Tag: military industrial complex

Ukraine says it uncovers mass fraud in weapons procurement

Ukraine’s SBU security service said on Saturday it had uncovered a corruption scheme in the purchase of arms by the country’s military totalling the equivalent of about $40 million.

The announcement of mass procurement fraud, confirmed by Ukraine’s Defence Ministry, will have a huge resonance in a country beleaguered by Russia’s nearly two-year-old invasion.

The fight to root out endemic corruption remains a major issue as Ukraine presses its bid to secure membership in the European Union.

The SBU said an investigation had “exposed officials of the Ministry of Defence and managers of arms supplier Lviv Arsenal, who stole nearly 1.5 billion hryvnias in the purchase of shells.”

“According to the investigation, former and current high-ranking officials of the Ministry of Defence and heads of affiliated companies are involved in the embezzlement.”

The embezzlement, it said, involved the purchase of 100,000 mortar shells for the military.

The SBU said a contract for the shells was clinched with Lviv Arsenal in August 2022 – six months into the war – and payment was made in advance, with some funds transferred abroad.

But no arms were ever provided, the statement said, with some funds then moved to other foreign accounts.

The statement said five individuals had been served “notices of suspicion” – the first stage in Ukrainian legal proceedings – both in the ministry and the arms supplier. One suspect, it said, was detained while trying to cross the Ukrainian border.

Corruption within the military has been a particularly sensitive issue in Ukraine as it tries to maintain wartime public morale and present its case to join the 27-nation EU.

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No diploma? No problem! Navy again lowers requirements as it struggles to meet recruitment goals

The U.S. Navy is starting to enlist individuals who didn’t graduate from high school or get a GED, marking the second time in about a year that the service has opened the door to lower-performing recruits as it struggles to meet enlistment goals

No diploma? No problem! Navy again lowers requirements as it struggles to meet recruitment goalsLOLITA C. BALDORAssociated PressThe Associated PressWASHINGTON

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Navy is starting to enlist individuals who didn’t graduate from high school or get a GED, marking the second time in about a year that the service has opened the door to lower-performing recruits as it struggles to meet enlistment goals.

The decision follows a move in December 2022 to bring in a larger number of recruits who score very low on the Armed Services Qualification Test. Both are fairly rare steps that the other military services largely avoid or limit, even though they are all finding it increasingly difficult to attract the dwindling number of young people who can meet the military’s physical, mental and moral standards.

Under the new plan, Navy recruits without an education credential will be able to join as long as they score 50 or above on the qualification test, which is out of 99. The last time the service took individuals without education credentials was in 2000.

“We get thousands of people into our recruiting stations every year that want to join the Navy but do not have an education credential. And we just turn them away,” said Vice Adm. Rick Cheeseman, the Navy’s chief of personnel, in an interview Friday with The Associated Press.

He said that of the more than 2,400 who were turned away last year, as many as 500 of them could score high enough to get in. He said he has already sent an order to his recruiters to start the new expanded effort, adding, “I’m hoping all my recruiters have called all 2,442 of them in the last 72 hours, and we’ll see how it goes … We’ll try to get some test takers this weekend.”

In the wake of the pandemic, the services have faced significant enlistment challenges. COVID-19 forced the military to shut down recruiting stations and they were closed out of high schools and many public fairs of events where they historically found success reaching prospective candidates.

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US Military Build-Up Since Gaza War Began Has Cost $1.6 Billion 

The Senate is planning to add money to upcoming legislation to fund President Joe Biden’s military buildup in the Middle East and war in Yemen. Senator Susan Collins says the legation should be a priority as US Central Command is quickly depleting its funds. Senator Jack Reed believes Congress will need to pass multiple rounds of funding to allow Biden to wage war across the Middle East. 

Following the Hamas attack on southern Israel, Biden ordered thousands of troops and multiple aircraft carrier strike groups into the region. Politico reports the Department of Defense informed Congress the deployment of additional troops and warships to the Middle East over the past four months has cost $1.6 billion. The Pentagon estimates the cost will be $2.2 billion over the course of the year. 

The cost estimates do not include the price of the interceptors and munitions used in fighting the Houthis. Congress has not authorized Biden’s war in Yemen or the military surge in the Middle East. A growing number of American lawmakers, including within Biden’s party, have voiced opposition to the White House waging a war in Yemen without Congressional authorization. 

A Pentagon official said at some point, the holes in the Department of Defense budget will have to be filled by Congress. An official told Politico, “It will be, I think, a hole that we would want to be filled. It is a bill that will be due and we will have to pay for it within a limited amount of resources.”

The Senate is now preparing to fund the conflicts in the Middle East, but there are no plans to authorize the war. Politico reports Congress is considering several options for authorizing the war spending. The outlet explains, “Lawmakers are aware of the unplanned cost and are weighing how to pay for it. Options include adding it to the annual spending bill, adding it to the $111 billion emergency supplemental for Ukraine and Israel, or funding it through a stand-alone supplemental for war costs.”

