Image is of a protest in San Diego against ICE.
On January 7th, 37-year-old Renee Good was murdered by an ICE agent in Minneapolis. While a considerable amount of the discussion online has been about the direction her wheels were turning and things like that, truthfully, I think it’s just fundamentally bad to shoot a person to death with a gun if you happen to be a state mercenary enforcing an incredibly racist federal policy, regardless of the circumstances.
The murder has since prompted a wave of vigils and protests, not only in Minneapolis, but also in virtually every major city in the country. The demands are justice for Good in particular, and the abolition of ICE in general, to avenge its many victims. The Trump administration has done all they can to inflame the situation, designating Good a “domestic terrorist” and saying that the agent who shot her will be immune from prosecution.
Protests and resistance to this administration’s policies have, encouragingly, had an element of international solidarity - not only are flags from countries throughout Latin America (and also Palestine) present, but speakers in protests have even been actively condemning the recent imperialist actions against Venezuela. For it is, of course, one joint struggle. The imperial boomerang always returns - and in the modern day, it returns rapidly.
Last week’s thread is here. The Imperialism Reading Group is here.
Please check out the RedAtlas!
The bulletins site is here. Currently not used.
The RSS feed is here. Also currently not used.
The Zionist Entity's Genocide of Palestine
Sources on the fighting in Palestine against the temporary Zionist entity. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:
UNRWA reports on Israel’s destruction and siege of Gaza and the West Bank.
English-language Palestinian Marxist-Leninist twitter account. Alt here.
English-language twitter account that collates news.
Arab-language twitter account with videos and images of fighting.
English-language (with some Arab retweets) Twitter account based in Lebanon. - Telegram is @IbnRiad.
English-language Palestinian Twitter account which reports on news from the Resistance Axis. - Telegram is @EyesOnSouth.
English-language Twitter account in the same group as the previous two. - Telegram here.
Mirrors of Telegram channels that have been erased by Zionist censorship.
Russia-Ukraine Conflict
Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Sources:
Defense Politics Asia’s youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section.
Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war.
Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don’t want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it’s just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
Simplicius, who publishes on Substack. Like others, his political analysis should be soundly ignored, but his knowledge of weaponry and military strategy is generally quite good.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists’ side.
Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.
Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:
Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.
https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR’s former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR’s forces. Russian language.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one.
https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.
https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster’s telegram channel.
https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator.
https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps.
https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a ‘propaganda tax’, if you don’t believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses.
https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.
Pro-Ukraine Telegram Channels:
Almost every Western media outlet.
https://discord.gg/projectowl ~ Pro-Ukrainian OSINT Discord.
https://t.me/ice_inii ~ Alleged Ukrainian account with a rather cynical take on the entire thing.
We have the news. We have the emojis. We need posters. Posters like Lieutenant XHS, Sargent Marmite, and Commissar 72T. DM me to feature effort posts and good threads in the newsmega/newscomm here (including your own).
Previous posts of the week:
2025: Oct 27 | Nov 3 | Nov 10 | Nov 17 | Nov 24 | Dec 1 | Dec 8 | Dec 15 | Dec 22 | Dec 29
2026: Jan 5
i miss the 72T news roundups so much tbh, idk why but calling him commisar 72T made me think of those lol
yes, it appears he has ascended to become one of the immortals. his weekly newsmega posts are an echo of his presence
or maybe he’s been reincarnated as another username on these threads
i thought he just wasnt online very much anymore, would be funny if ive been reading 72T comments and not realizing it lol
Recovering from his astonishment, the prefect asked if there were any worthy men in Taichou to whom he could look for instruction. Big Stick said, “After you arrive, remember to call on Manjushri and Samantabhadra.” The prefect asked, “Where can I find these two bodhisattvas?” And Big Stick said, “When you see them, you won’t recognize them. When you recognize them, you won’t see them. If you want to see them, don’t take their appearances into account. Manjushri is living incognito as Cold Mountain at Kuoching Temple. And Samantabhadra is disguised as Pickup. They dress like paupers and act like lunatics. They run errands and tend the stove in the monastery kitchen.” Big Stick then said goodbye, and Lu-ch’iu Yin began his journey.
posts like this make me proud to shitpost
Pin this post. If you don’t… you are a wrecker.
The sensitive personal information of ~4,500 ICE employees has allegedly been leaked by a DHS whistleblower according to The Daily Beast. Oops.
Actual site with the list appears to be getting DDOS’d right now.
