US sending troops and munitions to Israel

The United States said on Sunday it will send US troops to Israel along with an advanced US anti-missile system, in a highly unusual deployment meant to bolster the country's air defenses following missile attacks by Iran.

US President Joe Biden said the move was meant "to defend Israel," which is weighing an expected retaliation against Iran after Tehran fired more than 180 missiles at Israel on October 01.

The United States has been privately urging Israel to calibrate its response to avoid triggering a broader war in the Middle East, officials say, with Biden publicly voicing his opposition to an Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear sites and his concerns about a strike on Iran's energy infrastructure.

Pentagon spokesperson Major General Patrick Ryder described the deployment as part of "the broader adjustments the US military has made in recent months" to support Israel and defend US personnel from attacks by Iran and Iranian-backed groups.

But a US military deployment to Israel is rare outside of drills, given Israel's own military capabilities. US troops in recent months have aided Israel's defense from warships and fighter jets in the Middle East when it came under Iranian attack.

But they were based outside of Israel.

The Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, or THAAD, is a critical part of the US military's layered air defense systems and add to Israel's already formidable anti-missile defenses.

A THAAD battery usually requires about 100 troops to operate. It counts six truck mounted launchers, with eight interceptors on each launcher, and a powerful radar.

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi warned earlier on Sunday that the United States was putting the lives of its troops "at risk by deploying them to operate US missile systems in Israel."

"While we have made tremendous efforts in recent days to contain an all-out war in our region, I say it clearly that we have no red lines in defending our people and interests," Araqchi posted on X.

Still, experts say Iran has sought to avoid a direct war with the United States, making deployment of U.S. forces to Israel another factor in its calculus going forward.

Iran launched missiles and drones at Israel in April. Then on October 01, Iran fired more than 180 ballistic missiles at Israel amid another escalation in fighting between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon. Many were intercepted in flight but some penetrated missile defenses.

US officials did not say how quickly the system would be deployed to Israel.

The Pentagon said a THAAD was deployed to southern Israel for drills in 2019, the last and only time it was known to be there.

Lockheed Martin, the biggest US arms maker, builds and integrates the THAAD system, which is designed to shoot down short-, medium- and intermediate-range ballistic missiles. Raytheon, under RTX, builds its advanced radar.

Israel, Iran, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, THAAD system,

China plans sanctions on CEOs of Boeing Defense and Raytheon over Taiwan sales

China will impose sanctions on the Chief Executives of Boeing Defense and Raytheon over their involvement in Washington's latest arms sales to Taiwan, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Friday, reports Reuters.

The sanctions on Boeing Defense, Space, and Security CEO Ted Colbert and Raytheon Technologies Corp boss Gregory Hayes are in response to the US State Department approval on September 02 of the sale of military equipment to Taiwan.

Those sales include 60 anti-ship missiles and 100 air-to-air missiles, of which the respective principal contractors are Boeing Defense, a division of Boeing Co. and Raytheon.

Colbert and Hayes will be sanctioned "in order to protect China's sovereignty and security interests" said foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning citing "their involvement in these arms sales."

Mao did not elaborate on what the sanctions would entail or on how they would be enforced. Neither company sells defense products to China, but both have robust commercial aviation businesses.

US defense procurement rules generally prohibit Chinese-origin content, so sanctions have had no impact on the US military.

"The Chinese side once again urges the US government and relevant entities to... stop selling arms to Taiwan and US-Taiwan military contacts."

The Pentagon announced the package in the wake of China's aggressive military drills around Taiwan following a visit last month by US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the highest-ranking US official to travel to Taipei in years.

China has previously sanctioned Raytheon, Boeing Defense, and unspecified individuals involved in arms sales to Taiwan.

A Raytheon spokesman declined to comment. Boeing declined to comment immediately, but on Thursday said it plans to remarket some airplanes that it had earmarked for Chinese airlines as geopolitical tensions have delayed deliveries.

In December 2021, China approved the return of Boeing's 737 MAX to service after it had been grounded following two accidents involving the airliner that killed 346 people.

Despite the approval, Chinese airlines have not resumed flying the MAX and have not accepted deliveries of new MAX aircraft.

The US government has previously accused the Chinese government of blocking tens of billions of dollars of MAX deliveries to China.

Before the MAX was grounded, Boeing was selling a quarter of the planes it built annually to Chinese buyers, its largest customers.

Raytheon sells to China through its United Technologies engine business.

Friday's announcement marks the first time Beijing identified and imposed sanctions against individuals from these companies.

Beijing considers the self-ruled island of Taiwan a wayward province it has vowed to bring under control, by force if necessary.

Taiwan rejects China's sovereignty claims, saying only its people can decide their future, and vows to defend itself if attacked.

 

US military-industrial complexes the biggest beneficiary of Afghan war

Brown University’s Costs of War Project released a new report Monday, detailing post-9/11 spending by the Pentagon. The study found that of the over US$14 trillion spent by the Pentagon since the start of the war in Afghanistan, one-third to one-half went to private military contractors.

The report, authored by William Hartung of the Center for International Policy, said US$4.4 trillion of the total spending went towards weapons procurement and research and development, a category that directly benefits corporate military contractors. Private contractors are also paid through other funds, like operations and maintenance, but those numbers are harder to determine.

Out of the US$4.4 trillion, the top five US weapons makers — Lockheed Martin, Boeing, General Dynamics, Raytheon, and Northrop Grumman — received US$2.2 trillion, almost half. To put these huge numbers into perspective, the report pointed out that in the 2020 fiscal year, Lockheed Martin received US$75 billion in Pentagon contracts, compared to the combined US$44 billion budget for the State Department and USAID that same year.

Besides getting paid for weapons and research, US corporations profit from private contractors that are deployed to warzones. The most notorious private security contractor previously employed by the Pentagon is Blackwater, the mercenary group whose employees massacred 17 people in Iraq’s Nisour Square back in 2007.

Besides armed mercenaries, the Pentagon employed private contractors for just about every task in US warzones. Demonstrating the Pentagon’s reliance on contractors, at the end of the Trump administration, only 2,500 US troops were left in Afghanistan, but over 18,000 Pentagon contractors were still in the country.

The report explained how China is the new justification for military spending. “The most likely impact of the shift towards China will be to further tighten the grip of major weapons makers like Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, and Raytheon Technologies on the Pentagon budget,” the report reads.