U.S. Minuteman III Missile Replacement at Least 37% Over Budget
January 19th, 2024Parts of the U.S. look like they have been nuked already.
Via: Reuters:
The replacement for the ground-based U.S. nuclear arsenal anchored by the Minuteman III has officially busted through its $95.8 billion budget due to the COVID-19 pandemic and inflation, the Air Force said on Thursday.
The Air Force is notifying Congress that the program, being designed and managed by Northrop Grumman Corp, opens new tab, is now at least 37% over a pre-pandemic cost estimate finalized in September 2020, Andrew Hunter, assistant secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, told Reuters in an interview.
Program changes, such as making bigger silos and switching to more durable materials, have also raised costs.
The total program cost, now estimated above $131 billion, could grow further as the U.S. Secretary of Defense concludes a review by the summer.
While cost overruns regularly occur at the Department of Defense, the Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) is especially expensive to replace.
What Happened to the U.S. Machine Tool Industry?
January 18th, 2024Via: Construction Physics:
Machine tools – machines that cut or form metal – are the heart of industrial civilization. Sometimes called “mother machines” (because they’re machines that make other machines), machine tools are required to make almost everything. Nearly every manufactured good is made using machine tools, or by machines which were made using machine tools:
“Thus an automobile is an assembly of metal parts made by machine tools, plastic parts produced by machines made by machine tools, fabric processed on textile machines made by machine tools, rubber processed and molded by equipment made on machine tools, and glass processed by equipment produced by machine tools.” – Anderson Ashburn, Is New Technology Enough?
Being able to manufacture machine tools is often considered an important capability for an industrialized country. Not only does this provide ready access to the latest manufacturing technology, but it ensures production of munitions and other military equipment won’t be bottlenecked by a lack of machine tools. This isn’t a hypothetical concern: American production of artillery shells for Ukraine has been held back by a lack of machine tools. The military has thus historically paid close attention to the machine tool industry and the availability of machinists.
For most of the 20th century, the US was unrivaled in its machine tool technology, and as late as the early 1980s it was the largest machine tool producer in the world.. But almost overnight, the industry collapsed: annual machine tool shipments declined by more than 50% in 2 years, hundreds of machine tool companies went out of business, and the US slipped from the largest producer in the world to the 4th or 5th (depending on the year), roughly where it remains today.
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Today, the US competes in a machine tool market that continues to be dominated by Japan, Germany, and now China. It has some bright spots, such as Haas Automation (founded in 1983, in the ashes of the industry’s collapse), but the major producers are all foreign companies. As of 2014, not a single one of the 10 largest machine tool companies in the world was a US company (Haas clocked in at number 13), a fact which as far as I know remains true today. The US is still a major purchaser of machine tools (2nd in the world behind China), but unlike for most of the 20th century, today its factories are full of machines made elsewhere.
The Pentagon Is Getting Rooftop Solar
January 18th, 2024
Also the Pentagon: U.S. Military Is a Bigger Polluter Than as Many as 140 Countries:
…the US military is one of the largest polluters in history, consuming more liquid fuels and emitting more climate-changing gases than most medium-sized countries. If the US military were a country, its fuel usage alone would make it the 47th largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world, sitting between Peru and Portugal.
Via: Electrek:
The US Department of Defense will install rooftop solar on the Pentagon as part of the Biden administration’s plan to “reestablish the federal government as a sustainability leader.”
In addition to rooftop solar panels, the Pentagon will also install a heat-recovery heat pump system and solar thermal panels to reduce reliance on fossil fuels.
Lab Leaks
January 18th, 2024Via: Dr. John Campbell:
Steadfast Defender 2024: 90,000 Troops in Largest NATO Exercise Since Cold War
January 18th, 2024Via: Reuters:
NATO is launching its largest exercise since the Cold War, rehearsing how U.S. troops could reinforce European allies in countries bordering Russia and on the alliance’s eastern flank if a conflict were to flare up with a “near-peer” adversary.
Some 90,000 troops are due to join the Steadfast Defender 2024 drills that will run through May, the alliance’s top commander Chris Cavoli said on Thursday.
More than 50 ships from aircraft carriers to destroyers will take part, as well as more than 80 fighter jets, helicopters and drones and at least 1,100 combat vehicles including 133 tanks and 533 infantry fighting vehicles, NATO said.
Cavoli said the drills would rehearse NATO’s execution of its regional plans, the first defence plans the alliance has drawn up in decades, detailing how it would respond to a Russian attack.
Netanyahu: “In the future, the state of Israel has to control the entire area from the river to the sea.”
January 18th, 2024NOW – Netanyahu: "In the future, the state of Israel has to control the entire area from the river to the sea."pic.twitter.com/M0uyN4SOzW
— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) January 18, 2024
U.S. Planning to Establish New Drone Bases in Ghana, Ivory Coast and Benin
January 18th, 2024Via: Covert Action Magazine:
The Wall Street Journal reported on January 4 that talks were under way as the Biden administration was seeking to establish drone bases at airfields in Ghana, Ivory Coast and Benin following a coup in Niger over the summer that jeopardized the U.S. military position there.
Stars and Stripes magazine reported in December that the U.S. cut the number of military personnel deployed to Niger by more than 40% in the wake of the coup, which, ironically, was led by a Special Forces officer, Moussa Salaou Barmou, trained at Fort Benning, Georgia, and the National Defense University in Washington.
Trump Vows To “Never Allow” A Central Bank Digital Currency
January 18th, 2024Mr. Zionist Pfizer Warpspeed comes out against CBDC.
Hmm hmm. Great.
“But the problem here…”
Could foreign DNA enter your cells through the mRNA COVID vax and change your DNA — and humanity itself — forever? Sounds nutty. It's not. "Absolutely that could happen," says Dr. Joseph Ladapo, the surgeon general of Florida. A shocking conversation. pic.twitter.com/Yvt38eStPf
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) January 15, 2024
January 14, 2024
?We now have 84 candidates, 65 elected officials and 1 Surgeon General from 29 states publicly stating the COVID shots must be pulled off the market.
Many are also pledging not to take donations from Big Pharma. Over 17,000 physicians stand… pic.twitter.com/OkSDNG8uSB— Mary Talley Bowden MD (@MdBreathe) January 14, 2024
I haven’t felt this nauseated about a presidential election since…
Ahh, the good ole days:
Via: ZeroHedge:
Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday vowed to never allow the use of a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), as it would “give the government absolute control over your money.”
“This would be a dangerous threat to freedom – and I will stop it from coming to America. We are also going to put in place strong protections to stop banks and regulators from trying to de-bank you for your political beliefs. That will never happen while I am your president,” Trump told a crowd in Portsmouth, New Hampshire – as first reported by The National Pulse.
Jellyfish UFO Analysis
January 18th, 2024Via: Mick West:
Each Facebook User Is Monitored by Thousands of Companies
January 18th, 2024Via: Consumer Reports:
By now most internet users know their online activity is constantly tracked. No one should be shocked to see ads for items they previously searched for, or to be asked if their data can be shared with an unknown number of “partners.”
But what is the scale of this surveillance? Judging from data collected by Facebook and newly described in a unique study by Consumer Reports, it’s massive, and examining the data may leave you with more questions than answers.
Using a panel of 709 volunteers who shared archives of their Facebook data, Consumer Reports found that a total of 186,892 companies sent data about them to the social network. On average, each participant in the study had their data sent to Facebook by 2,230 companies. That number varied significantly, with some panelists’ data listing over 7,000 companies providing their data.