Arya - Iran captures delivery of StarLink devices.
Trump cancels meetings with Iranian officials and tells protesters ‘help is on its way’ https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/trump-cancel-meetings-iranian-officials-tells-protesters-129165750 https://archive.is/H8j0Q Here we go again
The internet is still shut down in Iran, over 120 hours now. So it is very difficult to say what’s happening in Iran right now.
An interesting artifact of the Iranian internet shutdown has been the tenfold decline in engagement and views on Reza Pahlavi’s (exiled crown prince/Shah, main opposition figure) social media profiles (Instagram, Twitter/X, etc). On Instagram, his videos have gone from receiving 30-50 million views (with a peak of 90 million on his pinned video), to 3-5 million. Likes have similarly decreased, from 2-3 million likes per video, to 200-300 thousand likes. Twitter/X shows similar figure, his January 6th video has 8 million views, his latest video around 800 thousand. This shows that the vast majority of his engagement (90%), was from Iranians within Iran itself. Also shows that support for monarchist figures has been severely underestimated. I absolutely did not expect such a decline in engagement due to the Iranian internet shutdown, I thought monarchist/Shah support was mainly an Iranian diaspora phenomenon.
Situation in MN is a powder keg where ICE is shoving more and more powder in and everyone is sitting around with lit matches. I’m genuinely surprised it hasn’t blown yet. Check the state subreddit if you want they are one of the better sources for this. r/Minnesota
ICE and other Border Control departments such as BORTAC, are now openly doing warrantless raids in minority neighborhoods and going to retail businesses such as target and Walmart to kidnap people. School is out in areas where ICE is active as a response to them busting into schools, walkouts in solidarity in other parts of the state.
They are also kidnapping kids and parents with young children on the street. One of the videos posted is of ICE grabbing a 17 year old target employee and beating him and dumping him at a Walmart.
The state has taken a hands off approach to the situation and seems to be content to sit by and observe, including simply observing protests, ICE seems to be the ones crushing protests. The only response from the state seems to be the AG filing a lawsuit (lol), this is not lost on the average person, they are noticing the inaction.
Bovino ( the guy in charge of these ICE raids) is just openly strutting about completely unafraid to show his face everywhere he goes. And why not? The administration has shown they will back ICE no matter what, and Dems have shown themselves to be toothless. Him doing this is also a message to the rank and file brownshirts that they have nothing to fear.
The average person I see at these protests is fucking pissed. We have random vote blue no matter who types giving interviews where they are openly talking about needing guns to square off with ICE, and former “apolitical” cop bootlicker types are saying they would support someone taking an ICE squad out.
ICE is so outnumbered in some of these cases that they might just get stampeded by an angry mob. One of the videos I’ve seen , if ICE hadn’t retreated when they did they would have faced mob justice. I don’t see any situation where something doesn’t give in the next day or two, max by the weekend.
One of the videos I’ve seen , if ICE hadn’t retreated when they did they would have faced mob justice.
I saw one where they were frantically calling for backup while getting pelted with snowballs, that was fun. hope there were rocks in them
Whats the mood in rural minnesota? I guess more pro-ICE?
The cynic in me says that the reason libs have begun realizing the true extent of the threat is because a white lady was killed
I have seen some heated libs the last couple years, but it’s this week I’ve seen for the first time multiple posts with thousands of likes on Bluesky saying something like “make sure your gun is clean and you have ammunition, get ready for the worst, no one is coming to save us.”
Saw a Ken Klippenstein post that for the people they’re sending atp are volunteers since a lot of the recruits are pissing themselves in fear.
Thing is that means it’s bastards that want to jump into this powder keg going.
EDIT: thanks for all the support. It’s hit the airwaves on local TV: https://youtu.be/Inn-sfiMcyE
A report from a friend of my son’s:
Good morning,
I am a US citizen from Minneapolis. Yesterday, while doing legal observation, ICE stopped their cars to harass my friend and me. They sprayed pepper spray into the vent of our vehicle. We held our hands in the air and told them we were not obstructing, that the car was in park and they were free to drive forward and away. There was no active immigration raid. They returned to their cars, and drove forward a bit, then decided to stop again. They surrounded us, smashed the windows of our car, opened the doors (they were unlocked), ripped my friend and I out of the car and arrested us on charges of obstruction.
