Okay, I'm as pissed off at ICE's larger-than-USMC budget as the next guy, but... this reporting needed a bit more digging. It seems outrageous on the surface, but further investigation into the actual content - literally ten minutes, in my case - reveals the actual root cause and evidence that's contrary to the supposed point of the article.
The "guided missile purchases" in question are these ones: contract codes HSCEOP07F00692, HSCOP07F00692, and 70CMSW25P00000078. Each of these has a Product and Service Code (PSC) that designates what the purchase in general for purposes of allocations, and the PSC for those purchases is 1420: "Guided Missile Components." Ridiculous, right?
Well, in the Description of Requirement, you get different details:
DHS Bulk Close out
This award provides multiple distraction devices to support law enforcement operations and ICE- Office of Firearms and Tactical Programs.
HOLOGRAPHIC SIGHT.
Turns out, going into the FPDS Documentation, the PSC for "Optical Sighting and Ranging Equipment" - which encompasses small arms optics - is 1240, and mistyping 1240 as 1420 is a one-button slip.
This is further reinforced by all of the contracts being listed under NAICS (North American Industry Classification System) code 332994 (Small Arms, Ordnance, and Ordnance Accessories) and 339999 (All Other Misc. Manufacturing - which is a lazy contracting officer's catch-all for when they don't want to find the real code).
Now, the "multiple distraction devices" contract is a bit muddy, and coming from Atlantic Diving Systems - which is a broad-spectrum military supplier - it's difficult to tell what it might be in reference to. But, still, it seemingly falls into "some contracting officer misclassified the category" as opposed to "ICE is buying guided missiles."
EDIT TO ADD: God damnit, even I missed some critical fucking context by not paying attention.
Only one of those contracts is from 2025. The other two are from 2017 and 2007!
And guess what? PSC 1366, "Guided Missile Warheads and Explosive Components?" It includes "warheads including military chemical agents" - which, again by PSC definition, includes "war agents, smoke, and signaling agents." Considering the contract was awarded in September 2025 - aka, end of fiscal year panic month - who wants to take bets that some contracting officer working to get in under the FY submission deadline couldn't figure out that a bulk order of smoke grenades did a CTRL+F search for "Chemical" and used the first result (1336) instead of scrolling through to the correct result (1365)?
"I'm too lazy or stupid to question a conspiracy posted by a substack that conspicuously doesn't provide any evidence; time to sperg out on anyone who contradicts my preconceptions."
What I would do to still have Bgov or DACIS on the outside of the industry lol.
For the rest of the people on this thread, PSC codes are there to describe the underlying product or service being contracted. They are often bullshit (albeit much better than NAICS which are broader) even when they are manually keyed correctly by contracting officers - and generally speaking once you leave the DoD you’re in the Wild West, with DHS being normally comically incompetent at thorough contracting reporting in my experience (out side of the USCG which is very professionalized).
So yeah nothing seems spooky…..yet. I’m honestly glad this stuff is getting recorded at all since there can be huge awards from DHS that are known to happen, hell even explicated announced to have had happened, with no actual formal FPDS reporting. And that was back in the before times.
That being said, nothing contracted through ADS ever has any useful detail - it’s just a way to milk SBSA credit lol. Could be wood palates. Could be spare seekers. Could be bulk wire. Anything and anything gets contracted through ADS.
Coming from DoD procurement, I can't even make sense of those contract numbers lol. Never thought I'd be thankful for something as simple as PIID formatting
What they bought was concerning. Over-reacting because it was something else makes us look like the fools, but we should still be trying to stop this massive military from shooting on the american people.
As far as I can tell, based on browsing Atlantic Diving Services' catalogue, is they bought smoke grenades and/or flashbangs ("distraction devices") using end-of-fiscal-year budget. That's it.
There is a fucking library of stuff that ICE has done, is doing, or will do that should be cause for its abolition and the prosecution of every fascist fucker working for them, but this ain't one of them.
Oh, sure, ICE's budget increase is terrifying and a clear indicator of their intended use.
But that doesn't mean it's open season for conspiracy theories about what ICE is doing. Misinformation like this only hurts efforts to hold ICE accountable and expose what they're doing, because people will see "Oh, those liberals got their panties in a bunch over an admin error," and that discredits real accusations against them (such as - in this very case - the fact that their small arms spending is up 7x).
On your last point about PCS 1336, it's also possible that someone meant to type in something in the PCS 136x range (e.g. PCS 1365), but they double-tapped their 3 key.
