Local war profiteers: Howmet Aerospace in Kingston, NY

This is the second of an occasional series on local companies that profit from weapons production. The Howmet Fastening Systems plant in Kingston produces, literally, the nuts and bolts (and rivets and fasteners) of aviation. The parent company, Howmet Aerospace, boasts that "If it flies, we're on it". Like Woodstock's Rotron, Howmet in Kingston was for decades a prominent local employer, now a small branch of a giant corporation. And as with Rotron, we can only find occasional details of its weapons contracting thanks to a few government spare-parts requests that happen to make it into the public domain. 

We don't know how much of this particular factory's output is military but at least some of it is. Howmet Kingston is the sole source mentioned in an October 17 "request for quotations" from the Navy's NAVSUP Weapons Systems Support whose mission is "to provide Navy, Marine Corps, Joint and Allied Forces program and supply support for the weapon systems that keep our Naval forces MISSION READY". The Kingston factory is specified, as is Howmet's Simi Valley facility (Howmet Aerospace's distribution and logistics hub, which is identified only by its CAGE Code, an identifier for government contractors). Howmet will supply 18 countersink nose-piece attachments. 

Israeli F-15 bombs Gaza in 2019

DLA [Defense Logistics Agency] Aviation has recently sought parts for the B-2 bomber (in November) and the F-15 aircraft (in December). The Kingston plant is listed as one of a few suppliers for these items, along with other Howmet locations.

Israel makes much use of the F-15 for genocidal purposes. Earlier this year the Trump administration proposed giving Israel some B-2s.

For its role in supplying Israel's genocide, the parent corporation, Howmet Aerospace, has been the target of recent anti-genocide and Palestine solidarity actions in Pittsburgh (the corporate HQ); Orange County, California; and Leicester, UK. The actions highlighted Howmet's contributions to the F-35.

 

War Profiteering As Usual

Israeli Black Hawk over Gaza

 

M2A3 firing missile in Syria, 2022 

A couple of War Department requests for spare parts, recently come to light, exemplify Ametek Rotron's continuing war profiteering and complicity in the Gaza genocide. They confirm that Woodstock's Rotron is the sole source of critical components for the Black Hawk helicopter and the Bradley M2A3 fighting vehicle.

 A December 2022 solicitation from the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) Aviation department requests spare parts for the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter and its sister models, which are intensively used by Israel on Gaza and elsewhere as well as by the US in many theaters. 

More recently, this November, DLA Land solicited 43 circulating fans whose "end application" (in Pentagon-speak) is the M2A3. "This is a Sole Source procurement to Rotron Incorporated." (The M2A3 isn't in the Israeli arsenal.)

Sometimes people ask: what useful, civilian products could Rotron produce when they finally decide to put their great skills to peaceful uses instead of war machines? Well, two contracts this year provide examples of constructive devices they already make -- part of the 20% of Rotron's business which is non-military. The Federal Aviation Administration ordered components for weather radar. And NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) ordered spare parts for its research vessels. Of course one wonders whether these laudable initiatives might fall victim to the Trump regime's war on climate science. In general, desperately needed climate research and the green energy revolution require many systems for electronics cooling which Ametek Rotron is well situated to provide.

"Evolving battlefield requirements"

Ametek Rotron, along with many other war profiteers, will be peddling their products at the Association of the United States Army's Annual Meeting and Exposition in Washington next week. This, according to AUSA, is "where the global defense community converges to shape the future of national security". Ametek's blurb for their booth, behind its corporate/bureaucratic jargon, indicates their close collaboration with their "partners" -- who include every branch of the US military, every major US weapons manufacturer, and many foreign war profiteers and armed forces (including those of Israel):

"At AMETEK, we are committed to solving our customers’ most complex challenges by engineering and manufacturing highly reliable, precision-engineered products and systems that support mission-critical programs across the aerospace and defense sectors. Our solutions are trusted by military leaders worldwide to perform in the most demanding operational environments—on land, at sea, in the air, and beyond the atmosphere.
With a customer-centric approach and full lifecycle support, AMETEK mitigates risk, enhances operational readiness, and ensures the long-term success of your mission. From concept through sustainment, our engineering teams work in close collaboration with defense partners to deliver tailored solutions that meet stringent military standards and evolving battlefield requirements."

