Western Standard - EXCLUSIVE： WS columnist Dave Makichuk from France

00:00:00.000 It's absolutely massive. Think about this. Eight Walmarts. Eight Walmarts of weapons. Eight frickin' Walmarts of every weapon known to man. And it's from everywhere in the world, including China, but not Russia.

00:00:19.480 Russia was not invited this year for obvious reasons. So it's just absolutely incredible. I was overwhelmed. And you have to have an app to find a particular booth. Well, it's between 1,700 and 1,800 booths. Imagine the BMO center. Imagine four BMO centers. That's how big this thing is. I've never seen anything.

00:00:48.520 I've been to AUSA in Washington, D.C., and it's big, but it is not like this. And this is the weapons central. And it happens every two years. People come from all over the world to make deals, to study the weapons and the new technologies, which are just, you know, I don't want to say exploding, but basically, that's the pun.

00:01:13.160 The technology is absolutely exploding for a weapon. And it's just a massive industry. I had no idea until I came here just how incredible it is. It really is something.

00:01:26.600 I guess, you know, it's just that mixed thing. I mean, it's fascinating on how much tech advancement we have and things such as that. But at the same time, you know, leave it to us with humanity that we get our most creative when it's finding ways to obliterate each other.

00:01:38.160 Unfortunately, yes. Unfortunately, yes. It's new ways to kill people. However, let me say this. The one thing I learned, I took a poll from all the arms dealers at the show, and I asked about Ukraine.

00:01:54.740 And I asked, you know, it's a sensitive question. Not everybody wants to answer it. But basically, Europe has woken up. Ukraine has changed everything. Europe has woken up. And now there's more demand. There's more budget.

00:02:12.740 And Germany that is not spent much on defense since the Second World War. Everybody said Germany, Germany, Germany. They're spending incredible amounts of money. And they boosted their budgets. It's just incredible. And they're saying the demand is up.

00:02:33.420 There's still competition out there. But demand is up. And it has absolutely changed the world.

00:02:40.180 And when it comes to, I talk to ammo dealers from all over the world there. I talked to several. I concentrated. There was two areas which really interested me.

00:02:53.680 The Israelis and the Israelis and the Turkish are really coming on. There you see a nice lady there displaying a Turkish gun with a silencer on it. Very nice lady. And then you see the Elbit precision weapons.

00:03:08.380 Well, I talked to her and she said, yes, we are dealing with Ukraine. And of course, Turkey is sending them drones. But also Elbit in Israel is just doing incredible. It's changed everything.

00:03:24.740 And the fellow from Elbit told me that studying what happened in Ukraine. Everybody's looking at that. Everybody. And they're all thinking the same thing.

00:03:40.860 It's going back to basic military strategy and weapons. Do we buy tanks? Are tanks obsolete? Now, what you're looking at is a robot tank. A mega robot tank. It has to be controlled by a human being.

00:03:59.620 But right now, in future, it may have artificial intelligence and it may decide who to kill on its own. Raising questions about friendly fire. How does it determine a friendly? I asked everybody, how does it determine a friendly? Friendly or false? We're working on it.

00:04:18.840 Everybody told me the same thing. Because this thing can identify a threat a second, millisecond and end it just like that. Well, how in the hell, if you've got your troops on the ground, how can you tell? Do they wear a badge? Do they wear a patch? What the goddamn hell do you do when you've got a monster? This is a monster. I mean, look at this thing. This is the Terminator. This is the Terminator.

00:04:48.840 Yeah, from RoboCop. I mean, so it kind of shows also just the new front of military and battles. I mean, if we've got things like this and unmanned drones and a lot of remote military hardware going around, hackers are going to be more powerful in some ways than we've ever imagined.

00:05:08.480 Because if somebody could manage to get control of those things, even a guy in a basement in India could suddenly take over a division of an army. I mean, they better make sure they can figure out their controls on this stuff. 0.95

00:05:20.480 Loitering munitions. Drones that can fly around and wait until they see something or you see something and you target it or then come back and land.