I was put in an unmarked SUV, separated from my friend. As I was put in the back seat an ICE agent tore the whistle off my neck and said “I’ll be taking this, I might need it later.” My phone was knocked out of my hand while being arrested. As we drove away I asked the driver and the passenger if they wouldn’t mind buckling my seatbelt, as they were driving erratically. I was ignored. I asked them if I could have the handcuffs loosened, as I was losing circulation, and was told no. At one point the passenger realized his own driver’s license was in the backseat next to mine, and tried to surreptitiously grab it without me seeing it.
We were taken to the Whipple federal building, where I saw dozens of brown people being processed in an unheated garage. I was frisked, told of my charges, and saw buses and vans being prepped. I later learned that these were being filled with detainees and driven to the airport for deportation. As we were led in, I noticed that the building was very busy. I got the impression that one of the 2 agents bringing me around was being trained. At multiple points throughout my stay, government agents were unable to open doors, not sure where they were meant to be going, and overall confused and overwhelmed. They couldn’t figure out how to use the building phones, or complained about a lack of cell service preventing them from checking the internet or making calls.
The people in the cells were extremely scared. We heard people screaming “let me out!”, crying, wailing and terrified screams. There were cells with as many as 8 people. I have no way of knowing how long they have been there, if they were allowed any contact with the outside world, or if they were being brought food or water. Most people were staring at the ground with almost no energy. I was not allowed to talk to anyone imprisoned. I distinctly remember seeing a desperate woman. She was staring at the ground with her head in her hands crying, hopeless, while her friend or family member sat on a bathroom seat observed by 3 men.
My friend and I were put in an area for “USCs,” which we eventually learned meant US citizens, separated by gender. We were imprisoned for 8 hours, during which my friend was never allowed a phone call. I was allowed to call my wife and tell her where I was. During my interview with Special Agent William and Special Agent Garcia, they asked me to empty my pockets. When I pulled out gloves, Agent William said those were meant to be taken when I was processed, and complained about having to fill out the form again. He frisked me once more, where he found glass in my pocket from when our car window was shattered. He filled out the form listing my personal items again, but put the wrong date. I was read my rights, I pleaded the fifth and was led back to my cell.
Food, water, and bathroom breaks were extremely difficult to acquire. I would ask over the intercom provided in the cell for a bathroom break, be told someone was on their way, then ask again 20 minutes later, be told someone was on their way, wait another 20 minutes, etc. Eventually they either turned off the intercom or it stopped working, because no one would respond. I could get water and bathroom breaks by pounding on the glass when someone happened to walk by and beg them directly. Hours would go by without anyone checking on us. I am vegan and the only food they offered were turkey sandwiches, fruit snacks with gelatin, and granola bars with honey. I eventually ate a granola bar out of hunger.
I was in the cell alone for between 1 and 2 hours, then another man was put into my cell, whose shirt was ripped open from his arrest, and an injured toe, who was carried aggressively into an unmarked car during his arrest. After about 4-5 hours, another man was brought in who had a cut on his head from his arrest. He told me he was tackled by 4 or 5 agents during his arrest. At no point was he offered medical assistance.
Later I was told that a lawyer was here to see me, and I was able to speak with him in a visitation room. The special agent told me that the door could not be closed all the way, so it was cracked during my interaction with my lawyer. I got the impression that they were not used to having lawyers present, and were trying to follow procedure as best they could. I asked an agent if the other detainees were allowed lawyers and was not answered.
At one point, 3 men from the department of Homeland Security Investigations brought me into a cell. They insinuated that they could help me out. After inquiring several times what exactly they meant they finally told me that they could offer undocumented family members of mine legal protection if I have any (I don’t), or money, in exchange for giving them the names of protest organizers, or undocumented persons. I was shocked, and told them no.
Finally, after hours of detention, I was told to follow an agent. At no point was I told whether or not I was being charged, or where I was going, but I was led out of the building. I asked if I could use a phone to call my wife to pick me up, and was told I could not. After pleading for several minutes eventually Special Agent William let me use his phone to call my wife. As I was escorted off the property by government agents, I was told to turn right. I was escorted to the protest area, where 5 minutes later, tear gas was deployed and I was struck by a paint ball gun. I was not protesting, I was simply being released without charges after an 8 hour detention. I was on the other side of the street, as instructed by the agents that released me and the agents shouting orders over a bullhorn. A passerby who was tear gassed was panicking and having an asthma attack, so I helped her find a medic to get her an inhaler. I used a stranger’s phone to co-ordinate pickup, and was picked up by my wife.
