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Minneapolis-based Alliant Techsystems is one of the nation's less well known military contractors and exporters. Since being spun off from Honeywell in 1990, Alliant has reached $1.6 billion in annual sales by becoming dominant in making and exporting munitions. According to a recent Defense Daily interview with Alliant's former acting CEO Peter Bukowick, the company has for the last year consciously avoided pitting itself against industry heavyweights like Boeing and Lockheed Martin for sales and contracts. Instead, much of its business comes from subcontracting weapons systems for such primary manufacturers. The rest of Alliant's sales come from a combination of Defense Department contracts and foreign sales. (In fiscal year 1996, Alliant ranked 26th among Pentagon contractors, with prime contract awards of $456.5 million.) As with most weapons manufacturers, foreign sales are a primary source of profit. Research and development costs are already covered; plants don't need to be retooled, since they're already making the product (or even shipping leftovers from domestic orders); dictators know you can never have too many bullets; and the Pentagon, State Department, Commerce Department, and various other Clinton administrati cover much of the cost and hassle of marketing and brokering deals with squirrelly customers. Alliant's primary export recently has been the MK-46 torpedo, which it has sold to Bahrain, Egypt, and Taiwan. In 1997 countries choosing the MK-46 included Bahrain, which got 18 of the torpedoes -- free -- through the Excess Defense Article (EDA) program, which helps get underequipped countries into the habit of buying American arms. Egypt is willing to put up cash for the MK-46: In September 1997 Alliant sold it 84 of the torpedoes through the Pentagon. In September 1996 Alliant won a $66 million deal to sell 110 torpedoes to Taiwan, which has benefited enormously from the Clinton administration's more lax attitude about arms sales. For years, Taiwan's arms purchasing was constricted by a Sino-American understanding that U.S. companies would not arm Taiwan with their newest and best. As Clinton has gotten more lenient about exporting arms to China, Taiwan has found that it, too, can upgrade. For Princess Diana fans, there is some good news: Alliant no longer makes antipersonnel land mines (though there are still plenty of old ones in the field), but it still does a rousing business in bigger, deadlier antitank land mines. Also in the morally questionable category is Alliant's recent contract to supply the U.S. Army with M829E3 armor-piercing, discarding-sabot tank round. The M829E3's export potential is currently restricted by its strategically important depleted uranium (DU) technology, but company officials are hopeful that down the road these munitions -- which are made of super-dense nuclear waste that rips toward the enemy at up to a mile a second -- will be fair game for export. That day may be quite soon, even though the Army is looking into nuclear-related health hazards in the testing and deployment of DU weaponry. -- Geov Parrish | | |||||||||||||
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