00:05:31.340 Okay, you see that one on the right? That is a suicide drone. That thing on the far right is a suicide drone. And if it hits you, it's over. And that thing, and that's made in Israel, and that thing can fly, you know, forever. 0.95

00:05:49.020 And if you want it to come home, it'll come home, and it'll turn on its back, and it'll have a little parachute and a little cushion, and it'll fall, and you can use it again if you don't find a target.

00:06:00.400 Now, what's better, to have a drone or to have a pilot up there who could get killed? That thing is just, and it's exploding. In the Israel area, I must have seen like seven, eight drone companies.

00:06:14.480 And then I walked down the aisle, and I found an Israeli jamming company that can jam drones, and it has a weapon that you can hold, and that's what shoots the thing down. 0.65

00:06:28.380 So, I mean, there's weapons, and there's counter weapons, and that's the game of the future. And it's being played out. You can see that. You can take a look at that. That's not a .50 caliber. That's bigger.

00:06:40.620 That's bigger. That thing is on the top of that, of a robot tank, and it can see you, and it can, you know what I mean? I mean, it's a whole, the whole strategy and technology of war is changing, and it's just amazing. It really is, you know?

00:07:00.620 Yeah, go ahead. Go ahead.

00:07:01.880 I was saying, you know, actually, it's one of our commenters, yeah, Kerry, saying, you know, AI will be our doom. I mean, we dehumanize some of what these, you know, equipment does,

00:07:10.280 but we do have to remember the target on the other end is often going to be human casualties, so, I mean, you're not putting a soldier at risk in the air or on the ground,

00:07:17.540 but you're out there to destroy somebody somewhere. It's pretty chilling.

00:07:21.300 It is pretty chilling, but this is, you know, unfortunately, you know, this is mankind.

00:07:28.240 It's never going to be, you know, I mean, I would like it to be a Disneyland world, but it just isn't.

00:07:34.840 And it's filled with, you've got a bad dude in Russia who's just changed the world and put the fear of God into everybody, 0.99

00:07:42.160 especially in Europe. They've broken up. Budgets are rising. It's just, you know, it's amazing.

00:07:51.620 But let me say this. I talked to one Turkish fellow who, their company does a lot of things,

00:07:58.660 including armored cars, and I said, okay, is Ukraine good or bad? And he said, well, there's a lot of 0.98

00:08:08.660 negatives. He said, first of all, inflation. It's driven inflation. Toss her up. There's a loss. 0.97

00:08:19.740 There's a price of fuel has gone up. There's no grain. There's no grain. And a lot of those grain

00:08:27.280 goes to African countries. Shipping containers have skyrocketed. And the basic of disruption of trade

00:08:36.000 and cyber attacks of bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, you've got all these things happening. And it's changing

00:08:43.660 the whole landscape. I mean, on the good side for the arms dealers is that demand is up. Demand is up.

00:08:52.920 That's not necessarily a good or bad thing because competition will still, will still happen. But

00:08:58.940 like I say, Ukraine has changed the world. Some people didn't want to talk about it. Some people

00:09:06.260 wouldn't say two words, but some guys just said, yeah, yeah. It's like, do we buy tanks? You know,

00:09:12.160 should we, and how do we protect them now? Because we're looking at the same, what's

00:09:16.840 happening in Ukraine? How do we protect those things? You know, and it's about this, again,

00:09:22.300 these Israeli companies, a precision guided weapon. The only country who can get away with 1.00

00:09:29.520 dumb bombs is Russia. They're the only country. Nobody else can do that. Everybody else has to go 0.99

00:09:36.180 by the rules. And that is precision weapons so that you don't have collateral damage. Putin doesn't,

00:09:42.920 you know, doesn't care. So, but he's the only, Russia's the only one who does that. Everybody else 0.90

00:09:48.920 got to play by the rules. And it's all about precision guided weapons. And I posted some,

00:09:55.040 there's some there that have GPS and, you know, that are just amazing and will hit direct

00:10:03.200 target. And this is only one area. I mean, there were so many, I just decided to concentrate on a

00:10:09.700 couple because it was just too overwhelming. Well, you encountered some other stuff too.

00:10:14.880 I was at a robotic dog. You ran across in there. Yes. Yes. And I got to tell you something really

00:10:21.340 funny. I got to tell you something really funny. And I've got a kind of a scoop for you too.