During my detention I knew that I was being released. I knew that as a citizen of the United States I have legal protection. The hundred or so other people being detained had no such protection. At this time I don’t need your help, it is the families that are being separated, abused, terrorized, harassed and killed that need your help. If this is happening to me, an American citizen born in the United States, then what is happening to the people in here that have no one calling lawyers on their behalf? That have no constitutional rights to due process? What is happening to the people that they will never be released to see their families, go to their jobs, or walk through their city ever again?
Please take care of yourselves, your family, and your community. I am safe and healthy, if you feel compelled to help, please offer your help to the Immigrant Defense Network at https://immigrantdefensenetwork.org/. If you know someone detained by ICE, call or text CAIR-MN at 612-206-3360 for 24/7 legal intake.
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
Communist Party of China delegation meets RSS (fascists) general secretary in India
Sad opportunism, it’s one thing to meet with BJP (since they are the Government) but RSS, really can’t see how Indian Communist Parties will be able to defend this.
The CPC has been taking a lot of Ls lately, and this is a big one.
This is just meeting w a real and politically powerful group they definitely need information on, not an endorsement.
CPC taking lots of Ls recently, wtf is even going on?so, Mao died and his line got purged. The terrible decisions grow tenfold after that purge.
Just like with Stalin it seems.
Sources in the RSS said that the meeting was scheduled on the “request” made by the CPC delegation.
“They discussed RSS’s organisational structure and our functioning,” he added.
The meeting came up despite the RSS not inviting the Chinese envoy for the recent centenary year celebrations
Mr. Vaidya, in the post, claimed that when he questioned the delegation about the reasons for their interest in the RSS, they had responded that they wanted to know more about the Sangh Parivar because it is a cadre-based organisation, just like the CPC, a cadre-based political party.
Mr. Vaidya further wrote that he also underscored to the CPC about a distinction between the two organisation and stated that while the CPC is a political party that works for and through a ‘State power’, the Sangh “works directly with the people and society”.
How does something like this advance Chinese interests?
Contemporary China has always been more interested in realpolitik than proletarian internationalism. It’s the same reason they prefer to deal with the Filipino government rather than the Maoist guerillas.
When American bombs inevitably fall on Chinese soil, they’ll find the wages of that policy won’t pay for much
Yes, I am fully aware. But how does this particular action advance Chinese interests? I am helplessly puzzled.
Is the RSS poised to take power? Do they control vital mines or industry? Are they a foil to weaken another element in India?
I need someone else’s knowledge here to help me figure this out.
RSS is quite literally Hydra from Marvel. Like actual Nazi sleeper agents embedded in all functions of Indian society working for establishing Hindu fascism.
RSS membership overlaps significantly with BJP membership, the relationship between the two is very close: the RSS(political movement, paramilitary group) is basically the parent organisation of the BJP(political party), so they are already in power, or are close enough(in some case are the same people) to those in power to have significant influence i.e. Prime Minister Modi is a member of both orgs
I understand the situation now, thank you for the information.
Trump ends temporary protected status for Somali people living in the US. Claiming conditions in Somalia have improved to the point that they no longer qualify for the status. 3000+ people with this status or applying for this status will be forced to leave the US by March 17th.
I genuinely don’t think this was stopping ICE from assaulting these people before so this is just Trump signalling cruelty to his base.
I wonder if this current focus on Somali people in the US from the right is in any way connected to the increased focus on Somalia and Somaliland we’re seeing in the Middle East or if it is just a coincidence.
I don’t think there is any one thing at play, but rather a few things (below is mostly speculation on my part):
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Somalis combine three different groups that a number of Americans, and conservatives in particular, hate: blacks, immigrants, and Muslims. In the US, that is a fairly unique combination for which there aren’t a ton of comparable groups. It makes them an easy target for an initial test run of the Israeli-style demographic purges that arch zionist Stephen Miller is looking to enact across the country.
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Trump places at least some of the blame for his 2020 loss on BLM, and thus Minneapolis. This is punishment. There is more than enough evidence to show he really is that petty, IMO.
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This is punishment for Tim Walz running against him as part of Kamala’s ticket. Again, he is that petty. I don’t think this as strong of one of the “petty” motivations as the BLM thing.
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Minnesota has been identified as a potential swing state in prior elections. Elections are getting tighter in Minnesota, and the only thing keeping the state government from being controlled by the GOP and preventing more GOP wins at the federal level is Minneapolis. Trump lost Minnesota by ~140k votes. The Somali community in Minnesotta, of which 60% are US born and many more are either citizens or green card holders who, under normal circumstances would be become citizens in probably the next decade or so, are estimated at 80k-100k, mostly living in Minneapolis. My conspiracy theory is that this is a test run to see if they can do enough of this bullshit to flip a state red, and specifically at the state legislature level, because they have made it pretty clear that they want a constitutional convention to significantly change this country.
