Raytheon Technologies merger, power-hogging industry trends and the racket of war

Christian Sorensen
Dissident Voice

 Last week two giant war corporations, Raytheon and United Technologies, announced they would merge in early 2020. The new behemoth, to be known as Raytheon Technologies, is expected to have a combined value of over $100 billion in capitalist markets. Recent history provides context to understand today's war industry and the nature of this merger.

The nineteen-nineties witnessed a lot of mergers and acquisitions in the U.S. war industry. Some of the bigger moves were Boeing merging with McDonnell Douglas, Lockheed acquiring Martin Marietta, and Raytheon gobbling up Hughes Aircraft. These moves occurred in parallel to another phenomenon: Home and abroad, the Pentagon effectively doubled down on the corporatization of military functions. Jobs that once were carried out by the troops (e.g. mowing the lawn, serving chow, logistics, eavesdropping on governments, transportation, combat) were increasingly in the private domain, up for grabs to the shrewdest corporation.
The Clinton White House, a country club of neoliberal ideology, was fully onboard. It encouraged the corporatization of the War Department. This aligned well with President Clinton's other accomplishments in office: attacking sovereign nations (e.g. expanding sanctions against Iran's oil sector in 1995, and launching industry ordnance at Afghanistan, the Balkans, Iraq, and Sudan); brutalizing the destitute, working poor, and caged (via the 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform & Immigrant Responsibility Act, the 1996 Prison Litigation Reform Act, the 1996 Personal Responsibility & Work Opportunity Act, and the 1994 Violent Crime Control & Law Enforcement Act); and aiding corporate greed (by passing NAFTA and the 1999 Financial Services Modernization Act and boosting spending on war). One of Clinton's most damaging achievements, the Telecommunications Act of 1996, complemented these activities by deregulating the telecoms and allowing cross-ownership in corporate media, clogging the information space with info-tainment and permitting corporate ideology to further dominate our perception of the world around us. Support for neoliberal economic polices, including the corporatization of war, is one of many traits that both parties in the D.C. regime share.

When the dust settled at the end of the 1990s, three beasts hogged about two-thirds of the power in the U.S. war industry: Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Raytheon. These corporations set out to please shareholders and insatiable Wall Street investment firms. The Pentagon had less leverage over the war industry at this time, because, in part, these three beasts were nearly the only game in town. War corporations soon stepped up their game, influencing Capitol Hill with greater ferocity and creativity. Campaign contributions and lobbying expenditures increased. And more titans of capital cycled from war corporations through the Pentagon's leadership ranks. The war industry also pursued more foreign military sales, including increased sales to brutal regimes like Mubarak's Egypt, the House of Saud, and the Zionist Entity known as Israel. Enter 9.11. With Muslims to bomb and Asian countries to occupy, the Department of War acceded to full corporatization.

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Ibteesam Reaz, Staff Physicist at Lockheed Martin on U.S. Navy TicTac UFO Incidents

Cryptogon

So, these advanced crafts do exist— there is no question about it.

Via: Quora:

Ibteesam Reaz, Staff Physicist at Lockheed Martin

 

Don’t be naive and think the three USS Nimitz/Go Fast/Gimbal events are the only ones on the “official” books. Luis Elizondo, director of the governmental AATIP, has claimed there were “hundreds” of other incidents in the recent past which are not cleared for public release. But we needn’t care— there are thousands of governmental records (as disclosed via the Freedom of Information act) describing these craft with insane maneuverability as far back as the 40s. So, these advanced crafts do exist— there is no question about it. Here’s what we can say, noting this technology has stayed somewhat stagnant since the days of the “foo fighter” UFOs in WWII:

• • Someone has discovered a propulsion technology which does not rely on jets of gas or emission of particles, otherwise, we would see contrails. There are no sonic booms as the craft accelerates. This is a hint that the makers are using some esoteric form of propulsion (related to the gravitational field?).
  • Someone has discovered how to make: right-angled turns in all directions at supersonic speeds; almost instantaneous acceleration from rest and similarly almost instantaneous deceleration from supersonic speeds to rest. (I said ALMOST instantaneous— it may well APPEAR instantaneous due to an altered metric tensor. Thus, the apparent time taken for a maneuver would not be the same for the occupants of the aircraft.)
  • Thus, someone has discovered how to mitigate g-forces to a very large extent. A highly trained pilot can withstand about 10g’s. But craft described by the military regularly force their internal contents (note: occupants, if there are any) to experience hundreds of g’s. The USS Nimitz UFO dropped from 28 000 feet to 50 feet in 0.78 seconds … That is, for reference, 10 900 m/s. The craft’s other “buddies” (similarly sized capsules) previously had dropped from 80 000 feet to 20 000 feet in a few seconds.
  • At the same time, these crafts regularly “glow” in different colors. Red and green “firey” balls were infamously known as “foo fighters” in WWII, following Allies and Axis fighter craft in the night. Thus, the plasma field over their craft is a hint that indeed there is a lot of energy being produced by the craft since the particles are highly excited.

