Air Force bid for Tesla Cybertrucks in target practice symbolizes the ‘evolving’ relationship between the Pentagon and Big Tech, expert says

The US Air Force Materials Command, which is part of the Ministry of Defense, is looking forward to obtaining two electronic Settin “for the targeting of vehicle flights testing”, according to the documents submitted to the award management system on Wednesday. The Air Force is also looking for 31 other vehicles, including sedans and Bongo trucks, most likely to use them as missile targets. The enemies may be “likely” to move to the use of vehicles such as electronic transportation, which are more resistant to certain types of damage, according to the stadiums.

“The test needs to reflect the positions of the real world,” said a document. “The intention of training is the preparation of operations units by simulating scenarios as much as possible in the real world.”

Quoted from the February market research by a revised source, one of the documents said that Tesla Cybletructs calls for this specifically in this type of battlefield test because of its “angular and future design, strongly associated with its unpopular external presence of stainless steel”, which distinguishes it from other models. Vehicles do not need to work at full capacity, but rather healthy and able to move on their wheels, according to the document.

According to Gordon Adams, a professor of American foreign policy at the American University who is looking for defense spending, the Air Force’s decision to follow up on Tesla vehicles to train on the battlefield is, in isolation, a few consequences – but it indicates the increasing relations between military and private technology in the private sector.

Adams told luck. “At another level, I find it a symbol of an advanced relationship between the public sector, in general, and the Ministry of Defense.”

“I have no doubt that this is something of the camel nose under the tent in relation to the relationship between DOD and [Tesla CEO] Elon Musk and its companies, which there are many links.

The Air Force and Tesla did not respond luckComment requests.

In fact, the air force’s interest in electronic inflorescences is far from the first time that the US Department of Defense is interested in one of the Musk projects. His companies have received billions of dollars from government contracts, including $ 22 billion deals with Spacex to provide launch services for Pentagon, as well as to provide a satellite -based connection with the Ministry of Defense in some remote sites and support military operations in Ukraine.

A new new sector for military technology

Musk’s governmental contracts are just a segment of deals that the Ministry of Defense is conducting with technology companies, including Peer Thief Palantir, which exceeded one billion dollars of quarterly revenue for the first time this week, partly thanks to its largest contract so far: a $ 10 billion software deal with the American army. Last month, Openai won a $ 200 million contract with the Pentagon to use the capabilities of artificial intelligence to face security challenges in both “war and institutions wrestling areas”, the Ministry of Defense said.

Pentagon contracts with the private sector constitute more than half of the government contracts, swelling in 2024 to 445 billion dollars from 755 billion dollars of obligations, according to government accountability office data.

Military financing gates for private technology opened about 10 years ago, when the Obama administration prompted the Pentagon and the private sector, including the “People’s Bridge”, who are fans in the technology sector creative to temporarily work on projects in the Ministry of Defense.

Previously, private technology companies have avoided working with the government, believing that they are very bureaucratic and not profitable. But years after the Silicon Valley was attracted, the Ministry of Defense has become required, as companies like Amazon see opportunities to replace government-Podge data centers with cloud computing, which the Pentagon was providing a $ 10 billion contract prize in 2019.

Under Trump’s management, these relationships only deepened. The “Grand and Beautiful Bill” of the President contains $ 150 billion in defensive spending, which is a delicious possibility for many agencies in the Ministry of Defense that tests active use cases of artificial intelligence tools from technology giants such as Meta, Google, Openai, HotHroupic and Misstral, as well as from the beginning such as Gladstone Ai and Scaleai, luck It was mentioned last year.

Adams said that overcoming major technology and Pentagon is unlikely to collapse at any time soon when Adams creates a “full new sector”.

He added: “We are entering the privatization of technology through the Ministry of Defense using high -tech capabilities for companies such as Apple, Microsoft, Palantir and other contractors, including Elon Musk. So it is now a process outside the scope of control.”

“If you want to put the brakes on technological developments and take a closer look at it in light of this political situation – the distribution of power between Republicans and Democrats – this will not really happen. The door is completely open to penetration from high technology and the Ministry of Defense.”

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