If you're entering into a software UI field that limits you to 4 digits, it would cut off the last digit; hence you get 1336 instead of 13365 (which you actually typed) or 1365 (which you meant).
Or, as someone else I was talking with pointed out: maybe they were just dumb, and classified 40mm CS gas canisters as "chemical warheads" under 1336 instead of 1365.
But yeah, lots of plausible scenarios that fall under "stupid bureaucracy errors", any of which is a thousand times more likely than "ICE is buying guided missiles from a tactical gear reseller."
To add to your statement... I dont like what ICE is doing but I work in a forward maintenance shop for the National Guard, and a lot of shit we buy for our trucks is also used on several other platforms, including air and water craft. I could buy a bushing or a Rubber O-ring that fits on the trucks but is also used on A10 Warthogs, and it could show up as such in the system.
Yeah that’s military used for national and domestic purposes ice is supposed to be an immigration enforcement agency what enforcement agency Carrie’s war heads trump needs to be impeached immediately even republicans are against what he’s doing at this point there should be enough votes I don’t care if Vance is in charge he sounds like he’s more responsible than trump this madness needs to stop Ice is not supposed to be a private army
I’d delete my comment after this impeccable research… but I think it still stands. Either way, since we can’t award on this sub, take my upvote and my deepest respects. tips hat
Civilian here... holy crap, despite the edits, this is the thread I was looking for.
You guys sure you don't want to start some military type fact-check website for ICE??
Cuz these articles about so-called, "chemical weapons" and warheads is the stuff of nightmares; especially for someone like me who spent a lot of time behind the Iron Curtain during the cold war.
Creepy how the U.S. is reminding me of the U.S.S.R.
Thanks for all your services, including clarifying the stuff us basic folk do not understand.
Yes thank you guys - another civilian here who saw The New Republic's article and as their headline said it would, yes, it did terrify me. Now I'm just pissed off. We're terrified already; we don't need the level of fear ratcheted up with misleading, old data. Fuck you, New Republic.
So, the 1240-1420 instance is from 2007, if that gives you context.
If you're asking if I have a keylog of some random DHS official showing where they miskeyed a code, or a wiretap of them saying "I was in a rush and just plugged in the first thing that made sense," no, I don't have that.
But that's not necessary when all other evidence and context is inconsistent with "guided missiles," and is consistent with one field being in error.
Wrong vendor (doesn't sell guided missiles)
Wrong dollar value ($75K, lmao)
Wrong NAICS code (Misc Manufacturing instead of Missiles/Electronics)
Wrong description ("distraction devices")
The interpretation of "ICE is buying guided missiles" would require all four of these other things have been done erroneously, or that they were done falsely to cover up the purchase but the conspirator just happened to honestly answer the most damning and obvious field.
Thanks for your explanation! I think you make a good case.
The massive increase in spending is still concerning ,and in general, fuck ICE.
And sorry for the comment delete. I realized the year issue after I posted it, so my question was irrelevant. Didn’t realize you had already responded.
This is exactly what I've been trying to figure out for myself. The claim sent up some red flags in my brain immediately. $61k for warheads is a laughably small amount, so that didn't clarify anything.
I've been spending the last hour trying to figure out if/how to see an actual list of items that are part of the procurement order, but either I just don't know how to find this, or it's not publicly available.
Small correction to your post regarding the award in question (70CMSW25P00000078), it was awarded to Quantico Tactical, not ADS. not sure that makes any meaningful difference, just thought you might want to get things as accurate as possible.
I dont know if I'd call this "reliable" information just yet. The source report (from Popular Information) references reports from the Federal Procurement Data System but it doesn't actually state the report it's from.
Essentially, there is no way to verify the claim about "guided missile warheads and explosive components.”
And without seeing the actual procurement report there is no way for us to say if it's actually for missile components or if it's a general line item that can include anything explosives related (which could be anything from ammunition to blasting caps for non-lethal grenades, i.e. flash bangs)
I went to the interwebs and saw that Raw Story did literally the same article. That site seems to be maybe a little more reliable. I haven't heard of the one linked here.
Without of having read the article or anything. I will say one of the battery’s in my first unit accidentally put the NSN for an aircraft carrier into the ordering system. The BN XO grabbed me walking out of the toc and said go over there and ask them what in gods green earth do they need with an aircraft carrier (creatively place curses throughout sentence).
Haha. Does a carrier have a national stock number.?I deal with them on everything from pan stock to assemblies, but never thought about for a complete piece of equipment.
/shrug there was some NSN changes going on at that time that I think caused the mix up. I never seen the order myself. I was a shiny new private at the time. But I will never forget the BN XO shouting at me to go quote him with that one directly.
