Business as usual

 It's a long time since this blog has reported on the latest sales of weapons system components by Woodstock's largest employer, Ametek Rotron. Even fewer of their contracts seem to leave online traces than before, but here are a few items from recent months, gleaned from Nexis, that are doubtless typical of Woodstock's ongoing contributions to worldwide warfare:

• August 2022: Rotron provides the US Naval Sea Systems Command with components for two new submarine tenders (support ships for nuclear-powered and nuclear-armed submarines). These items are "of a critical nature" and no-one else makes an equivalent product.
• August 2022: "The United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM), Technology Application Contracting Office (TAKO) anticipates contracting on a sole source basis with Ametek-Rotron" for "Avionics Cockpit Blowers" -- "the Government intends to solicit and negotiate with only one source under the authority of FAR 6.302-1, Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services Will Satisfy Agency Requirements."
•  December 2022: Bharat Electronics, an Indian Government-owned military contractor, orders a "high speed fan" made by Ametek Rotron.
•  December 2022: The Defense Department wants to order "Blower, Blade; H-60" -- an aircraft component. This is an open solicitation but Ametek Rotron is the only listed supplier.
  

Another Woodstock contribution to attacks on civilians in Yemen

We've reported before on Woodstock's Ametek Rotron supplying crucial components to the Saudi Air Force for its war crimes in Yemen. Here's more evidence: photos that appeared on social media after Houthi rebels shot down a US drone in October 2017 clearly show its made-in-Woodstock component:

US drone shot down by #Houthi missile in #Yemen's capital Sanaa on Sunday morning, Xinhua reports citing #Houthi officials and residents

— CGTN (@CGTNOfficial) October 1, 2017

The US Atomics MQ-9 Reaper came down in a crowded area of Sanaa. According to Military Times, which reported the incident, "The MQ-9 is predominately an armed hunter-killer drone but the unmanned aircraft is also capable of surveillance and intelligence collection."

As the Yemeni civilians in the picture stare at the downed drone they see the yellow label of its component that reads "AMETEK ROTRON/Woodstock, NY". Do they thank Woodstock for this gift? Do they still think of Woodstock as a town of peace and music?
pic.twitter.com/EyGirr94RK

$870 for a shim

In one of its smaller recent military contracts, Woodstock's Ametek Rotron is charging US taxpayers $870 for a shim, to be delivered to the Defense Logistics Agency's Aviation division in Richmond, VA. The contract was posted on January 8. $870 for a shim -- "a thin and often tapered or wedged piece of material, used to fill small gaps or spaces between objects" (Wikipedia) -- nice work if you can get it. 

$8,248,508

… That's the dollar amount of Defense Department business for Woodstock's weapons contractor in Fiscal Year 2018, according to usaspending.gov: Ametek Rotron's Woodstock, NY, weapons components plant received $2,037,271 in prime awards (where Rotron is the Pentagon's prime contractor), and $6,211,237 in sub-awards (where Rotron is a subcontractor).

M88 Hercules

2018 awards include $1,786,530 for parts for the M88 Hercules Armored Recovery Vehicle (pictured here at work in Afghanistan); $27,672 for parts for the MC-130H Combat Talon Aircraft, which the Air Force says "provides infiltration, exfiltration, and resupply of special operations forces and equipment in hostile or denied territory"; and many others.

MC-130H

As for the subcontracts, usaspending tells us that Rotron was a supplier in 2018 for most of the big names in weapons technology: Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Northrup Grumman, GE Aviation Systems, Sikorsky, L3 Technologies, DRS Laurel Technologies, Sierra Nevada Corporation, and BAE.

Kellstrom Defense Aerospace: distributing made-in-Woodstock war machine components worldwide

In 2018, AMETEK Aerospace and Defense Thermal Management Systems division -- which includes the Ametek Rotron factory in Woodstock -- approved Kellstrom Defense Aerospace as its authorized military distributor for its Hughes-Treitler and Rotron products. "With the signing of this agreement, KDA is approved to solicit military spares and repair business globally, excluding Israel and Japan," says the press release.

UH-60 Black Hawk

This partnership "provides AMETEK with a worldwide network of sales professionals, distribution channels, and MRO capabilities that further enhances our global reach."

A Kellstrom brochure, boasting that "Kellstrom Defense is the respected global leader for defense aircraft sustainment", lists some of the "Supported Platforms" for the Rotron products which they are now touting to militaries worldwide: "C-130 [military transport aircraft], UH-1, UH-60, CH-53, CH-47, S-70 [these are various military helicopters made by Sikorsky, Bell, and Boeing], all land vehicles, and sea vessels".

