Red Dawn III
Unfortunate Project Name ... or Something More?
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On October 7, when news hit the US that paratroopers were falling from the sky over Israel, every 80’s kid in America had one thought:
Wolverines!
The 1984 classic Red Dawn tells a story of World War III as it comes to American soil. Set in Colorado, teenagers escape to the mountains as Soviet fighters drop from the sky in parachutes and round up their parents. The kids must band together to defend their families, their town, and their country.
Everyone who saw this movie as a kid has imagined themselves as Jed or Matt, Erica or Toni, and considered the possibility of unconventional warfare here at home.
Do we believe in coincidences?
In December 2022, a researcher sent me a link to a government delivery order for a project in my state. It’s a small contract, just $2.6M, and the work was slated to begin in July 2021 with an end date of October 26, 2023. Government contracts are mind-numbing, but this one was worthy of attention because of its name:
RED DAWN III
Back in December, I was annoyed that the DOD would name a project after such a specific war scenario, even stating that I thought it was irresponsible to put that out there – especially to a Colorado company, since the referenced movie is set in Colorado.
But never did I think we’d see men drop from the sky in parachutes and commit atrocities. It wasn’t even until several days after the initial Hamas attack, referred to as “Al Aqsa Flood” – or the liberation of Al Aqsa Mosque from Israeli “occupation” – that I even remembered the contract.
I was on Badlands Daily with Brian, Red Dawn came up, and goosebumps covered my skin as I remembered not just the contract – but its delivery date:
OCTOBER 2023
It’s good that we have the screen grab of the contract to refer back to, as the end date for this project has now been extended to April 2024.
I can only speculate as to why that might be, but given the events in Israel, the timing of those events, and their similarity to the film for which this project is named, it’s worthy of critical examination.
What is “Red Dawn III”?
Red Dawn III is the name of a DOD project awarded in July 2021 to a business called ICR, INC. There are two companies that use this name, and we can identify which is the correct one because the address matches the DOD contract.
Who Bought the Project?
The Awarding Agency is the Department of Defense and, within the DOD, the Sub-Agency is the Department of the Air Force, and the Awarding Office is the United States Air Force (USAF) Life Cycle Management Center (AFLCMC). This appears to be the Air Force’s vendor management office.
This project and, as we will show below, its parent program, is being delivered to the US Air Force.
Who is ICR, INC.?
ICR, INC. is a private, employee-owned entity that focuses on engineering and operational problems for the Department of Defense.
From their website:
“ICR was founded with the mission to be the first to identify and solve the Intelligence and Defense Communities’ toughest engineering and operational problems by establishing a true partnership with our Customers. Despite our advanced degrees and heavy R&D focus, it is our hands-on experience and scars from the field that will enable us to create very practical and reliable solutions. Our purpose at ICR is to establish an employee-owned company where the best minds in their career field want to work. Our Customer’s problems will become our own and our employees will wake up each day wanting to solve them.”
ICR, INC has been a government contractor since 2016 ($964K), but they were inactive for most of the Trump Administration, with no awards from 2017-2018 and small awards in 2019 ($1.9M) and 2020 ($3.2M).
In 2021, when Biden assumed the presidency and his administration began their work, ICR, INC’s DOD obligations shot up, with $36M (2021), $69M (2022), and $41M (2023 YTD).
It’s interesting that the four years of the Trump Administration were so quiet for this company given that President Trump was rebuilding our military infrastructure.
What is ICR, INC. doing as part of Red Dawn III?
Back to Red Dawn III—when we look at the services classifications as part of the contract, we can get a general idea of what the project is about:
North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Code:
54 : Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services
5415: Computer Systems Design and Related Services
541511: Custom Computer Programming Services
Product or Service Code (PSC)
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
AC: DEFENSE SYSTEMS R&D
AC3: R&D- DEFENSE SYSTEM: SHIPS
AC33: R&D- DEFENSE SYSTEM: SHIPS (ADVANCED DEVELOPMENT)
From the contract classifications, we see that ICR, INC is providing “Custom Computer Programming Services” to the Department of Defense as part of research and development for the defense systems of ships.
That’s the project. What’s the program?
There is also a parent contract that gives us some additional insight into the work being done.
Parent/Child contracts are often used to organize large programs of work into more manageable projects and subprojects, and it appears that is what’s happening here.
This parent project is called “COGNITION COGNOS SUPPORT,” and the classification is the same, with a couple exceptions:
North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Code:
54: Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services
5415: Computer Systems Design and Related Services
541511: Custom Computer Programming Services
Product or Service Code (PSC):
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
AC: DEFENSE SYSTEMS R&D
AC6: R&D- DEFENSE SYSTEM: ELECTRONICS/COMMUNICATION EQUIPMENT
AC61: R&D- DEFENSE SYSTEM: ELECTRONICS/COMMUNICATION EQUIPMENT (BASIC RESEARCH)
Where “Red Dawn III” is classified under the product code “AC3,” which is research and development for the defense systems of ships, the parent contract is classified as “AC6,” which is research and development for defense systems’ electronics/communication equipment.
In addition to the classification differences, the type of effort varies as well.
The “Red Dawn III” project is for advanced development (AC33), while the parent contract is for basic research (AC61).
The name of the parent project is also telling. “Cognition Cognos Support” likely refers to “Cognos,” an IBM analytics product.
