"Killing Is My Business... and Business Is Good!"

[Killjoy]

The lyrics of an old tune queried: "War - what is it good for ?"

One answer seems to be, sadly perhaps, money in the bank...

I'm reminded of a couple of excerpts from a speech by Dwight D. Eisenhower:
This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children...

This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.

Looks like we're gearing up again, sports fans - but will we throw down ?
Has the Big Game already begun ?

https://www.airandspaceforces.com/foreign-military-sales-new-record-2023/

The U.S. transferred a record $80.9 billion worth of military equipment and services to other countries in fiscal 2023, a 55.9 percent increase over the fiscal 2022 level of $50.9 billion, according to the U.S. State Department.

“This is the highest annual total of sales and assistance provided to our allies and partners,” a State Department release said...


From 2021-23, FMS sales averaged $55.9 billion per year, a 21.9 percent increase over the 2020-22 average of $45.8 billion per year.

Poland was the single largest FMS customer in fiscal 2023, with over $30 billion in transfers.


Prominent examples of FMS sales in 2023 included:

• Poland: AH-64E Apache attack helicopter, $12 billion
• Poland: High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS), $10 billion
• Germany: CH-47F Chinook Helicopters, $8.5 billion
• Australia: C-130J-30 air transports, $6.35 billion
• Canada: P-8 maritime patrol aircraft, $5.9 billion
• Czech Republic: F-35 fighters and munitions, $5.62 billion
• Republic of Korea: F-35 fighters, $5.06 billion
• Poland: Integrated Air and Missile Defense Battle Command System, $4.0 billion
• Poland: M1A1 Abrams Main Battle Tanks, $3.75 billion
• Kuwait: National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System (NASAMS) Medium-Range Air Defense System (MRADS), $3.0 billion
• Germany: AIM-120C-8 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAM), $2.90 billion

The State Department also provided figures for Direct Commercial Sales, which are not managed by the FMS program but which require congressional approval. The total of licensed Direct Commercial Sales from U.S. companies to foreign customers was $157.5 billion in fiscal 2023, a 2.5 percent increase from the $153.6 billion recorded in fiscal 2022.

The three-year rolling average for DCS was $124.9 billion, a 16.5 percent change from the previous three-year period...

Prominent examples of DCS sales in 2023 included:

• Italy: F-35 wing assemblies and sub-assemblies, $2.8 billion
• India: GE F414-INS6 engine hardware, $1.8 billion
• Singapore: F100 engines and spare parts, $1.2 billion
• South Korea: F100 engines and spare parts, $1.2 billion
• Norway/Ukraine: NASAMS, Norway and Ukraine Ministries of Defence, $1.2 billion
• Saudi Arabia: Patriot Guided Missiles, $1 billion

 

[sculptor]

WAR sux.'It is, however a way of using up excess inventory:

The army did not want nor need more tanks.
Congress, however kept ordering and buying more tanks(it's jobs and votes).
And now, thousands of unused tanks are sitting in fields becoming obsolete.
So, WAR---and even better if it's a proxy war where someone else's' property is being destroyed, and some other country's citizens are being slaughtered.
There is no right nor wrong, it's just a criminal enterprise.

 

[Killjoy]

UPDATE: More Bang! More Bucks!!

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/22/global-defence-budget-jumps-to-record-high-of-2440bn

Global defence budget jumps to record high of $2440bn

Global military expenditure has reached a record high of $2440bn (£1970bn) after the largest annual rise in government spending on arms in over a decade, according to a report. The 6.8% increase between 2022 and 2023 was the steepest since 2009, pushing spending to the highest recorded by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri) in its 60-year history. For the first time, analysts at the thinktank recorded a rise in military outlay in all five geographical regions: Africa, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Oceania and the Americas.

Nan Tian, a senior researcher with Sipri’s military expenditure and arms production programme, warned of the heightened risk of an unintended conflagration as governments raced to arm. He said: “The unprecedented rise in military spending is a direct response to the global deterioration in peace and security.

“States are prioritising military strength, but they risk an action-reaction spiral in the increasingly volatile geopolitical and security landscape.”

 

[Killjoy]

UPDATE:
Weapons stocks blast off as bombs drop, troops invade Lebanon

It’s a sad but familiar spectacle — as people die at the hands of U.S. weapons in a faraway war zone, the stock prices of arms makers like Raytheon and Lockheed Martin soar. A piece posted yesterday at Forbes tells the tale: “Defense Stocks Hit All-Time Highs Amidst Mideast Escalation.”

 

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I used to kill people for $8.27/day back in the '70s. TAX FREE! (That sum was after social security, which ALWAYS comes out.)