This is probably not as high up on the list, but the fact that the uprising in 2020 was able to collect at least one scalp (Derek Chauvin behind bars) is seen by the right as a total defeat, despite the fact that the movement won no reforms and the militarization of the police continued completely unhindered.
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It’s wild, there’s just about to be a major war over there, and they’re like “conditions have improved”.
Trump not tell lies for 2 seconds challenge (impossible).
Local news and The Forward are reporting on the Synagogue arson in MS. Apprehended suspect is 19, evangelical, has a Christian fitness website.
Another zionist false flag eh. Shocking
So, any reliable info about if the riots and destabilization efforts in Iran are still happening? Some major manipulation of news is still going so it is not clear what the picture is rn.
Very difficult to say with the internet shutdown. That’s the main reason there’s no new footage or footage trickling out.
So far it looks like Iran has taken notes from Venezuela. Mass mobilizations have taken place against the riots and terrorist plots. The people in the rallies are even in agreement with the real sentiments and economic concerns at the center of things, but they’re denouncing the violence and terrorism and reaffirming that they will defend a sovereign peaceful process in Iran.
amerika is back to threatening them with another attack cause it looks like their colour revolution failed.
They’re done, I believe. It’s been quiet for a day or two now and any footage claiming to represent current riots is misrepresented from the past week
With the boom for solid rocket motors for missiles, a perilous crunch in the supply chain
To increase munitions stockpiles, the US military needs more solid rocket motors. Deep into the supply chain, there are still problems, executives told Breaking Defense.
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Helicon Chemical Company, based in Orlando, is a small business trying to become a second supplier for HTPB-45M, a binding component that goes into most solid rocket motors (SRMs). But just as Helicon was planning to stand up production in West Virginia, budgetary turmoil slammed the brakes on a promised and much-needed $15 million contract from the Pentagon. The situation is aggravated by the ongoing lapse in the Small Business Innovation Research program, funds from which make up about one-third of Helicon’s budget, and could become even worse if the government shuts down for a second time on Jan. 30, company CEO Jack Sarnicki told Breaking Defense. “Everything has come to a screeching halt,” Sarnicki said. “If we don’t get under contract [for the West Virginia facility], and another government shutdown occurs, we could have real issues with my company. We would probably have to think about laying off people.”
As demand for munitions like the Army’s Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System and the Navy’s Standard Missile family has skyrocketed in recent years, so too has demand for the solid rocket motors that power them, prompting new entrants to dive into the market and traditional standbys to rapidly expand. But that growth hasn’t yet been replicated across the fragile SRM supply chain, several senior industry officials told Breaking Defense, raising questions about whether the scale exists to support the sector. “We don’t really need a third solid rocket motor provider. What I’ve been saying to everyone is they’ll just go to the same supply chain,” said L3Harris CEO Chris Kubasik in September at the Jefferies Industrials conference. “We need more companies that make nozzles. We need more companies that make igniters. We need more companies that make cases,” he said. “A third or a fourth solid rocket motor provider, they’re going to call the same people that we already have locked up, for our supply chain, and they’ll just have to get to the back of the line.”
What else is needed, according to defense software firm Govini CEO Tara Murphy Dougherty, is more aggressive input, in dollars and attention, from the Pentagon. “The Department leadership has a real opportunity right now, because as the reconciliation money becomes available, they’re about to spend upwards of $10 billion on additional munitions,” she said. But, “as of right now, they’re going to do things the exact same way and somehow expect different results from a supply chain management perspective.”
The ‘Ripple Effect’ Problem
According to Govini, between 1995 and 2017 the US industrial base for solid rocket motor makers shrank from six companies to just two providers: Orbital ATK, which was acquired by Northrop Grumman in 2018, and Aerojet Rocketdyne, which was acquired by L3Harris in 2023. A third company, Norwegian-based Nammo, produces solid rocket motors for certain US-made weaponry in Norway. However, in the last four years, a number of firms have announced plans to grow the SRM market in hopes of tapping into what appears on paper to be a wealth of funding from DoD for new munitions. Among the new entrants are defense startups Anduril, Ursa Major and X-Bow as well as legacy defense firms like General Dynamics. And both Northrop and L3Harris have announced their intention to increase their production rates. The problem is that just as the SRM primes shrunk over time, so did the supply chain, with many materials and components available only from one or two companies, or with long lead times. And any impact to those companies could cause ripples throughout the SRM production line. Potential chokepoints include ignition safety devices, nozzles, cases and insulation, and the fix isn’t necessarily one-size fits all, according to executives. But perhaps the biggest concern lies in the supply chain for energetics, the materials and chemicals that cause the propulsive reaction needed by SRMs.
