Nevada Desert Experience :: Issues :: The Military Industrial Complex

- The Military Industrial Complex -

The Military Industrial Complex (MIC) can be understood as the marriage of war-making and money-making, conducted via thousands of projects spread out across the globe affecting people in all social strata. In the case of the United States, our ever increasing war-making budget is parceled out to a network of corporations to develop and manufacture war materials, including the American arsenal of weapons of mass destruction. Many billions of American tax dollars each year are paid to Lockheed Martin, Bechtel, and other corporations. The nuclear weapons industry is part of the MIC.

The U.S. is currently spending more on its nuclear weapons’ program than it did at any point in the Cold War. Such spending continues to drain resources that could be used to end hunger and other poverty related conditions worldwide. Nuclear weapons facilities that maintain high levels of activity in the MIC include the Nevada Test Site, the Y-12 plant in Oakridge, Tennessee, Lawrence Livermore Labs in California, Los Alamos in New Mexico, and the Kansas City facility. Some in the MIC are calling to revamp the NTS's mission.If we truly seek a free and democratic world, we must liberate ourselves from a consciousness framed in fear and vengeance and disarm the weapons of mass destruction here in our country.

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Revamping the Nuclear Industrial Complex

Campaign for a Nuclear Weapons Free World

FCNL Action Guide: Complex Transformation Q&A

Predators & Reapers are remote-controlled, hunter-killer, unmanned aerial vehicles operated at Creech Air Force Base just outside of Las Vegas.

NUCLEARISM: /NU-klee-ir-êsm/ [Mod. Eng., Psych., Relig.] (n) 1. ideology among some U.S. Americans and their allies in which nuclear weapons are held in such high esteem that they are regarded as essential to maintaining worldwide U.S. military and economic dominance. 2. belief rising in the late 20th century among many scientists, military persons, corporations, government agencies, and others within the military-industrial complex that nuclear weapons are useful, valuable, and needed to maintain/enforce "peace." 3. habitual engagement in working for the nuclear industry. 4. "death cult" (often subconsciously observed) which believes that peace is created by ultimate violence or threats of ultimate violence (i.e. the power to annihilate others); the worship of the deadliest substance that humans have created to-date.

In 1992, the United States signed the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. Between 1992-1997 the United States in accordance with the Treaty stayed the all forms of nuclear testing. Since 1997, sub-critical nuclear testing has occurred regularly in violation of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. Sub-critical testing is the term used to describe the process of testing component pieces of a nuclear bomb without inducing a full explosion. While sub-critical testing is less politically visible, the resumption of any form of testing reinvigorates the nuclear weapons’ machine and greatly increases the possibility of a return to full scale testing in the near future.

- Recent Nuclear Tests -

"Rebound" was the 1st Post-Moratorium U.S. Subcritical Test on 2 July 1997 @ NTS (conducted by LANL)
"Holog" (2nd Post-Moratorium U.S. Subcritical Test) on 18 Sept 1997 @ NTS (conducted by LLNL)
"Stagecoach" on 25 March 1998 @ NTS
"Bagpipe" on 26 September 1998 @ NTS
"Cimarron" (5th Post-Moratorium U.S. Subcritical Test) on 11 October 1998 @ NTS
"Clarinet" on 9 February 1999 @ NTS
"Oboe" on 27 September 1999 @ NTS
"Oboe 2" on 10 October 1999@ NTS
"Oboe 3" on 6 February 2000 @ NTS
"Thoroughbred" (10th Post-Moratorium U.S. Subcritical Test) on 22 March 2000 @ NTS' Lyner facility
"Oboe 4" on 9 April 2000 @ NTS
"Oboe 5" on 18 August 2000 @ NTS
"Oboe 6" on 14 December 2000 @ NTS
"Oboe 8" on 26 September 2001 @ NTS
"Oboe 7" (15th Post-Moratorium U.S. Subcritical Test) 13 December 2001 @ NTS
"Vito" on 14 February 2002 @ NTS
"Oboe 9" on 7 June 2002 @ NTS
"Mario" on 29 August 2002 @ NTS
"Rocco" on 26 September 2002 @ NTS
"Piano" (20th Post-Moratorium U.S. Subcritical Test) on 19 September 2003 @ NTS
"Armando" on 25 May 2004 @ NTS
"Krakatau" on 23 February 2006 @ NTS
"Unicorn" on 30 August 2006 @ NTS
"Bacchus" at 5:35 p.m. on 15 September 2010 @ NNSS (conducted by LANL)
"Barolo A" (25th Post-Moratorium U.S. Subcritical Test) on 1 December 2010 @ NNSS
"Barolo B" on 2 February 2011 @ NNSS

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE TESTS: