An article that ran last Saturday in the Grand Rapids Press titled “Smiths Aerospace engineers get feel for flying new Navy jet” uncritically reported on Smiths Aerospace’s work on the Navy P-8A patrol plane. In the article by reporter Julia Bauer, the Press reports that the Smiths Aerospace facility in Grand Rapids will employ 150 local design engineers to develop the navigation systems for the aircraft. The P-8A—an aircraft based on the Boeing 737 jet—will have a primary role of detecting submarines, surface ships, and other aircraft. Bauer refers to the plane as a “militarized 737” although this assessment is downplayed later in the article when she states that “although the war plane will carry weapons, its first function is to survey the seascape.” She then goes on to state the “missions management” system developed by Smiths Aerospace for the P-8A is comparable to system it has developed for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. The Press reports that contract could be worth as much as $200 million as Smiths is one of the major suppliers.

The article—like most of the local corporate media’s coverage of military contracts—is problematic in that it fails to investigate several core issues pertaining to “the military-industrial complex (http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Military-industrial_complex)” and minimizes the fact the that the contract is for a military aircraft that will ultimately be used in the United States’ military campaigns around the world. The term “military industrial complex—first used by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1961—is generally defined as a coalition consisting of the military and corporations who profit by manufacturing weapons and selling them to the government. This originated in the Cold war with the United States’ government’s belief that due to the perceived threat of the Soviet Union that there was need for the development of a permanent arms industry. This system has continued over the past forty years, with the military routinely upgrading its technology to having increasingly more effective weapons, although the question of need is rarely addressed. Moreover, some companies have engaged in “war profiteering” in that they make significant sums of money in order to supply the military during each new war. The military-industrial complex is further supported by an extensive network of think-tanks and lobbyists who constitute an effective system of organized advocacy of what has been termed the “military-industrial-think tank complex” that advocates aggressive military policy in order to justify the purchase of weapons systems.

The Press article makes no mention of this context, and instead quotes three individuals, one a marketing representative with Boeing and the other two employees at Smiths Aerospace, all of whom present the work on the P-8A in a positive light and never question the necessity of the plane. Bauer ends the article with a quote from Smiths Aerospace’s Dale Masburch, a vice president of flight management systems, who describes their work on the P-8A as a “cost-effective solution for the taxpayer,” although Bauer makes no effort to investigate whether how the average taxpayer will benefit from the government’s purchase of the P-8A, especially when the money could potentially be spent on under-funded social programs. Similarly, from the approximately 3x5 inch picture of two smiling Smiths Aerospace employees in a simulated P-8A to the downplaying to its weapons capacity, there is no serious discussion of how the military will use this weapon in its ongoing and future wars. Instead, there is no direct mention that the primary role of any military weapon is either to engage directly in killing or to provide necessary supports to a system engaging in such activities with media coverage—such as a previous Press article titled “The War’s Collateral Benefits”—focusing instead on the money made from military contracts.

Several other corporations doing work for the military are located in the Grand Rapids area, Media Mouse also maintains an extensive database of these companies and the contracts awarded to them.