In 2025, officials from Nammo discovered that a chemical company that produces an ingredient for propellant used in one of its solid rocket motors was going out of business, with no alternative supplier. “It’s caused kind of a ripple effect of, what do we do?” said Andy Davis, Nammo’s vice president of engineering and strategy. (Davis declined to share the name of the program or supplier, citing sensitivities.)
He pointed out that in the world of propellants, smaller manufacturers of specialty chemicals may quietly go out of business without their defense clients realizing until it’s too late to put in final orders. That sets up rocket makers for a long, and expensive process to requalify a new vendor. “One of the challenges you have that people don’t understand is a propellant formulation is made up of, say, 10 to 12 ingredients. Those ingredients are finely balanced and tailored to meet mechanical properties, burn rate properties,” he said. “So if you take, say, aluminum powder, and you’ve qualified a formulation with one aluminum powder and that manufacturer no longer supplies that aluminum, it’s not as simple as ‘I’m just going to go get another aluminum powder and put it in.’” In those cases, companies essentially have to go through the formula development process for that propellant all over again, Davis said. “I then have to requalify the propellant,” he said. “I then have to requalify, potentially, the rocket motor, and I have to potentially requalify the missile.”
And for the smaller suppliers that provide chemicals, budgetary chaos can have a massive impact on lead times. Helicon isn’t relying solely on the Defense Department for money for its new facility, and intends to raise $15 million in private funds to match the government’s investment, Sarnicki said. But even once money starts flowing, it will take anywhere from 18 months to two years for Helicon to qualify production and start producing HTPB-45M for its customers, he added. That means that every month of missed funding means another month before a second supplier of that chemical is available to SRM makers. Energetic parts and propellants can take a year to source, per Govini. Meanwhile, American Pacific Corporation (AMPAC) is the only US-based source of ammonium perchlorate — a key ingredient used to make solid rocket motor propellant — creating a “single point of failure” in the missile supply chain, Govini states. AMPAC, which in June announced a $100 million investment to boost ammonium perchlorate production, did not respond to a request for comment. “Beyond AMPAC, the DoD lacks a deeper understanding of the shared industrial base critical for solid rocket motor production,” Govini states. “A high degree of interconnectedness and shared sub-tier supply base suggests that expanding production of solid rocket motors will be difficult without increasing the number of suppliers for key parts and material.”
Both domestic SRM suppliers — Northrop and L3Harris — “are tethered to a handful of shared suppliers for essential components” and a disruption of any of those companies “whether a production delay, a quality control issue, or a catastrophic event like a factory fire — would simultaneously cripple the production capacity of the entire solid rocket motor enterprise,” per Govini. One such catastrophe sadly occurred in October, when an explosion at Accurate Energetic Systems’s facility in Tennessee killed 16 people, injuring others and leveling one building. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives estimated that between 24,000 to 28,000 pounds of explosives detonated on the day of the incident, with the blast emanating from an area where the explosive chemicals were mixed and heated. According to an analysis done by Govini in October, Accurate Energetic Systems was a source of energetics for the solid rocket motor industry and was a sub-tier supplier to Aerojet Rocketdyne, Northrop and Nammo.
holy shit it’s literally the exact facility that the tweet I posted above was about
The incident should be a “wake up call” for the Pentagon to play a more proactive role in managing its supply chain, and ensure it has secondary, or even tertiary suppliers for critical materials, Govini’s Murphy Dougherty told Breaking Defense in an October interview. “We had actually seen this company pop in our data in terms of risk factors, and it related to the fact that there’s just a lack of redundancy for a lot of these components and parts in critical systems like solid rocket motors,” Murphy Dougherty said.