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Lockheed gets $1 billion down payment for Saudi THAAD missile system

Reuters

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Lockheed Martin Corp will receive the first payment toward the installation a $15 billion missile defense system in Saudi Arabia as part of a $110 billion arms package the Trump administration said it negotiated with the Kingdom in 2017, the Pentagon said on Monday.

The Pentagon awarded Lockheed a $946 million payment for the foreign military sale.

In November, the Saudis and U.S. officials signed the letters of offer and acceptance formalizing terms for Saudi’s purchase of 44 THAAD launchers, missiles and related equipment.

As a part of the scope of work outlined by the Pentagon, obsolete systems currently in place will be updated to prepare the current Saudi missile defense infrastructure for the new Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) technology.

The contract also allows Lockheed to pay for materials, tooling and engineering development among other work.

The Pentagon announced the payment as an “undefinitized contract action,” a partial payment that will go to Lockheed Martin and prevent major delays in production of the new missile defense system in Saudi Arabia.

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Military Industrial Complex Stocks Crash as North and South Korea Reach Peace Deal

Activist Post

North and South Korea reached a historic peace deal this week, and as the leaders from the two nations met in person for the first time and agreed to pursue an end to the Korean War, it signaled an incredible breakthrough in diplomacy and sent the stocks of defense contractors in the United States crashing.

When North Korea’s Kim Jong-un shook hands with South Korea’s Moon Jae-in for the first time on Friday, they put thousands of people both at home and around the world at ease, as they agreed to a peace deal that has the power to break the tension that has been between the two countries for decades. [...]

However, while peace may seem like the best possible outcome to the average person who is aware of how the ongoing war has hurt both North and South Korea over the years, it is a resolution that hurts the United States military-industrial complex, as can be seen by the results from stocks following the meeting.

On Friday alone, the five largest defense contractors in the U.S. lost more than $10 billion in value.

Lockheed Martin (LMT) started the week at $352.79 per share and ended it at $321.95 per share, falling 2.5 percent to a valuation of about $92 billion.

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Computer Crash Wipes Out Years of Air Force Investigation Records

Comment: Really? I mean, come on...Back ups and safeguard protocols weren't in operation from one of the biggest defence contractors on the planet? I don't think so. That level and amount of information doesn't just disappear, it needs a helping hand. I think someone didn't want someone else to discover a few salient facts...Lockheed Martin is the "Monsanto" of the weapons industry after all.

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Government Executive

The U.S. Air Force has lost records concerning 100,000 investigations into everything from workplace disputes to fraud.

A database that hosts files from the Air Force’s inspector general and legislative liaison divisions became corrupted last month, destroying data created between 2004 and now, service officials said. Neither the Air Force nor Lockheed Martin, the defense firm that runs the database, could say why it became corrupted or whether they’ll be able to recover the information.

Lockheed tried to recover the information for two weeks before notifying the Air Force, according to a service statement.

The Air Force has begun asking for assistance from cybersecurity professionals at the Pentagon as well as from private contractors.

“We’ve kind of exhausted everything we can to recover within [the Air Force] and now we’re going to outside experts to see if they can help,” said Ann Stefanek, an Air Force spokeswoman at the Pentagon.

For now, Air Force officials don’t believe the crash was caused intentionally.

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How Gaza was testing ground for Israeli military technology and global arms trade

Shir Hever 
Stop the War Coalition

Israeli arms companies have the advantage in marketing their products around the world, because they can claim that their products have been tested in actual combat.

Israel may be a relatively small state, but it is the largest per-capita weapons exporter in the world. The Israeli arms companies have the advantage in marketing their products around the world, because they can claim that their products have been tested in actual combat.

