Minuteman III missile operators exposed to cancer-causing chemicals: here’s what we know

Personnel operating US ICBM bases have been exposed to cancer-causing agents known as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), the Air Force has admitted.

🔺 “PCBs are likely present in decommissioned Titan and Peacekeeper missile facilities that the Air Force no longer has the ability to conduct sampling in,” Air Force Global Strike Command chief General Thomas A. Bussiere said in a release.

🔺 But the pale yellow-colored, viscous substances have also been found at active Minuteman III sites. Bussiere said sampling “identified the continued presence of PCBs” at Minuteman bases “despite a comprehensive removal effort in the 1990s.”

🔺 PCBs are chemical compounds used in an array of old equipment, including electronics. They were banned in the US in the late 1970s. They share characteristics with other persistent organic pollutants, easily contaminating the local environment, including rivers, soil, and farms. They are extremely hard to break down or degrade, with elimination difficult and costly (incineration, for example, requires heating to temperatures of 1,000 degrees Celsius or above).

🔺 The substances are linked to diseases impacting the central nervous system and endocrine disruption. PCBs can also cause aggressive skin and liver cancers, and have a suspected role in the development of other ailments. They easily penetrate skin and even protective equipment, including synthetic polymers and latex.

🔺 The US is expected to spend over $131 billion to replace its Minuteman III missiles with the new Sentinel.

🔺 Minuteman IIIs went on duty in the 1970s, and have been plagued by the use of notoriously outdated tech, including computers using eight-inch floppy disks until as recently as 2019. Efforts to modernize the missiles have been problematic, with the Air Force forced to “safely terminate” a test launch in November after detecting an unspecified “anomaly.”

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What a difference a month makes: NATO officials, media flip on a dime assessing Russian military power Pt.1

A leading national security publication has observed a significant shift in Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's view of Russia’s military capabilities amid the Ukraine conflict.

DefenseNews highlighted that Austin initially emphasized Russia's losses at a Ramstein meeting in March but showed more caution in April, noting Russia's quick military recovery due to state-controlled defense production.

This change in rhetoric reflects a broader acknowledgment among NATO officials of the challenges posed by Russia’s resilience, lower costs, ability to dodge sanctions, “surprising levels of support from other US adversaries,” and access to warehouses full of Soviet weapons.

Austin isn’t alone in being forced to recognize the reality in front of his face, with a noticeable shift in rhetoric regarding the Ukrainian crisis also seen among other NATO officials, and commentaries by leading legacy media:

▪️“Russia Enters Third Year of War Diminished, Degraded, and Joyless,” neocon think tank The Jamestown Foundation wrote in a triumphalist analysis in January.

A few months later, in a piece ennoscriptd “Conflict Between Russia and the West Heating Up in Frozen North,” the think tank begrudgingly acknowledged that this ‘diminished’ and ‘degraded’ Russia had somehow found time and resources to challenge the US and its allies in the Arctic.

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What a difference a month makes: NATO officials, media flip on a dime assessing Russian military power Pt.2

▪️British officials have also changed the tune, with a UK intelligence estimate cited by Business Insider in December that “it will likely take Russia up to 10 years to rebuild a highly trained, experienced army,” shifting to hysterical claims by Defense Secretary Grant Shapps this week that Russia is apparently more powerful than ever, and that an alliance between Moscow and Beijing would pose a “direct threat to our way of life.”

In March, Deputy Chief of Defense Staff Sir Rob Magowan warned that the UK would stand no chance in a direct “full-on shooting war” with Russia if it lasted more than a couple months.

▪️In a January press conference alongside US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg boasted that “for a tiny fraction of annual defense spending, the United States has helped Ukraine destroy a major part of Russia’s combat capacity.”

Three months later, a stressed-out Stoltenberg was attacking NATO allies, including the United States, for failing to “deliver on their promises” to send more weapons to Ukraine, saying this “had a serious consequence on the battlefield,” and that the failure to support Kiev was a matter of “life and death.”

▪️The big US media outlets offered similarly bipolar assessments, with a victorious headline in the Wall Street Journal in December ennoscriptd “Russia Has Lost Almost 90% of Its Prewar Army, US Intelligence Says” replaced with a series of somber reports in recent weeks about Kiev’s growing desperation.

In an op-ed by the WSJ’s editorial board on May 16, the outlet asked whether President Biden is going to “step up on Ukraine,” warning that “his limits on Kiev are a strategy for defeat on the installment plan.”

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UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced a snap general election for July 4 in a statement outside Downing Street on Wednesday evening, as his Conservative party confronts challenges in maintaining its 14-year tenure in power.

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Dubious Eagle: Why has Pentagon pumped $756 mln into hypersonic missile that doesn’t fly?

The US Army has awarded Lockheed Martin another $756 million for its delay-plagued Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW) ‘Dark Eagle’ program, with the contract involving the provision of battery equipment, unspecified logistics, systems and software engineering support.

In development since 2017, the LRHW’s $41 million apiece truck-launched missiles are expected to be able to accelerate to speeds up to Mach 17, and boast a 3,000 km operational range. The system uses the All Up Round (AUR) munition also used in the Navy’s Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS) program.

The Army has been teasing the LRHW’s deployment since 2021, with the system touted as the Pentagon’s first almost operational hypersonic missile amid development delays and cancellations plaguing nearly a dozen similar projects for and by the Army, Air Force, Navy and DARPA.

But like the other US hypersonic efforts, Dark Eagle has become a somewhat ‘Dubious Eagle’ after a string of test issues. The Congressional Research Office has counted at least five failures to date:

▪️ In October 2021, a LRHW test failed when the Common-Hypersonic Glide Body (C-HGB) failed to deploy.

