SPY-1 Radar: helping the Navy find its targets

Here's Woodstock's Christmas present to the world, ordered on December 23 by the Defense Logistics Agency. 6 fans (price $4,758) will be specially made in Woodstock for Lockheed Martin's AN/SPY-1D naval radar system. The radar, mounted on US Navy destroyers, is a key component of the Aegis Combat System, crucial for the destabilizing "Missile Defense" program. It enables the Navy to "perform search, track and missile guidance functions simultaneously with a capability of over 100 targets". The radar system, with Woodstock's fan keeping it cool, is hidden behind the octagonal plate on the destroyer in this photo.

Where are the Marines landing?

Wasp Class LHD

On November 30 the U.S. Navy sent in a rush order to Woodstock's weapons contractor. WebFLIS tells us that the fan ordered is specifically for a Wasp Class Landing Helicopter Dock amphibious assault ship. As the Federation of American Scientists explains, the Wasp Class LHDs are designed to "provide the means to deliver, command and support all elements of a Marine Landing Force in an assault by air and amphibious craft. ... They transport and land ashore not only troops, but also the tanks, trucks, jeeps, other vehicles, artillery, ammunition and various supplies necessary to support the amphibious assault mission."

Since this was another "URGENT AND COMPELLING EMERGENCY REQUIREMENT" with "EXPEDITED DELIVERY", we're prompted to ask where is the assault or planned assault that brings on this urgent need? Against what hostile territory? Wherever it is, Woodstock once again has a bit part (literally) in the proceeding.

Woodstock rushes to maintain nukes and harm whales

"* URGENT AND COMPELLING EMERGENCY REQUIREMENT. ...

Seawolf

* EXPEDITED DELIVERY IS REQUESTED AT NO ADDITIONAL CHARGE TO THE GOVERNMENT.
* SHIP BY FASTEST TRACEABLE MEANS."
This is the wording in a new Woodstock military contract ... What is it that's so urgent? WebFlis tells us that the item being rushed from Woodstock is a flow switch for Lockheed Martin's AN/BQQ-10 sonar system for a Seawolf nuclear-powered submarine. The Seawolf class submarines are obsolete Cold-War leftovers that serve no useful purpose except to shunt around nuclear weapons and endanger our future.
And the sonar used by Navy submarines is widely criticized for its harmful effects on already endangered whale populations. As the NRDC says, "There is no question that sonar injures and kills whales and dolphins."
Once again Woodstock belies its peace-and-love image by making a material contribution to the extinction of other species ... and perhaps our own.

Predator drones rely on made-in-Woodstock components

A web page confirms that Woodstock's military contractor, Ametek Rotron, is the sole supplier of a crucial part (the Fuel Density Probe) of the Predator UAV aircraft. The RQ-1 Predator (later renamed MQ-1) has been widely criticized for killing civilians -- notably in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Yemen, and Libya -- and is at the forefront of the destabilizing integration of space into modern warfare. Very probably Woodstock's Rotron supplies other parts for drones, as it does for just about every major weapons system.

Another class of warship that runs on made-in-Woodstock fans...

As usual, most of the recent Pentagon contracts awarded to Woodstock's weapons manufacturer don't give any public hint of what particular weapons systems the made-in-Woodstock components will end up in. But here's a September 19 contract worth $7740 that provides fans designed for the Navy's 14 Avenger class mine countermeasures ships. (We found this out by the methods described in this post.)

Woodstock rushes equipment for the attack on Libya

On June 21, Woodstock's weapons contractor received a new contract. A small one, just $1,549 for a single fan. But, citing an "URGENT AND COMPELLING EMERGENCY REQUIREMENT", the contract calls for "expedited delivery" of this "critical application item". The shipping address for this urgently needed equipment? USS Kearsarge.

The Kearsarge is a US Navy amphibious assault ship which has been stationed off the coast of Libya since March as a crucial part of the illegal US/NATO bombing campaign against Libya. Perhaps the fan is a component of the ship itself; more likely it's for one of the Kearsarge's Osprey, Harrier and Sea Dragon combat aircraft, or its Sea Sparrow missiles.

As usual, Woodstock is just one of many communities playing small parts in this misguided war. But putting an end to such an enormous waste of life, money and resources will mean changing the economies of Woodstock and all those other communities to peaceful purposes.

Powering future wars

Another Woodstock contribution to the destabilizing, wasteful "Star Wars" so-called Missile defense program: Rotron is a producer of power supply components for THAAD (Terminal [or Theater] High Altitude Area Defense System).

Another spy-plane contract for Woodstock

A new military contract awarded to Woodstock's arms manufacturer, dated March 4, is for parts for the EP-3E spy plane, which the BBC has called "one of the US Navy's most highly classified reconnaissance aircraft". The EP-3E is an essential component of the Pentagon's destabilizing war-fighting strategy that includes military dominance of space. The contract is worth $70,154.75.

Woodstock seems to be a regular supplier for the EP-3E: we have commented in a previous post on an earlier Ametek Rotron sale for the same aircraft.

WikiLeaks: Woodstock helped to arm Egypt's Mubarak regime

According to a newly-released WikiLeaks cable from the US Embassy in Cairo dated October 6, 2009, "the Egyptian Ministry of Defense verified that it received 75 Electrical Rotron Fans from Ametek Rotron/Rheinmetall Defence Italia for use in the Skyguard Air Defense System."

Ametek Rotron is Woodstock's own weapons manufacturer (and the town's biggest employer). It's hardly surprising that Rotron was supplying this particular dictatorship, since it ships components for many standard weapons systems all over the world. Indeed, it's highly likely that the F-16 warplanes that buzzed the pro-democracy demonstrators in Tahrir Square contained Ametek Rotron components -- likewise the Abrams tanks that lined the square. But it's only occasionally that a corner of the curtain is lifted and we glimpse specific details of the unsavory business of arming dictatorships -- and Woodstock's bit part in it.

Quite probably these Woodstock weapons parts were paid for by US taxpayers as part of our massive military aid to the Egyptian regime.
 
Ametek Rotron also supplies weapons components to the Israeli government -- again paid for by US taxpayers.