These war machines run on made-in-Woodstock components

Ametek Rotron has conveniently listed some of the military machines that rely on cooling fans that are made in the village of peace, love and music:

Military aircraft:

KEY PROGRAMS

• A-1M
• A-29 EMB 314 Super Tucano
• C130 Hercules many variants
• E3 Sentry AWACS
• E6 Mercury
• E7 Wedgetail
• F15 Eagle
• F16 Fighting Falcon
• F18 Hornet/Super Hornet
• F22 Raptor
• F35 Lightning
• KC46 Pegasus Tanker
• P-3C Orion
• P-8 Poseidon
• T-7 Boeing-Saab Red Hawk
• UAV General Atomics
• V22 Osprey

MAJOR CUSTOMERS

• AMX
• Bell
• Boeing
• Boeing-SAAB
• Embraer
• General Atomics
• General Dynamics
• Lockheed Martin
• McDonnell Douglas

Helicopters:

KEY PROGRAMS

• Bell 407/427
• Bell 525
• JATAS
• MH-60K
• S-76D
• S92
• UH60J

MAJOR CUSTOMERS

• Bell Helicopter
• Lockheed Martin
• Mitsubishi
• Rockwell Collins
• Sikorsky
• TAI [Turkish Aircraft Industries]

Military ground vehicles:

KEY PROGRAMS

• 3DELRR mobile ground radar
• Bradley Fighting Vehicle
• HMMWV
• LAV III
• Leopard II MBT
• M1 Grizzly Breacher
• Marder 1A3 IFV
• Mobile Analytical Lab System
• Stryker ACV
• TPQ-47 mobile ground radar
• TPQ-53 mobile counter fire radar
• VBL LAV

MAJOR CUSTOMERS

• Aero Sekur
• AM General
• BAE
• Behr
• General Dynamics
• Lockheed Martin
• Panhard
• Raytheon
• Rheinmetall
• United Defense

Military vessels:

KEY PROGRAMS

• Arleigh Burke-Class Destroyer
• Columbia-Class Submarine
• Constellation-Class Frigates
• Ohio-Class Submarine
• San Antonio-Class Transport Dock
• Ticonderoga-Class Cruiser
• Vanguard-Class Submarine
• Virginia-Class Submarine

MAJOR CUSTOMERS

• General Dynamics Electric Boat
• Leonardo DRS
• Lockheed Martin
• Northrop Grumman
• Raytheon
• Ultra Electronics 

 

Woodstock's largest employer continues to supply critical weapons system components

As usual, only a few of Ametek Rotron's Pentagon weapons contracts find their way to the public domain, and virtually none of their private business. It's become even harder to find out info since they farmed out their contracting to military bottom-feeder Kellstrom Defense, which then morphed as a result of a merger into AllClear Aerospace & Defense. But here, from DIBBS, are a few recent government contracts that suggest how business continues as usual:

• Nov. 6, 2024: The Defense Logistics Agency orders 5 annular ball bearings from Rotron at $220 each -- to be shipped to the South Korean Air Force in Daegu, South Korea. (We don't know if the US taxpayer will be reimbursed by South Korea for these military aircraft parts.)
• Feb. 5, 2025:  The DLA orders 23 items called "PROPIMAX,GUARD,AIRC" at $435 each. They're deemed a "CRITICAL APPLICATION ITEM". One website suggests this item is for the Navy's MH-60R helicopters, made by Sikorsky.
  
• Feb. 19, 2025: The DLA's aviation division orders one "FAN,TUBEAXIAL" at $7,896, to be sent directly to USS Lyndon B. Johnson (pictured), one of the Navy's three huge Zumwalt-class stealth destroyers. According to a 2018 General Accounting Office report, these ships cost around $8 billion each.
• May 5, 2025: The Pentagon orders 30 more annular ball bearings for the South Korean Air Force -- this time they're $270 each. A new middleman appears in this order: it's to go via OS 2 Corporation, another of the many firms that get fat from the huge amounts of money that swirl around military contracting.
• May 16, 2025: The Pentagon demands that Rotron send replacements for two motor stators which Rotron had sent under an earlier contract, as they were "found to be non-conforming with the terms of the contract".
• May 29, 2025: The DLA's aviation division orders 6 centrifugal fans at the bargain price of $14,930 each. Again OS 2 Corp also gets a piece of the action.

 

Apaches in Coxsackie

An update to our previous post about local war profiteers Ducommun in Coxsackie, NY: "Later this month we expect to start full production of rotor blades for the Apache helicopter at our Coxsackie, New York facility which will complete the transition of that program from our Monrovia, California facility." So said Ducommun's Chief Financial Officer at a corporate earnings call earlier this month, adding that "we are going to see the Apache production here ramp-up". Apaches are prominent bringers of terror in Israel's ongoing genocidal siege of Gaza. The Reuters image here shows an Israeli Apache firing toward Gaza on May 14, 2024.