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Why Tech Companies Love the War in Ukraine [1]

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Date: 2023-05-24

A swarm of Switchblade 600 drines

Beware the tech-military complex. President Dwight Eisenhower famously warned against the influence of the military-industrial complex in his 1961 Farewell Address to the American people. I think he would revise his warning if he was still alive and President today. Cutting edge tech companies are using the war in Ukraine to test products, boost profits, and make the world more dangerous for all of us – and American taxpayers are paying the bill. To borrow the title of Bob Dylan’s 1963 song, they are the new “Masters of War.”

According to a report in the New York Times, “a new generation of cheaper and more precise attack drones carrying bombs can loiter in the air autonomously until they find their targets. Artificial intelligence-backed computer systems can fuse this collected data and other feeds to make targeting decisions, faster than any human.”

The United States has committed $75 billion in military aid to Ukraine. Much of that will end up in the pockets of U.S. military contractors. Here are some of the tech companies busy selling their new war technology to the Pentagon for use in Ukraine.

Maxar Technologies, BlackSky, and Planet Labs have billions of dollars in United States military contracts. They sell satellites that take photographic images of Russian military equipment and troops. Maxar Technologies One World Terrain project alone earned the company almost $100 million from the U.S. army. BlackSky and Planet Labs satellite spy companies were awarded National Reconnaissance Office contracts that could be worth over a billion dollars.

General Atomics provides the U.S. Army with engineering and technical services support for unmanned aircraft. Its Predator and Reaper unmanned aircraft cost the Air Force $57 million each.

AeroVironment, Skydio, Shield AI, Teal Drones, BRINC, and Anduril Industries are selling smaller cheaper drones to the U.S. military and they are being used in Ukraine to identify enemy targets. AeroVironment’s Switchblade 300 and 600 drones attack tanks in swarms of between 50 and several hundred. Each individual Switchblade 600 drone costs $6,000 so a pack of 100 would cost $600,000.

HawkEye 360 satellites use radio waves emitted by the communications equipment and electronic devices of Russian troops to target them. Primer Technologies analyze Russian radio communications to help Ukraine locate targets for annihilation and Elon Musk’s SpaceX Starlink internet service directs Ukrainian troop movement. Capella Space markets small, inexpensive satellites that the U.S., NATO, and Ukrainian militaries use to track Russian troops at night and on cloudy days. Fortem Technologies is selling unmanned aircraft that will disable enemy drones using a Spider-Man-like net to capture and disable them. Dedrone and SkySafe products allow Ukraine to track incoming enemy drones. Dedrone markets rifle-like device that uses radio pulses to jam and incapacitate enemy drones. Skydio has an A.I.-enhanced drone that can fly indoors into very tight spaces.

Each of these systems is being tested in the war in Ukraine. While the companies complain the Pentagon is too slow to purchase their wonderous new death machines, they are making billions of dollars and are gambling that the war will drag on. The longer the war, the more money they make.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/5/24/2171196/-Why-Tech-Companies-Love-the-War-in-Ukraine

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