.

For years, German officials sold their Ukraine policy in the language of restraint, solidarity and defensive necessity, but today, that language is buckling under what Berlin is now doing in plain sight. Germany has signed onto Ukraine’s defence innovation platform, opened itself to battlefield-data sharing, backed joint ventures that turn Ukrainian combat know-how into German-produced drones and robots, and committed itself to work on long-range strike systems with a reach of up to 1,500 kilometres. The result is no longer the picture of a cautious donor helping from a distance. It is a state folding Ukraine’s war labs into its own industrial base and building the rear area of a long war against Russia on German territory.

Germany Becomes the Factory Floor

The Munich drone line strips away the euphemism. Ukraine is not simply receiving German kit from stockpiles. Ukrainian battlefield-proven designs, software and operational lessons are being fused with German capital, German factory capacity and German political cover inside ventures built to scale weapons production for a war Berlin still insists it is not fighting. The Auterion-Airlogix Joint Venture GmbH makes the point even more bluntly. Registered in Germany and launched in February, it combines Airlogix’s battle-tested Ukrainian UAV platforms with Auterion’s autonomy software and is meant to produce thousands of autonomous, combat-ready systems in Germany for the Ukrainian armed forces. Every time Ukrainian engineers find a way through Russian jamming or air defences, German industry is there to absorb the lesson and turn it into volume.

Keep reading

Canada’s Military Punished Whistleblowers Who Flagged Illegal COVID Speech Monitoring

The Canadian Armed Forces reprimanded soldiers who warned that an order to spy on citizens during COVID-19 could violate intelligence-gathering rules. The soldiers were right. The military punished them anyway.

Internal records and emails obtained by CBC News show that on March 11, 2020, a team called Joint Operational Effects (JOE) was ordered to create anonymous social media accounts and scour the internet for information about Canadians.

Under the direction of Col. Chris Henderson, the team produced dozens of reports between March 19 and June 5, tracking what the federal Conservative, NDP, and Bloc Québécois parties were saying about the pandemic.

The Canadian military was monitoring opposition political parties using anonymous accounts created specifically for surveillance.

At least two JOE team members pushed back. They emailed their chain of command, warning that creating anonymous accounts without authorization, while working from home on personal computers, could breach intelligence directives.

One soldier wrote to Maj. John Zwicewicz on March 12, 2020: “Given the sensitivity around social media and military use I have concerns about this.”

They added: “My concern is that by creating these accounts without following proper procedure would come close to, or cross the line set out in the policy.” Another asked to go into the office because they felt it “represented a serious risk” to do the work at home.

Zwicewicz claimed a legal adviser had approved the activities and ordered the group to “cease barrack room lawyering” and get back to work. The team was formally reprimanded more than a week after raising concerns. A source told CBC News that within months, some members quit or were medically released.

The people who raised alarms about potentially illegal surveillance of Canadian citizens got punished. The people who ordered the surveillance kept their positions.

Keep reading

Pakistan Sent 8,000 Troops, Jets And Air Defenses To Saudi Arabia

Pakistan has deployed 8,000 troops, a squadron of fighter jets and an air defense system to Saudi Arabia under a mutual defense pact, ramping up military cooperation with the kingdom, all while playing the lead role in mediating talks between the United States and Iran.

The deployment was first announced by Saudi Arabia last month, specifically on April 11 — three days after the ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran came into effect.

At the time, the Saudi Ministry of Defense said that the deployment came “as part of the Strategic Mutual Defense Agreement signed between the two brotherly countries.”

It added in a statement that the presence of Pakistani forces in the kingdom came with the purpose of “enhancing joint military coordination and raising the level of operational readiness between the armed forces of the two countries,” but didn’t elaborate on the scale of the deployment.

Iran attacked Saudi Arabia with missiles and drones on a near-daily basis right after the start of the American-Israeli war. Most attacks targeted Prince Sultan Air Base, which hosts American troops and aircraft, but the kingdom also accused the Islamic Republic of hitting infrastructure, including energy facilities.

The new details on the Pakistani military deployment in Saudi Arabia came in a report published by Reuters on May 18. The report cited three security officials and two government sources, all of whom described it as a substantial, combat-capable force intended to support the kingdom’s military if it comes under further attack.

