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 contract 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 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.

 

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." 

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.