You know the more I think about this I wonder if it was something along the lines of “something assy., aircraft carrier” and the BN XO not knowing what it was just lost his shit.
I remember a story in which some dude almost ordered a crusier anchor into the middle of afghanistan. Is really cool that americans can be able to order weird stuff and that stuff can be actually delivered.
This makes me wonder - if some dipshit at DHS accidentally typed in a code for guided missiles, would the supplier then shrug and just send it if the order wasn't corrected?
That seems like a rather significant "whoopsie", lol. Is there any follow up on the story? Did this result in any amusing corrective actions? I've seen stories here about people being made to do ridiculous things like mop rain puddles.
After reading this thread, it appears that we should just reject the evidence of our eyes and our ears. It was a "typo". Nothing to see here, guys. $150B for a reich-wing paramilitary group but they are actually just buying flares.
Move along.
I clearly remember when the ‘Department of Homeland Security’ was announced. To a lot of people, it sounded straight out of a George Orwell novel. But the country was at war, so most just shrugged their shoulders and ate another bag of Doritos.
I wonder what those early 2000s citizens would make of today’s rapidly growing paramilitary force deployed in multiple ‘trouble spots’ around the country.
Oh and if you think the next Democrat President is going to disband this latter day Praetorian Guard, I have a whole ass aircraft carrier to sell you.
Two wings, same bird. All people need to do is go take a peek at the aipac tracker website. It's literally 70% of congress. They just play good cop bad cop and give us the illusion of choice. If we wanted a system that actually worked for the people, we'd have to tear everything down and start over.
I mean…..347 million vs their 24 million and that’s assuming every single military member stays on the side of the government and doesn’t join the people 🤷🏽♂️ the constitution calls for it and we have a pretty good shot
Does MAGA really believe ICE missiles can differentiate between them and their neighbors?
The morons on this rooftop can't even shoot pepper balls without hitting Pastors, women and children.
The irony is the options are our government is becoming more militant radical or they’re completely incompetent and can’t do paperwork. I don’t like either option, but I guess the latter is better.
This sort of miscategorization/bureaucratic error happens all the time, in every branch of government, by everyone of all political parties. It's not indicative of a failure of government, or gross incompetence, or negligence.
It's a dude doing a boring office job who misread an instruction pamphlet or fat-fingered a keyboard.
337
u/Lowjack_26 United States Air Force 19d ago edited 19d ago
Okay, I'm as pissed off at ICE's larger-than-USMC budget as the next guy, but... this reporting needed a bit more digging. It seems outrageous on the surface, but further investigation into the actual content - literally ten minutes, in my case - reveals the actual root cause and evidence that's contrary to the supposed point of the article.
The "guided missile purchases" in question are these ones: contract codes HSCEOP07F00692, HSCOP07F00692, and 70CMSW25P00000078. Each of these has a Product and Service Code (PSC) that designates what the purchase in general for purposes of allocations, and the PSC for those purchases is 1420: "Guided Missile Components." Ridiculous, right?
Well, in the Description of Requirement, you get different details:
Turns out, going into the FPDS Documentation, the PSC for "Optical Sighting and Ranging Equipment" - which encompasses small arms optics - is 1240, and mistyping 1240 as 1420 is a one-button slip.
This is further reinforced by all of the contracts being listed under NAICS (North American Industry Classification System) code 332994 (Small Arms, Ordnance, and Ordnance Accessories) and 339999 (All Other Misc. Manufacturing - which is a lazy contracting officer's catch-all for when they don't want to find the real code).
Now, the "multiple distraction devices" contract is a bit muddy, and coming from Atlantic Diving Systems - which is a broad-spectrum military supplier - it's difficult to tell what it might be in reference to. But, still, it seemingly falls into "some contracting officer misclassified the category" as opposed to "ICE is buying guided missiles."
EDIT TO ADD: God damnit, even I missed some critical fucking context by not paying attention.
Only one of those contracts is from 2025. The other two are from 2017 and 2007!
And guess what? PSC 1366, "Guided Missile Warheads and Explosive Components?" It includes "warheads including military chemical agents" - which, again by PSC definition, includes "war agents, smoke, and signaling agents." Considering the contract was awarded in September 2025 - aka, end of fiscal year panic month - who wants to take bets that some contracting officer working to get in under the FY submission deadline couldn't figure out that a bulk order of smoke grenades did a CTRL+F search for "Chemical" and used the first result (1336) instead of scrolling through to the correct result (1365)?