00:10:26.820 I got a scoop for you too. There was a robotic dog and it walked around and everybody, but the one

00:10:36.200 thing that was common to everyone who saw this dog wanted to pet it on the head. It's a robot.

00:10:45.900 It's a dog with a little face and two little eyes. Everybody, everybody who came up, I like it. I took

00:10:52.000 some pictures, but it's on my camera. I couldn't send it to you. But everybody wanted to pet it on

00:10:58.080 the head. And I just thought that was hilarious. It's a robot. You know what I mean? But the urge of

00:11:05.780 a human being, you know, is to, is to pet this thing on the head. So that, that, that was just kind

00:11:14.740 of a bizarre, uh, uh, thing I witnessed, but let me tell you about, uh, a fairly big scoop that I came

00:11:22.000 across. There's a couple, there's a couple I want to mention. And, uh, one of them, unfortunately due

00:11:30.640 to, uh, their security, uh, uh, uh, reasons, they won't let me write about it. I'd love to, but I can't,

00:11:38.740 and I can't, I can tell you it's a country in Europe, but I can't tell you where, and I can't even tell

00:11:44.700 you the name of the company. They don't want anything. Everything was off the record, but this

00:11:49.760 is one of the biggest security companies in the world, probably the biggest, and nobody knows the

00:11:57.800 thing about them. And that's the way they want it. And these people do security for 80% of the world's

00:12:04.960 airport. Their machines detect everything, everything. Think of it. 80% of the world's airports have their

00:12:12.760 equipment. Who else has their equipment? The White House has their security detecting equipment. The U.S.

00:12:21.560 Secret Service has their secret detective detecting equipment. And not only that, but, but also Air Force

00:12:32.600 One. The guards, the president of the United States has the equipment, the security detection equipment

00:12:38.260 of this company. And they are, they want to stay under the radar. They said, you can't write about

00:12:45.160 it, but they didn't say you can't talk about it. So I'm telling you now, this is one of the most

00:12:50.280 incredible things I've found at the show. Unfortunately, I can't tell you anymore because

00:12:55.400 of a journalistic ethics. And I gave my promise. I wouldn't. So, but this is, this is an absolutely

00:13:01.800 incredible company. And they've come up with new detectors to, uh, the Russians, for example, in 0.98

00:13:08.780 Ukraine, are leaving booby traps in houses. And they put it under things, under carpets, and they're 0.94

00:13:15.780 called brush wires. And ISIS also use these to booby trap homes. And they put them under carpets and stuff.

00:13:23.460 And the Ukrainians are getting these detectors to detect these weapons. So it's, I just found it 1.00

00:13:30.960 really fascinating. Yeah. Well, that's a different end of things, I guess, more in a defensive end,

00:13:36.540 but you can see why it's very proprietary or why they're keeping it tight too. Because again, I mean,

00:13:41.240 as you said, if we're talking, somebody who's dealing with 80% of the airports and things like

00:13:45.420 the, uh, uh, the White House itself, I mean, if you get yourself into that software, you could, again,

00:13:52.440 it doesn't matter how many, uh, old, uh, out of date takes the country has on the ground somewhere

00:13:56.220 else. They can bring a lot of the world to its knees again from a computer on the other side of

00:14:00.100 the planet. It's kind of scary. And again, this company also gives detection equipment for metal

00:14:06.880 detection in the food company around the world. Uh, you know, when food is processed, occasionally a

00:14:13.120 piece of metal will get in that food and they can detect it. They can detect anything. Uh, this is one of

00:14:20.160 the, uh, there are competitors and there are other companies, but this one I think is probably

00:14:24.400 one of the best in the world. And Canada actually bought some, uh, I think it was Vance, General

00:14:30.900 Vance, who, uh, said, look, I want to protect my boys. And he said, I want the best. So he bought

00:14:38.440 about a hundred grand worth of these, uh, landmine detectors for, this is going back to Afghanistan.

00:14:45.600 And when the feds in Ottawa found this out, they went ballistic. How dare you, how dare

00:14:52.480 you spend a hundred grand and Vance said, you know what? I did this to protect my boys

00:14:57.920 and I have authority to do that. So to hell with you medicine a little stronger, but he 0.96

00:15:05.280 said to hell with you, we're buying these things. And there was a right choice and I'm 0.96

00:15:09.960 not defending general Vance for any of the other stuff, but he looked after his men and

00:15:15.240 that was a wise decision. And that was this company that I can't name, unfortunate. So,

00:15:20.840 but okay. Okay. Go ahead. Oh, I was just saying, so kind of go a little further in the, in the

00:15:25.880 whole thing. So there's some really interesting, you know, very high tech, very targeted technology

00:15:29.720 there, things like that. Uh, one of the commenters was asking though, but it's not like Walmart,

00:15:36.520 they're not going to be a price tag hanging on, on front of it when you get there. But

00:15:39.880 this is pretty, I imagine some of this technology is very, very expensive for countries to acquire.

00:15:45.000 Extremely expensive, extremely, it's big bucks. And it's getting more and more expensive because

00:15:50.600 it's also high tech. I mean, it's just, uh, again, it's all about, uh, this, um, a multi, uh,

00:16:00.040 multi-domain or, uh, where you can, you know, an F-35 can talk to a ground station and a, and a,

00:16:09.880 and a guy will have a, uh, a 3D glasses, a troop, a captain with his, with his troops. And it can all

00:16:17.080 be, everybody's talking multi-domain. Everybody's talking to each other. Well, that's expensive.

00:16:22.680 That's expensive technology. And that's where it's headed. It's about information,

00:16:27.320 the sharing of information and, and, and, and how to do it without it being bought by, uh,

00:16:35.000 by an enemy. And, uh, it's, it's, uh, it, it just is getting so incredibly set. Well, okay. Just to

00:16:42.760 tell you, maybe you're, you're, your listeners don't know, but we're buying F-35, right? And we

00:16:48.520 haven't signed the deal yet, but we will sign the deal in the fall. Okay. Well, I don't know how many

00:16:54.040 going to 88 or however, we've got to buy these things. Everybody bought them. Italy bought them

00:16:58.760 for God's sake. And, and, and, um, so we have to buy them, but the helmet, the helmet and the, and the,

00:17:07.400 uh, containment helmet has to be custom fit for every pilot. Can't buy it off the shelf and put it on.

00:17:16.520 Oh, you're a size this. No, no, no. Custom fit. And, and that helmet alone cost more than a Ferrari.

00:17:25.560 The helmet alone. So the expenses, and we're walking into that and we're going to have 88 of them,

00:17:32.920 or supposedly, supposedly, and, and fellows to fly them. Whereas the American air force is now getting

00:17:39.320 into, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, these, uh, uh, uh, AI aircraft, uh, uh, that will fly along with, uh,

00:17:49.320 the pilots and act as the wingman, you know, it used to be Tom Cruise and, and, and a wingman.

00:17:55.720 Well, no more, no more Wolfman. This is a, there's going to be a robot flying next to you,

00:18:01.240 but believe it or not, that is cheaper than training a pilot and, uh, losing a pilot.

00:18:07.000 I'll go too. That's something that, and that's, that's where it's all going.

00:18:12.200 Yeah. Well, it's pretty wild stuff. So, uh, have you, you know, encountered any other, uh,

00:18:18.440 fellow Canadians? I guess most of the people that would show up at those would be, uh, working for

00:18:22.760 their military departments, their bureaucrats, they wouldn't be recognizable or anything like

00:18:26.440 that. They're working. No, no. And one thing I did found out that I didn't know, uh,

00:18:33.160 I didn't know that two years ago, Canada bought, uh, drones from Israel and it's called the, uh,

00:18:41.160 blah, blah, blah. What's it called? It's called the, uh, uh, uh, Star, uh, Starliner. It's called the

00:18:48.680 Starliner and it's huge. It's massive. This is not a little drone that you buy at Costco. This thing is

00:18:58.280 massive. It's huge. It can stay up there for 36 hours. It can fly at 25,000 feet and Canada signed

00:19:07.000 a deal to buy them. I didn't know that until I talked to the Israelis. I said, what, what are you

00:19:12.440 kidding me? He said, oh yeah, Canada and Switzerland both bought them. And I said, well, why did we buy

00:19:17.960 them? And he said, according to the Canadian government, they bought them because, uh,

00:19:24.520 for, uh, uh, uh, uh, what was the reason? Uh, for, for monitoring, uh, uh, the ice pack, uh,

00:19:34.440 for reconnaissance of the fisheries. And, uh, let's see, what else did I write down here?

00:19:40.040 Uh, uh, uh, fisheries, wildlife surveys and reconnaissance and, and, and also monitoring

00:19:52.440 the Arctic ice. Who knows what else it's going to be used for? But this is no ordinary drone.

00:20:00.280 This you will not believe. This is the drone that has been cleared to fly

00:20:05.160 by NATO and by the Canadian government and by the Israeli government to fly in regular airspace.

00:20:16.600 It can fly in regular airspace. It knows how it will report and they will, it will let you know

00:20:22.600 where it is. It'll let air traffic control know. Unbelievable. This thing can fly. And, and to get

00:20:30.680 this approved, they had to, uh, make it able to land and take off in zero, zero weather. This thing can

00:20:41.320 land in zero weather where a pilot can't, this thing can actually do it. And it, it, uh, has satellite

00:20:49.800 lifts up. Uh, it's, it's also, uh, uh, can handle, it has the technology to handle lightning strikes.

00:20:58.200 And, uh, I mean, it's just, this thing is absolutely unbelievable. And we bought them.

00:21:03.080 I had no idea. So that was a small discovery that involved Canada.

00:21:09.640 Well, before I, uh, let you go, I know you're going to get back to your, uh, beer and cigar

00:21:14.040 and touring out there. Uh, anything else you'd like to add from your, your Paris term, uh, tour there?

00:21:19.400 Well, it's just nice that there are more good people than bad. Uh, I, I, I had the, uh, experience

00:21:27.720 of being, uh, you know, my phone, but you know, maybe I was kind of naive and leaving into my, my cargo,

00:21:34.920 my Costco cargo pants pocket. Somehow the guy got it out and lifted the, the felt so flat and got it

00:21:42.200 out and I didn't even feel it. So this guy was good, but there are more good people than bad in Paris.

00:21:48.040 Paris is a great place to come and visit. And, uh, and also Euro Satori has just been

00:21:53.560 absolutely amazing. I learned, uh, I mean, I, I, I, I learned so much from everyone.

00:21:59.480 And I took a poll from just about everybody. And like I said, some would talk, some wouldn't,

00:22:04.680 but they all, they all said, I said, is demand more? They said, yes, demand is up and there's more

00:22:12.360 budgets in Europe. And, uh, so there's going to be, this show is probably the world has changed and

00:22:19.800 this show reflects that. And, uh, and again, the French are a fantastic host. They were great all

00:22:26.200 the way. The concierge at U.S. Satori tried to help me in every way that I, and even said, look,

00:22:33.960 we'll buy you a phone. Do you, do you want a phone? Like, you know, well, that I have to pay for it,

00:22:38.120 but they said, we'll get you one for, you know, you want a hundred, 200 year old, we'll get you one.

00:22:42.680 Where else can you get that kind of, um, of, uh, uh, you know, service. And, uh, so it was a,

00:22:49.880 it was a great experience and I'm just, I'm very lucky. I'm very lucky to have, uh, uh, seen and

00:22:56.200 learned all the things I did. So two thumbs up for you, Uro Satori and Paris. Well, thanks for

00:23:02.680 sharing with us. I'm waiting for my red wine. I ordered, uh, then really, but she still hasn't

00:23:07.320 brought it. They probably don't want to interrupt the broadcast. Perhaps they're too polite.

00:23:11.720 Yeah. But thank you for giving me this venue and I hope I shared some interesting stuff to your

00:23:16.840 listeners. Yeah, no, it was great. And I appreciate you starting with a positive note and ending with

00:23:20.760 a positive note with, cause we know there's a lot of dark material in between there. So it's,

00:23:24.840 it's pretty interesting and informative. Uh, we'll have to hook up and chat when you get back here to

00:23:29.880 the land of the snow and ice. Okay. Thanks Lori. Thanks again. Take care.

Western Standard - June 16, 2022

EXCLUSIVE： WS columnist Dave Makichuk from France

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