The White House has been pushing Congress to pass a $111 billion bill that provides funding for the wars in Ukraine and Israel, the military buildup in the Asia-Pacific, and border security. The legislation has been delayed for several months over debate on immigration policy. 

Sen. Collins, a Republican member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, is urging the body to take action. “[US Central Command] needs [the funding] sooner. They’re fast running out of funds,” she said.

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Latest Wonder Weapon Being Provided to Ukraine Unlikely to Turn the Tide in War

On January 6, Denmark announced that it would be transferring 19 American-made F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine in the second quarter of 2024. Last August, the Biden administration approved sending F-16s—which are made by Lockheed Martin—to Ukraine from Denmark and the Netherlands.

Kyiv had long sought to obtain the fighter jets, but Washington had previously resisted allowing the transfers for fear of being deemed a direct belligerent in the Ukraine war by Moscow.

Joe Biden nevertheless told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the G-7 Summit last spring that the U.S. would support training Ukrainian pilots to fly the aircraft.

Like anti-tank Javelin missiles and other “wonder weapons” Ukraine has previously received, it is unlikely that the F-16 jets will significantly change the course of military operations in Ukraine’s favor. However, these planes represent yet another provocation directed against Russia that will only fuel an escalation of a devastating conflict that has resulted in such a huge loss of life.

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Americans Are Paying a Massive Price To Maintain the Empire

Two press reports stood out to me this morning: the release of the names of two US Navy SEALs who drowned two weeks ago in the Arabian Sea and the Air Force’s production authorization for the B21 Raider bomber. Both stories symbolize an imperial inertia that defines American national security policies, an inertia that is damaging our democracy and jeopardizing futures.

The SEALs died taking part in a blockade mission against Yemen, a mission that dates back nearly a decade and is part of a two-decade-long history of US military action against Yemen (the US first launched a drone strike in Yemen in 2002). US policy towards Yemen is part of the larger, failed and counterproductive Global War on Terror, which itself is part of a larger, failed and counterproductive US Middle East policy. US Middle East policy, in its current form, goes back to the 1970s and is part of a larger, failed and counterproductive US militarized foreign policy. Can anyone go to the families of those two SEALs killed carrying out those policies and explain what their deaths were for without resorting to grotesque and false tropes of freedom and security, the same aspirational and patriotic fairy tales that have been used to justify 250-plus military operations by the US since 1991?

The other story relates to the authorization of production of the B21 Raider, which is set to replace the B1 and B2 bombers but not the 70-year-old B52s. That the youngest B52 was produced in 1962 and won’t be replaced, but the bombers built in modern times must be replaced, tells you a great deal about the strategy of the American weapons industry. This fleecing of the American taxpayers by the Military Industrial Complex (MIC) is nothing new. Both political parties have hollowed out the American economy to the benefit of weapons makers. If any citizen has the gall to ask their members of Congress why our living standards are so far below those of the world’s other wealthy nations, the answers come back as some variation of “we can’t afford those things.”

What’s new about the B21 is that the cost for years was classified, even to members of Congress. Budget figures, as well as contract details, production schedules and test results, are still being kept hidden. Reports say Northrup Grumman will produce 100 of the planes, and, with an estimated total program cost of more than $200 billion, keeping quiet about the price tag of $2 billion airplanes is a politically savvy move if not a democratic one.

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Japan’s Growing Militarism: The Drums of War in Support of the American Empire

It seems that Japan is making strategic decisions to join their US and NATO allies in preparation for a global war against their long-time adversaries, China, North Korea, and Russia. The latest deal Tokyo made with Washington for the purchase of 400 Tomahawk cruise missiles with the promise to increase its national defense spending is alarming, “Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s government has pledged to double its annual defense spending to about 10 trillion yen (U.S. $68 billion) by 2027.”  

The Defense Minister of Japan, Minoru Kihara plans for the military’s rapid deployment of the newly acquired American-made missiles along with its own Type 12 surface-to-ship missiles due to its security concerns with China and North Korea.  The U.S. reportedly sold $2.35 billion worth of Tomahawk missiles last November when Kihara signed an agreement with the US ambassador to Japan, Rahm Emanuel, who was the former Chief of Staff under Barack Obama and a former Mayor of Chicago. Kihara said that “Japan and the United States agreed to expedite the deployment “in response to the increasingly severe security environment.” 

Japan’s militarism is growing significantly, “Japan is accelerating its deployment of long-range cruise missiles capable of hitting targets in China or North Korea, while Japanese troops increasingly work side by side with the U.S. and other friendly nations and take on more offensive roles.”  Emanuel said that“under a new defense strategy adopted in December 2022, Japan has joined the United States, Australia, South Korea and many other regional partners “in an aligned vision of how to promote peace and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific and meet the challenges head on” and that “the U.S. approach to its partnership with Japan is “one of ensuring deterrence” and making sure there is no change in the region by military force.” 

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Fears Pentagon was ‘building killer robots in the basement’ sparked stricter AI rules, DoD official claims

Fears the Pentagon has been ‘building killer robots in the basement’ may have led to stricter AI rules that mandated all systems must be approved before deployment.