cont’d in reply
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Breaking Into The SRM Supply Chain
Chemicals aren’t the only risk area for SRMs, industry executives said, with Govini noting that certain nozzles require seven to 10 months of lead time to source. And given the already constrained nature of the supply base, startups and new entrants into the SRM space are taking unusual steps to ensure that they will have the components they need for motor production. “With the significant increase in demand for SRMs, it’s clear that already there are some single point bottlenecks, and that if all of these existing suppliers and the new suppliers go to the same sub tiers, you’re going to run into more bottlenecks and constraints,” said Bret Perry, Anduril’s head of growth for rocket motor systems. For ignition safety devices, supply chain risks can be mitigated by managing schedules and planning for the lead times necessary, said Perry. For other components, like nozzles, insulation and motor cases, Anduril sees value in either adding new suppliers to the industrial base or convincing existing suppliers to expand horizontally into manufacturing other needed components, he said. For example, Perry noted that Anduril engineers taught one of its nozzle suppliers how to make motor cases after noticing that the company had the machinery onsite needed to wind composite materials into larger structures. “We were able to demonstrate that. We’ve fired motors with that case,” Perry said. “For some of the newer suppliers that are new to this, completely all together, those are items that are still in motion. … Those are longer term putts.”
Ursa Major, which will begin qualifying SRMs in 2026, is taking a slightly different approach. Instead of pinning its hopes solely on expanding the existing SRM supply chain, the Colorado-based startup is banking on vertical integration, said Bill Murray, its vice president of product and engineering for its solid missile systems business. “We’re actually buying powder and sintering it ourselves, and in Youngstown, Ohio, that becomes part of the metallic parts of the motor,” Murray said. “We’re really pushing hard on getting composite motors fielded across many different munitions, mostly because the steel motor case supply chain is so fundamentally difficult to solve.” At the same time, Murray added that there remain challenges like igniters, and while “there’s no one panacea to that,” Ursa’s current strategy is to manufacture and integrate its own ignition systems for most of its SRMs. Meanwhile, to address barriers with single-source chemical suppliers, Ursa intends to use fewer propellant ingredients across its family of SRMs, as well as seeking out new suppliers. “There are a good number of startups in the synthetic chemical industry that are entering the solid rocket motor market, the supply market, and we’re working with many of them that are coming up with new ways of synthesizing chemicals that are more resilient and more automated,” he said.
Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics, which are working together to stand up GD as a maker of rocket motors for Lockheed’s GMLRS munition, see supply constraints in nozzles and insulators as a potential roadblock, said Jerry Brode, vice president of Lockheed’s solid rocket motor product center. To mitigate those concerns, Lockheed plans to stand up a production capability for nozzles, with those items able to support GMLRS production and potentially other munitions in the future, Brode told reporters in October. Current SRM primes are also making their own investments into the supply chain. L3Harris has put more than $250 million into long lead material advanced funding and advanced funding to cover obsolescence of raw materials to suppliers. It has also directly invested more than $30 million to help its supply base modernize and expand its workforce, said Scott Alexander, its president of missile solutions. The company is seeing some signs of recovery as a result. For example, after L3Harris made an investment in tooling for one of its suppliers of motor cases, that company increased its monthly output by 1,000 percent, while investments in tooling and fixtures to a supplier that makes insulated nozzles contributed to a 350 percent increase in capacity. “There’s no secret that there are some single sources and potentially some dual sources, and we’re continuing to look at that,” Alexander said. “But if you ask me, ‘What is the health of the supply base?’ It is improving along these lines.”
Meanwhile Northrop Grumman has invested “more than $1 billion” across its SRM facilities and plans to double its rocket motor output over the next four years, it said in a statement to Breaking Defense. The statement did not specify how much of that investment has gone toward its supply chain. “We directly support efforts to diversify the supply chain and to address supply chain resiliency, particularly for suppliers that feed into our supply chain or common source of supply with other companies,” the company stated. “Northrop Grumman also supports the U.S. Government’s initiatives to address supply chain resiliency more broadly, including working with our allies and partners to invest in expanding capabilities in their countries.” Despite the work being done to expand the supply chain, it’s possible that not all SRM makers vying to enter the market are going to make it. “I think the supply base is there for three to four, large suppliers,” Perry said. “If everyone today was to fully scale, that’s where you’d run into potential challenges. But not everyone is going to fully scale.”