The full terms of the defense agreement, signed last year, are confidential, but both sides have said it requires Pakistan and Saudi Arabia to come to each other’s defense in the event of an attack. Defense Minister Khawaja Asif has previously implied that it places the kingdom under Pakistan’s nuclear umbrella.

According to the sources, Pakistan has deployed a full squadron of around 16 aircraft, mostly JF-17 fighter jets. Meanwhile, two of the security officials revealed that Pakistan had also sent two squadrons of drones.

All five sources said that the deployment includes around 8,000 troops, with a pledge to send more if needed, as well as a Chinese HQ-9 long-range air defense system.

The report came just a day after Saudi Arabia reported that three drones were intercepted and destroyed after entering the Kingdom’s airspace from Iraq, where several armed factions allied to Iran are active. The incident highlighted growing tensions amid the ceasefire.

The forces sent by Pakistan to Saudi Arabia are very capable. However, it is clear that the deployment is purely defensive in nature.

Keep reading

Milton Friedman’s All-Volunteer Military

Milton Friedman was one of the most influential leaders of the libertarian and classical liberal movement in the second half of the 20th century. A staunch advocate for applying free-market principles to government policy, he served as Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago from 1946 until his retirement in 1980.

In 1976, Friedman was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics—during the time your columnist was an undergraduate at the university. Many of his students became known as the “Chicago Boys,” who helped introduce free-market reforms across Chile and much of Latin America. Today, President Javier Milei of Argentina stands as one of their prominent intellectual heirs.

A prolific writer, Friedman often collaborated with his wife, Rose, whom he met as a graduate student in economics at Chicago in the 1930s. Together they produced two of his most influential books:

1. Capitalism and Freedom (1962); and
2. Free to Choose: A Personal Statement (1980), which was later adapted into a popular PBS television series.

Both works championed the idea that voluntary exchange and market mechanisms could deliver public services more effectively than government mandates—including areas such as education (charter schools) and national defense.

Proposing an All-Volunteer Army

Friedman’s most impactful public policy achievement was his long campaign for an all-volunteer military. He argued that instead of conscripting young men, the government should hire willing volunteers at market wages. While the Navy, Marines, and Air Force had always relied on volunteers, the threat of being drafted into the Army often drove young men to enlist in those other branches.

Friedman maintained there was no moral or practical justification for the draft. He viewed it as inequitable, arbitrary, and deeply intrusive—interfering with young men’s freedom to shape their own lives. Economically, he believed it was ultimately more expensive than a volunteer force that paid competitive wages.

In 1971, Congress held hearings on the transition to an all-volunteer force. Friedman testified in favor. Opposing him was General William Westmoreland, former commander of U.S. forces in Vietnam (1964–1968), who had a distinguished record including combat heroism in World War II, graduation from the Army War College, and an MBA from Harvard. During a break, Westmoreland approached Friedman and asked, “How would you like to be defended by mercenaries?”

Friedman’s swift reply: “Better than being defended by slaves!”

Keep reading

Trump’s ‘Golden Dome’ missile defense system estimated to cost $1.2 trillion over 20 years: CBO

President Donald Trump’s proposed missile defense system dubbed the “Golden Dome” is estimated to cost $1.2 trillion over two decades, according to a new analysis by the Congressional Budget Office. 

The nonpartisan office described the analysis as one that provides “one illustrative approach rather than an estimate of a specific administration proposal,” according to the Associated Press. 

Trump had ordered the system in an executive order during his first week of his second presidency, In a series of posts on X, the Department of War described it as a “layered, integrated shield” that will defend the U.S. against ballistic missiles, hypersonic missiles, advanced cruise missiles and next-generation aerial attacks.

“From a NORAD and NORTHCOM perspective, the requirement is clear. To defend North America and win tomorrow’s fight, we must maintain our war-fighting advantages and operate beyond stove-piped systems operating at human speed. Golden Dome is forging the integrated, automated battle management network needed to see every threat, make decisions in milliseconds, and keep America safe,” said Maj. Gen. Mark Piper, deputy director of operations at NORAD.

The CBO report notes that its estimate lacks many details from the Department of War about what and how many systems would be deployed. This makes it impossible to estimate the long-term cost of the Golden Dome system, the report explains. 

Keep reading