The Department of Defense (DoD) recently updated its AI rules among ‘a lot of confusion about’ how it plans to use self-decision-making machines on the battlefield, according to the deputy assistant defense secretary.

Michael Horowitz explained at an event this month that the ‘directive does not prohibit the development of any systems,’ but will ‘make clear what is and isn’t allowed’ and uphold a ‘commitment to responsible behavior,’ as it develops lethal autonomous systems.

While the Pentagon believes the changes should ease the public’s minds, some have said they are not ‘convinced’ by the efforts.

News of the update to the Pentagon’s 2012 ‘Autonomy in Weapon Systems,’ has sparked a debate online with many people saying ‘If the Pentagon says they’re not doing it, they’re doing it.’

Dailymail.com has reached out to the DoD for comment. 

The DoD has been aggressively pushing to modernize its arsenal with autonomous drones, tanks, and other weapons that select and attack a target without human intervention.

Mark Brakel, director of the advocacy organization Future of Life Institute (FLI), told DailyMail.com: ‘These weapons carry a massive risk of unintended escalation.’

He explained that AI-powered weapons could misinterpret something, like a ray of sunlight, and perceive it as a threat, thus attacking foreign powers without cause.

Brakel said the result could be devastating because ‘without meaningful human control, AI-powered weapons are like the Norwegian rocket incident [a near nuclear armageddon] on steroids and they could increase the risk of accidents in hotspots such as the Taiwan Strait.’

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RAYTHEON IS BUILDING TWO ULTRA-HIGH POWER DIRECTED ENERGY WEAPONS FOR THE U.S. NAVY AND AIR FORCE

Defense contractor Raytheon has been tasked with designing, building, and testing a pair of directed energy weapons for the U.S. Navy and U.S. Air Force. Unlike cutting-edge laser systems that use the power of light to down airborne threats, the new weapons will use ultra-powerful microwave emitters to fry the electronics of attacking drones, missiles, and other electronically guided ordinance.

According to RTX Corporation, which owns Raytheon, the two prototypes are expected to be delivered in 2024 and 2026, respectively.

DIRECTED ENERGY WEAPONS INCREASINGLY VALUABLE IN ASYMMETRICAL WARFARE

Traditional munitions like bullets use kinetic force to damage or destroy attacking vehicles and personnel. Unfortunately, the cost of more accurate systems like guided missiles is often prohibitively disproportionate when compared to the cost of the attacking vehicle.

For example, the Israeli Iron Dome system that uses missiles can cost as much as $100,000 per shot to bring down a drone or mortar that costs a mere fraction of that amount. Further complicating the issue is the fact that adversaries are increasingly using drones to mount attacks, including the October 7th, 2023, attack on Israel.

To counter what officials have termed asymmetrical threats, the Israeli government has installed a battery of laser cannons known as Iron Beam. According to an April 2022 tweet by Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennet, Iron Beam can down incoming mortar and drones at the cost of only $3.50 per shot.

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Is A Huge War Coming? US & Israel Bomb Yemen, Iraq, Syria, Gaza & Lebanon While Threatening War With Iran

The brutal war that Israel is waging on Gaza is increasingly becoming a regional conflict.

Since October, the United States and Israel have bombed not only Gaza, but also Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen.

Now, the U.S. government is even threatening Iran with war. President Joe Biden sent the Iranian government a private message while the U.S. military was bombing Yemen on January 13. He said threateningly, “We’re confident, we’re well prepared”.

While this is happening, South Africa has introduced a case in the International Court of Justice, the top United Nations judicial authority, which accuses Israel of committing genocide against the Palestinian people.

South Africa’s case has garnered support from dozens of countries across the Global South.

This case has frightened Israel and its sponsors in Washington. They are apparently seeking to expand the conflict into a regional war, to try to win more sympathy and to turn attention away from what South Africa and many countries have referred to as a genocide in Gaza.

In fact, top UN experts have been warning precisely this for months: that the Palestinian people face “the risk of genocide in Gaza”, and that there has been a “failure of the international system to mobilise to prevent genocide”.

The Financial Times reported in December that, in just two months of Israeli bombing, Gaza had become one of the most heavily bombed areas in human history.

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New British laser weapon in successful high power firing

During a trial at the MOD’s Hebrides Range, the DragonFire laser directed energy weapon (LDEW) system achieved the UK’s first high-power firing of a laser weapon against aerial targets.

The range of DragonFire is classified, but it is a line-of-sight weapon and can engage with any visible target.

  • First high-power firing of a laser weapon against aerial targets
  • Laser boasts pinpoint accuracy and low long-term costs

“DragonFire exploits UK technology to be able to deliver a high power laser over long ranges. The precision required is equivalent to hitting a £1 coin from a kilometre away. Laser-directed energy weapons can engage targets at the speed of light, and use an intense beam of light to cut through the target, leading to structural failure or more impactful results if the warhead is targeted.

Firing it for 10 seconds is the cost equivalent of using a regular heater for just an hour. Therefore, it has the potential to be a long-term low-cost alternative to certain tasks missiles currently carry out. The cost of operating the laser is typically less than £10 per shot.”

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