Here is IBM’s description of the product:
“You need meaningful insights from data you trust if data-driven decision making is your goal. AI-powered automation and insights in Cognos Analytics enable everyone in your organization to unlock the full potential of your data. The natural language AI assistant is always available–describe the data you need and let Cognos Analytics build stunning data visualizations for you. Describe the question you are looking to answer, or hypothesis you want to test and let AI help you get the insights you need … Move to the new generation of BI with AI capabilities that not only bring an accurate, trusted and complete picture of your business, but forecast what’s coming in the future, predict outcomes and explain why they may happen.”
So from the structure of the contract, we learn that Red Dawn III is part of a larger business intelligence program in which the DOD is using IBM artificial intelligence tools to research electronics/communication equipment for defense systems.
Further, under the Cognos program, Red Dawn III is specifically focused on advanced research having to do with the defense systems on ships, and they are delivering custom computer programming in that effort.
More Sole Source Contracts
This contract was awarded to ICR, INC as a “sole source” contract – that means it is not competitive and no other bids were considered for this work. According to the justification, there is no one else that can do this work.
The use of sole source contracting could indicate corruption, as we might see in our election systems.
Often, the government builds the process around a specific vendor and then avoids competitive contracts by claiming only that vendor can do the work. For example, many counties’ use of Runbeck Election Services is contracted as sole source – for the service of ballot printing.
Who owns ICR, INC.?
The vendor is classified as a Small Business that is US Owned and Veteran Owned.
They have five executives listed with their compensation for Red Dawn III:
The executives listed on the Cognos parent contract are different, with the exception of Robert T. Dunn – note that Dunn’s compensation differs between the two contracts.
For Cognition Cognos Support:
Only one of these executives has an active LinkedIn profile, and it appears that is because he is actively recruiting. ICR, INC. is hiring for a lot of roles. But aside from recruiting, these guys appear off the grid – which is not uncommon for defense contractors.
We are talking about highly classified work done for our national defense.
But if this contractor and its work is meant to stay off the grid, why, in our low-trust national political environment, would they name a project, in Colorado, something as provocative as Red Dawn III?
And why would that project be slated for delivery at the same time para-soldiers drop out of the sky in Israel?
Since the conflict began, two US carrier groups have moved into the Mediterranean Sea – that is, there are now ships with defense systems engaged to support the conflict that began with paratroopers in October 2023.
That is a hell of a coincidence.
They Pushed Out the End Date
The first thing I noticed when I revisited this contract was that the end date had been pushed out six months to April 2024.
The second thing I noticed is that it doesn’t appear they’ve been paid yet.
Now, this could be a variance in reporting systems. But according to the official spending site for the US government, ICR, INC. has not been paid for Red Dawn III.
When combined with the fact that they pushed out the project end date by six months, I’m inclined to conclude that the project has not yet been delivered. That said, it may just be that the contract hasn’t been paid yet – and with all the government shutdown hysteria and impotency in the House, that is a possibility.
As I said before, I believe it is irresponsible for the DOD to name a project after such a specific war scenario. And maybe that’s all this is – a highly coincidental name.
The coincidences:
The project is awarded in Colorado, and Red Dawn is set in Colorado.
The original project delivery date (October 2023) coincides with the Hamas paratrooper attack, and Red Dawn begins with a paratrooper attack.
The project is for programming of defense systems for ships, and the US is moving ships – two carrier groups – into the region to support the conflict.
These could all be coincidences. If that is the case, it’s still irresponsible to name a project after a US invasion.
She was Never Supposed to Lose
Before we write this off as a coincidence, we have to consider the timing of ICR, INC. as a vendor, as well as the fact that their engagement with the DOD paused during the Trump Administration.
ICR, INC.’s work began in January 2016, and it stopped in July of 2017. That suggests that the 2016 election might not have gone the way this vendor expected.
That said, ICR, INC.’s contract justification — going back to 2016 — was they are the only provider capable of delivering on this contract.
Did our ships’ defense systems not require custom programming during the Trump Administration?
Or is Red Dawn III a project within a program that was delayed for multiple years until a friendly administration was likely to win the White House?
The activity with the vendor resumed in 2019 — after the 2018 midterm elections that reinstated Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House, an election that experts widely theorize was a dry run for 2020.
Did the 2018 dry run convince the regime that Trump would be out in 2020, and the 2016 plan could resume? Or are we looking at legitimate coincidences on top of more legitimate coincidences?
At a minimum, the DOD is highly irresponsible for naming a legitimate project with such a provocative name. And I’m sure that’s the official narrative, ‘It’s just a silly name.’
But in such a low trust environment, that seems unlikely and mirrors the gaslighting we’ve experienced from our government for years. And the implications if this is NOT just an irresponsible project name are terrifying.
I don’t have any answers — just a lot more questions, and I will continue attempting to get them answered.
Stay vigilant, Wolverines.
Badlands Media articles and features represent the opinions of the contributing authors and do not necessarily represent the views of Badlands Media itself.
Ashe in America hosts Culture of Change on Badlands Media, Sundays at 6PM ET. If you enjoyed this contribution to Badlands Media, please consider checking out more of her work for free at Ashe in America.
I’m with you, Ashe, and I worked for the AF-retired now. Given all we know now, including the 16-year plan. I have a lot of questions. I no longer believe in coincidences, especially as the puppets increase their panic levels. God bless you.🙏
Badlands keeping me up again on a Friday. My head is gonna pop! Thanks so much for this work.