‘You Have to Be Able to Produce It’
Both Congress and the Defense Department have been bullish on financial efforts meant to help solidify and diversify the SRM supply chain, but the exact extent of the Pentagon’s aid to industry — as well as its success in standing up new second- and third-tier suppliers — is still opaque. The reconciliation bill approved by lawmakers in 2025 included $200 million for the solid rocket motor industrial base, another $400 million specifically for emerging SRM makers and their supply chain, $42 million for second sources of large diameter solid rocket motors for hypersonic missiles and $100 million for development of a second solid rocket motor source for Navy air defense and anti-ship missiles. The Defense Department did not respond to detailed questions about its investments in the solid rocket motor supply chain, including how it plans on spending reconciliation dollars. However, some details of its previous investments have been announced in contract awards. Before the end of fiscal 2025, the Defense Department announced $73 million in contracts meant to help expand the SRM supply base, awarding money to five vendors. The projects included $25 million for prototype production of 3D-printed motor cases and more than $12 million to test whether rayon fabric could be converted into a material used for insulating rocket nozzles. In late December, the Pentagon announced almost another $33 million in SRM-related awards, with money to increase production of cases and nozzles. (All of the awards tapped funding from the Defense Production Act, which lapsed on Oct. 1 but was reauthorized by Congress in December through the fiscal 2026 National Defense Authorization Act.)
The department has also made investments in the new SRM makers themselves, providing $14 million to Anduril in January for improvements at its production facility in Mississippi and $14 billion for X-Bow Systems in 2025 to prototype and test a GMLRS rocket motor, among other awards. But for Sarnicki of Helicon Chemical, which is still waiting for the funding it needs to start ramping production, the Defense Department’s stated intent of moving faster and correcting vulnerabilities in the SRM supply base hasn’t matched the reality faced by small vendors like his own company. “We’re a small company way down the food chain, and we’re just trying to pay our bills and keep the thing moving forward,” Sarnicki said. “Way up on top, things may be going better. You’ll read the articles that Raytheon gets a huge contract [for weapons], or Northrop gets it. Everything seems great. But you have to be able to produce it.”
https://www.greenmatters.com/nature/giant-panda-no-longer-endangered But at what cost?
The team estimated the total value of the panda reserves’ ecosystem services to be US $2.6 to $6.9 billion per year in 2010—roughly ten to twenty-seven times the cost of maintaining the current system of giant panda reserves in China.
“Independent” French Aviation 90% Dependent On Chinese Rare Earths: Safran Sounds Alarm
Rare earth materials again in news spotlight as they become political tool harming China-dependent French defense industry
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French aircraft engine manufacturer, including for Dassault Rafale fighters, Safran company, complains about supply chains turning into “weapons.” And this is not surprising, because 90% of its rare earth metal needs the country’s aviation industry covers with purchases from China.
Japanese prime minister Konoe complains about supply chains turning into “weapons”, and this is not surprising because 90% of its fuel needs the country covers with purchases from the US
As Reuters writes, Safran CEO and French aerospace association president Olivier Andries stated this. According to him, these critical resources are turning into a tool for creating dependency and gaining geopolitical advantage.
“turning”?! did this guy just sleep through, like, literally all of history?
Defense Express notes that actually it was always this way; one need only recall Russian energy carriers that all of Europe used. It’s just that in today’s unstable world conditions, the issue has risen to the public plane. Overall, before us is a good reminder that even France, which independently produces aviation and takes pride in its own autonomy in this matter, actually seriously depends at minimum on important resources. And this adds another leverage point for existing global suppliers, the largest of which is China. The issue of rare earth material import sources has been actively raised in recent years, because 99-100% of processing capacities belong to Chinese. So in the U.S. itself, active work is underway to correct this, especially for defense industry needs. Regarding the EU, they also purchase sensitive resources not only in China, but also in Russia, which raises many questions against the backdrop of sanctions. However, they are also searching for alternative sources, among which Ukraine is also being considered. For France, which is only increasing Rafale production, this issue is very important, considering the large order portfolio and even potential contract for Ukraine. So to maintain independent aircraft manufacturing, it may be necessary to invest even more funds and make additional compromises. Recall that Safran itself recently agreed to large-scale technology transfer to India and help in developing fifth-generation fighter. It’s quite likely that this is needed to support the company’s capabilities against the backdrop of collapse of the joint FCAS project with Germany and Spain.
complains about supply chains turning into “weapons”,
… isn’t this like the most important part of war? If you don’t have a supply line you can’t win? Why would anyone complain about this as if it’s some new problem. Supply lines have been an issue in war since war began. Neoliberalism has abstracted everything away to the point that it can’t even remember how war works
“Amateurs study tactics, professionals study… uh, what was that other thing again
”Yeah, it’s the basis for the long-standing Western sanctions regime and the new US tariff regime.
They’re just complaining that China might start using a proportional response to Western economic violence.