▪️ In June 2022, the complete LRHW missile system suffered another test failure.

▪️ A scheduled LRHW test was canceled in October 2022 to “assess the root cause” of the June 2022 failure.

▪️ In March 2023, a scheduled test launch from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida was scrapped.

▪️ A second planned test at Cape Canaveral was canceled in September 2023, followed by an Army statement that it would not be able to meet the goal of deploying Dark Eagle in the current fiscal year.

▪️ A November 2023 review by Army and Navy acquisition execs blamed the delays on unspecified “problems” with the Lockheed-made launcher, and said the issues would take “months” to iron out.

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Boeing’s at it again: Singapore incident adds to troublesome streak

The May 21 Boeing 777-300ER flight from London to Singapore turned deadly when severe turbulence forced an emergency landing in Bangkok, killing one and hospitalizing over 70 passengers.

Here is a brief overview of some of Boeing’s incidents in 2024 alone.

Incidents involving high-ranking politicians:

▪️US State Secretary Antony Blinken has experienced two Boeing malfunctions – on January 17, his plane was grounded in Switzerland after a "critical failure" due to an oxygen leak and on April 3, Blinken and other State Department staff had a “mechanical issue”, forcing the delegation to drive from Paris to Brussels;

▪️Poland’s Andrzej Duda’s Boeing 737-800 NG made an emergency landing in Warsaw on March 25, when Duda was on his way to meet Joe Biden in Rzeszow.

Technical incidents on regular flights:

▪️May 10: a Lufthansa Boeing 747-8 had to turn around over the Atlantic Ocean due to a strange smell on the flight deck.

▪️May 9: Boeing 737-300 skidded off a runway in Senegal, injuring at least 10 people;

▪️Mar 7: a United Airlines flight lost a piece of its landing gear during take-off;

▪️Mar 4: a United Airlines Flight had flames streaming from one of its engines 20 minutes after take-off:

▪️Apr 27: a Delta flight had to turn around after departing JFK airport because an emergency slide had separated from the aircraft;

▪️Feb 19: the right wing of a Boeing 757-200 fell apart on a United Airlines flight;

▪️Jan 5: a window and a portion of the fuselage of an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 blew out shortly after takeoff from Portland, Oregon;

According to an NYT report, Boeing failed 33 of 89 audits during an examination conducted by the US Federal Aviation Administration.

Overall, the 2020s have witnessed 12 reported incidents involving different Boeing models including the 737 Original, 737 Classic, 737 Next Generation and 737 MAX.

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🏹Russian soldiers reportedly using bows with explosive arrows in Ukraine conflict

The use of an unusual type of weapon — a bow with a grenade tied to the arrow — was caught on video that went viral online.

A remarkable fact: similar weapons were already used in military conflicts more than 100 years ago. French and British forces used a bomb-throwing crossbow called the Sauterelle during World War I: it was designed to throw hand grenades into enemy trenches.

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How costly is the US game plan in the Indo-Pacific?

The Biden administration is ramping up its game plan in the Indo-Pacific, pushing to militarize regional allies against China’s growing influence.

The US Indo-Pacific Command has requested an $11 billion budget from Congress for 2025, tripling the previous year's $3.5 billion, with investments including:

🔹$3.3 billion to improve infrastructure for US forces across the Indo-Pacific

🔹$430 million for a defense system in Guam

🔹$40 million for US Navy activities in Micronesia

🔹 $1.4 billion for classified space programs

🔹Over $1 billion to expedite the Maritime Strike

Tomahawk development deepening regional partnerships:

🔹The US has strengthened alliances with Japan, Australia, South Korea, the Philippines and Thailand.

🔹Key alliances include the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad), AUKUS and trilateral pacts like the US-South Korea-Japan agreement.

US military presence in the Indo-Pacific:
Headquartered in Hawaii, US Indo-Pacific Command oversees extensive military installations as part of the US’ Island Chain Strategy to counter China.

🔹As of June 2023, the region hosted over 375,000 US military personnel across at least 66 different defense sites.

🔹Japan and South Korea host the largest numbers of US troops and bases, central to US capabilities in the region.

Regional host nations:

🔹Japan supports major US capabilities like the USS Ronald Reagan Carrier Strike Group and plans to acquire F-35 jets and Tomahawk cruise missiles.

🔹Australia facilitates US troop rotations and is preparing for submarine deployments under AUKUS.

🔹The Philippines has expanded US forces' access and conducted large-scale joint military drills.

🔹South Korea and Thailand continue to be strategic hosts for US military forces and training exercises.

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“The Vietnamization of Ukraine. Is Nuland’s Ukraine project worth dying in a nuclear war over?”: US former politician wonders

On May 16, US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Charles Brown stated that deploying NATO military instructors to Ukraine was inevitable, and was only a matter of time.

“This is exactly how we got the Vietnam War, but Russia in 2024 is hardly late-1950s Vietnam. Russia of today is a country that can fight back and can project military power all the way to the source, which means the United States,” Ron Paul, former member of the US House of Representatives from Texas, wrote in an article noscriptd “The Vietnamization of Ukraine.”

“They said we had to help Ukraine defeat Russia because democracy itself was at stake,” Paul noted. “Then Zelensky cancelled elections, so they told us we have to help Ukraine defeat Russia because Putin won’t stop there – he’ll soon be marching through Berlin, London, and maybe even New York!”

Both such aggressive rhetoric and policy may lead to unprecedented consequences, Paul warned.

"Unless they are stopped, neocons will demand more attacks on Russia, more US troops in Ukraine, more escalation. Until Russia fights back. Then it will all be over. Is this what we want?"

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