War profiteers

Ametek beats profit estimates on strong demand from aerospace, defense sectors

This was the headline of a May 2 Reuters story about Ametek Rotron's parent corporation, Ametek Inc. The story explains that Ametek has 'benefited from a boom in the aerospace and defense sectors. Robust air travel demand and simmering geopolitical tensions have driven up demand from the sectors, one of the biggest contributors to Ametek's revenue'. 

Among the company's increased profits of war are the proceeds of its Rotron division's sales to the Israeli military even as the assault on Gaza escalated.

Meanwhile Ametek SCP (another division of Ametek's Aerospace and Defense group, based in Westerly, RI) won a share in a $9,676,177 contract on May 29 from the US Navy. This is for components for the Navy's nuclear-powered (and often nuclear-armed) attack submrines which underpin US military domination of the oceans. Ametek SCP seems to be a regular supplier of bits and pieces for the Navy. A June 15 contract for parts for Virginia class submarines was worth $1,497,360. Similar contracts followed on July 14 for $358,176 and on July 18 for $433,542.

Made-in-Woodstock components in military aircraft

Some of Ametek Rotron's promotional material showing their components which are essential for the functioning of warmaking aircraft -- here, the Predator drone and the F-18 Hornet.

Source: https://www.rotron.com/markets/military-aircraft

Woodstock at a time of genocide

Some of the many military aircraft that depend on made-in-Woodstock components -- from our local weapons contractor's own promotional materials.

IAI stands for Israel Aerospace Industries and Rafael is Israel's largest arms manufacturer.

F-15s and F-16s are favorite bomb delivery methods of the Israeli Occupation Forces, and hundreds of C-130 flights continue to ferry US-made weapons and ammunition to fuel Israel's assault on Gaza.

As we saw in our previous post, Woodstock is rushing spare parts directly to the Israeli Defense Ministry. And Ametek Rotron have also listed Merkava, the Israeli tank manufacturer, as a customer.

 

80% of our business is military

Woodstock's largest employer is usually reticent about how many of its contracts are military. But in May 2023 the Divisional Vice President at Ametek Rotron told an interviewer: "We only have 20% of our business commercial, 80% is military and defense." This figure is up from the only other figure we have which dates from the 1990s when a Harvard Business School study reported that 60% of Rotron's business was military.

The  boss of the Woodstock plant also provided a succinct summary of Rotron's business: "Predominantly the Woodstock plant provides fans and air moving equipment, basically for fighter jets or tanks, or some of the commercial aircraft too, and some of those fans go into electronics cooling equipment for naval applications like submarines, so that is pretty much the scope of work that happens out of my Rotron facilities in Woodstock and San Diego."

Israeli military seeks another made-in-Woodstock fan

On October 16, as Israel pursued its ethnic cleansing and collective punishment of civilians in Gaza, its Ministry of Defense invited tenders for a "sample" 200AC fan "made by Rotron Inc." Ametek Rotron's contributions to foreign militaries mostly fly under the radar -- we've reported on their sales to Israel before -- but this request, unusually, turned up online. It's just one fan, but the word "sample" suggests that more will follow, and it confirms that the Israeli military continues to rely on made-in-Woodstock components as it violates international law. The government set a quick deadline of Nov. 1, suggesting the fan(s) are to be used soon.

We know that made-in-Woodstock Rotron fans are used in many of the advanced weapons systems deployed by Israel and supplied by the US -- warplanes, tanks, rocket launchers, military helicopters, drones, armed personnel carriers, and warships.

The procurement notice was published by Al Bawaba, a Jordan-based news site, and also by Bidsinfo.

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.