Senior officers of the Israeli army often pursue a second career in the arms industry after retiring from service, and as soldiers they already have the opportunity to perform valuable services to their future employers, by testing weapon systems developed by the arms companies, by convincing the Israeli government and public of the necessity of such technologies for military victory, and by offering praise to the companies producing these weapons.

Trade fairs for military technology and for homeland security equipment are commonplace in Israel, especially after each round of bombardment and/or invasion of Gaza. The advertising line repeated by the companies in these trading fairs to promote their wares is that “the IDF already uses that technology.”

The Israeli arms industry operates in close cooperation with its bigger sister in the US. The military aid the US gives to Israel ensures this cooperation, and every conflict in the Middle East contributes more to the profits of US arms giants (such as Boeing, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, and Raytheon) than to the Israeli arms companies.

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Violence in Iraq Means Profits for Beechcraft, Lockheed, Raytheon and other Weapons Makers

All Gov.

U.S. companies are reaping big benefits from the Iraqi government’s battle with ISIS militias. Three sales, including some big-ticket items, announced last month will put nearly $1 billion in the pockets of American defense contractors if Congress approves the sales.

• Beechcraft Defense Co. and eight other contractors are selling 24 AT-6C Texan II aircraft, plus spares and other equipment to Iraq. That deal is worth about $790 million. The plane is used for “light attack and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.”
• AM General has a deal to send 200 of its venerable Humvees to help guard oil installations. The contract, which includes spares and equipment such as radios and machine gun mounts, is worth $101 million.
• Raytheon has a $90-million deal for seven aerostats along with 14 Rapid Aerostat Initial Deployment (RAID) Tower systems to be used for command and control by the Iraqi military.

These are just the latest in a string of sales of military equipment to the Iraqi government. Others have included Stinger missiles, C-130J cargo planes, drones and patrol boats.

Since 2005, the U.S. government has provided more than $14 billion in military hardware, services and training to Iraq, according to Global Post. The Iraqi government is now requesting more equipment to battle the Sunni militias, which have taken over large swaths of the country, and American contractors stand to make even more money as the fighting progresses.

-Steve Straehley

To Learn More:

Pentagon Plans To Deliver $1B In Weapons Systems To Iraq. Even Blimps. (by Jill R. Aitoro, Washington Business Journal)

These Are The 9 Weapons The U.S. Is Selling Iraq (by Allison Jackson, Global Post)

Forgotten by Most Americans, Iraq is Still a Source of Profits for U.S. Weapons Makers (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)

The Engineered Destruction and Political Fragmentation of Iraq. Towards the Creation of a US Sponsored Islamist Caliphate

Global Research

The Western media in chorus have described the unfolding conflict in Iraq as a “civil war” opposing the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham against the Armed forces of the Al-Maliki government.

(Also referred to as Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) or Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)

The conflict is casually described as “sectarian warfare” between Radical Sunni and Shia without addressing “who is behind the various factions”.  What is at stake is a carefully staged US military-intelligence agenda.

Known and documented, Al Qaeda affiliated entities have been used by US-NATO in numerous conflicts as “intelligence assets” since the heyday of the Soviet-Afghan war. In Syria, the Al Nusrah and ISIS rebels are the foot-soldiers of the Western military alliance, which oversees and controls the recruitment and training of paramilitary forces.

The Al Qaeda affiliated Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) re-emerged in April 2013 with a different name and acronym, commonly referred to as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). The formation of a terrorist entity encompassing both Iraq and Syria was part of a US intelligence agenda. It responded to geopolitical objectives. It also coincided with the advances of Syrian government forces against the US sponsored insurgency in Syria and the failures of both the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and its various “opposition” terror brigades.

The decision was taken by Washington to channel its support (covertly) in favor of a terrorist entity which operates in both Syria and Iraq and which has logistical bases in both countries. The Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham’s Sunni caliphate project coincides with a longstanding US agenda to carve up both Iraq and Syria into three separate territories: A Sunni Islamist Caliphate, an Arab Shia Republic, and a Republic of Kurdistan.

Whereas the (US proxy) government in Baghdad purchases advanced weapons systems from the US including F16 fighter jets from Lockheed Martin, the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham –which is fighting Iraqi government forces– is supported covertly by Western intelligence. The objective is to engineer a civil war in Iraq, in which both sides are controlled indirectly by US-NATO.

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UFOs: Ben Rich Lockheed Skunk Works CEO admits on his deathbed