Business As Usual

Woodstock's own weapons contractor continues its steady stream of military contracts. In the latest of our occasional check-ins to see what they're up to, as archived in the DIBBS website, we find $925,152 worth of Pentagon contracts since March this year. (We don't know if there are more; and we certainly have no information about private and foreign military sales.) Here we pick out only a few made-in-Woodstock contracts for which we can identify the "End Use Item":

A contract for $7,700 dated July 11 is for 5 items described as "SHAFT, SHOULDERED" destined for the F-18 E/F Super Hornet fighter aircraft. This follows another contract for 5 of these same items dated June 16. We have posted several times before about earlier made-in-Woodstock components for the F-18.

M88A2

A contract for $72,060 dated May 17 is for 20 items described as "TRANSMITTER COUNTERMEASURE, TRANSMITTER SUBASSEMBLY".

On the same date, a contract for $13,320 is for parts for a transmitter that is part of the Navy's AN/SPQ-9B shipboard radar system.

A contract for $6,867 dated May 4 sends made-in-Woodstock fans to tanks of the M1 series, including the M1A1 and the XM1.

A contract dated $20,350 dated April 3 is for 5 circulating fans for the M88A2 Armored Recovery Vehicle, pictured here.

The US's entire high-tech armory runs on made-in-Woodstock bit parts

Here's a random sampling of some recent Pentagon contracts awarded to Woodstock's weapons contractor and largest employer, showing that made-in-Woodstock spare parts continue to flow into practically every weapons and communications system currently deployed by the US military.

USS Arleigh Burke, a guided missile destroyer

A January 11 contract for $32,100 is for 100 tubeaxial fans that are destined for a variety of ballistic missile systems, notably the Ticonderoga-class and Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers which are part of the Navy's destabilizing Aegis Combat System. Another contract (dated January 31, for $4,936) is for 4 more fans that are also designed for these guided missile systems.

A January 17 contract worth $35,600 is for 8 circulating fans (that's $4,200 each) for the AN/TSC-154 SMART-T (Secure, Mobile, Anti-Jam, Reliable, Tactical-Terminal) satellite communications terminal widely used by the US military for "Command and Control".

F-18 refuels over Iraq

Three contracts dated February 8-10 provide spare parts for the Navy's F-18 E/F fighter aircraft: a $3,350 contract for 67 O-Rings (that's $50 each), a $2,268 contract for ball bearings (a "critical application item") and a $912 contract for a "Cone, Rear, Adapter Assembly".

A January 24 contract for $8,617 is for vaneaxial fans designed for a number of military aircraft including the F-4 Phantom, the F-14 Tomcat, and the Hercules C-130. This follows a $60,553 contract from December 23, 2016, for components of some of these same aircraft along with the AV-8B Harrier; and a December 1 contract ($15,114) for components used in an even wider variety of weapons systems including many of the above and also Forrestal- and Nimitz-class aircraft carriers, Tarawa-class amphibious assault ships, the Tartar Missile Fire Control System, the Blue Ridge-class amphibious command ships, the F-22 Raptor Air Dominance Fighter, and more.
  

More bit parts for Israeli Defense Ministry's Avionics Armaments division

Woodstock's weapons contractor continues to send bit parts to Israel's bloated military machine. A recent contract is tiny (only $80) but testifies to Ametek Rotron's continuing commitment to supplying this foreign power with weapons components (see our post dated Sept. 30 for another recent contract). $80 buys the Israeli Defense Ministry 5 annular ball bearings.

Why concern ourselves with such a small matter? Because it reminds us that even in Woodstock, renowned worldwide for peace and love, our economy is geared to producing weapons of war and repression rather than anything actually useful. What can we do about it?
 

Woodstock Continues To Supply Armaments To Israel's Armed Forces

Under a new contract, dated Sept. 27, Woodstock (NY)'s weapons contractor will send a "MOTOR, ALTERNATING CURRENT" (cost: $7,365) to Israel's Defense Ministry. The shipping address is given as
"GOVERNMENT OF ISRAEL
MINISTRY OF DEFENSE
LATZAD CHIMUSH AVIONICA
IL"
 ... "Latzad Chimush Avionica" means something like "Avionic Side Armaments" or more likely "Avionic Armaments Section" in Hebrew.

We've reported before on another Ametek Rotron sale to the Israeli Defense Ministry -- that time it was delivered to Israel's Air Force. And Rotron's own promotional materials boast of sales to Israeli weapons manufacturers Israeli Aircraft Industries and Merkava. Since many more weapons contracts don't reach the light of public scrutiny, we can be sure that Woodstock's largest employer is a regular weapons supplier to the Israeli armed forces -- as well as the armed forces of other notable human rights abusers such as Saudi Arabia.