{"id":81015,"date":"2016-10-10T12:00:33","date_gmt":"2016-10-10T11:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=81015"},"modified":"2016-10-09T15:00:28","modified_gmt":"2016-10-09T14:00:28","slug":"to-sell-weapons-defense-contractors-make-war-seem-fun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2016\/10\/to-sell-weapons-defense-contractors-make-war-seem-fun\/","title":{"rendered":"To Sell Weapons, Defense Contractors Make War Seem Fun"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Soldiers<\/a>

Soldiers from the U.S. Military adjust a 30 mm cannon at the EOS booth at the Association of the United States Army (AUSA) Annual Meeting & Exhibition.<\/p><\/div>\n

6 Oct 2016 – <\/em>I\u2019m getting commands to aim and fire. I pull the trigger again and again until I see an explosion. I feel vaguely sick, maybe because my chair shakes every time I pull the trigger, or maybe because the images I\u2019m seeing are blurry.<\/p>\n

When I take off my VR headset, a smiling young woman hands me a round token: Distinguished Gunner A14, it says. I\u2019m not exactly the target audience \u2014 \u00a0and neither are the high school boys I saw enjoying the game later.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>

A visitor plays a VR game at the General Dynamics booth at at the Association of the United States Army (AUSA) Annual Meeting & Exhibition.
Photo: Naomi LaChance for The Intercept<\/p><\/div>\n

The woman tells me the game is to show just how strong the General Dynamics Stryker 30mm cannon is. I\u2019m at the Association of the United States Army\u2019s annual exposition, Monday to Wednesday at the new, cavernous Washington Convention Center, where in order to score contracts with the Pentagon, defense contractors are making their weapons seem fun.<\/p>\n

AUSA features a who\u2019s who of the military-industrial complex, and the extreme excess of money in the industry is evident everywhere.<\/p>\n

\"Bullets<\/a>

Bullets from CAV-X, in a display case at the Association of the United States Army (AUSA) Annual Meeting & Exhibition.
Photo: Naomi LaChance for The Intercept<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cThis is the place to be,\u201d Bill Underwood, client manager at Boeing, told me. [AUSA] \u201cputs you in touch with decision makers.\u201d Boeing would know \u2014 they have a lot<\/a> of contracts with the Pentagon.<\/p>\n

There were other video games in addition to General Dynamics\u2019s. I watched Nathan Stoddart, a software engineer, show two congressional staffers a virtual reality game called Project Argus<\/a>. The game places the character in a battle on an island. There are battleships nearby and a Predator drone overhead. L-3 envisions using the game for planning and post-mission analysis.<\/p>\n

The staffers didn\u2019t want to talk to me, but they\u00a0were clearly having a good time.<\/p>\n

DSG Tech showed off its bullets in a glass case like jewelry. \u201cThis is the coolest, newest, hottest ammo ever,\u201d said Jon Andre Garberg, founder and CEO of the company. He said that his product is used frequently by the Navy, but they\u2019re hoping to attract the Army as well.<\/p>\n

Back at the General Dynamics booth, three high school boys were enjoying the cannon game.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is what people do in real life. It\u2019s pretty cool,\u201d said Brian Hoffman after taking off the headset. Hoffman is a senior at Bishop Ireton High School who came to the exposition as part of a school trip.<\/p>\n

Many of the displays allow you to interact with the merchandise. I saw soldiers in Brazilian army uniforms picking up machine guns and pointing them at each other, for example.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>

A soldier from Brazil tries out a gun manufactured by Troy.
Photo: Naomi LaChance for The Intercept<\/p><\/div>\n

Honeywell\u2019s VR setup featured a tour of its navigation and sensor systems. \u201cIt\u2019s a great way to show capabilities that Honeywell has,\u201d Tom Hart, vice president of Honeywell Defense and Space, told The Intercept. The company is developing<\/a>\u00a0virtual windows for windowless armored vehicles.<\/p>\n

Australian company Electro-Optic Systems positioned its M230 LF chain gun, so its 30mm cannon was trained on the crowd. Visitors could adjust and aim the weapon toward nearby visitors in real time, watching them on a screen.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has a significant jump in lethality,\u201d CEO Warwick Holloway told The Intercept. Holloway said his company focuses on U.S. and Middle East markets, and is trying to use the exposition to sell to the American military.<\/p>\n

Boeing had a green screen where visitors could pose<\/a> next to Boeing products \u2014 like a bomb, a missile, or a helicopter. At General Atomics, visitors chatted under a rotating models of the Gray Eagle drone, which was developed as an upgrade to the Predator drone.<\/p>\n

This is the best that war is ever going to look. It\u2019s flashy, exciting, and seems to have no downside.<\/p>\n

________________________________________<\/p>\n

Naomi LaChance<\/a> – \u2709naomi.lachance@theintercept.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 theintercept.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

6 Oct 2016 – A visit to the Association of the United States Army\u2019s annual exposition. AUSA features a who\u2019s who of the military-industrial complex, and the extreme excess of money in the industry is evident everywhere.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-militarism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81015\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}