Unbelievable Nazi Technology Footage

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Declassified documents show that the Nazis developed a three-step plan before the end of the war to prepare for the 4th Reich in South America:

establish sleeper cells, funnel money, and build a strategic rear base.

Since the conclusion of the Hunting Hitler investigation, more information has been brought to light that show these three phases were more mature than ever previously thought – from a 2020 release that shows 12,000 Nazis in South America holding Swiss bank accounts after WWII, to Mi5 files revealing that Nazi spies successfully infiltrated America completely undetected.

the 4th Reich’s plan and determine once and for all just how close they came to achieving their ultimate goal of attacking America.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BD-c78ZPiFQ

Nazi Weapons: 23 Crazy Devices Only They Could Have Dreamed Up

From the Vampir to the Fire Lilly to the Sun Gun, these outlandish Nazi weapons would have been devastating if they'd ever seen much action.

Nazi Weapons: 23 Crazy Devices Only They Could Have Dreamed Up
View Gallery:

https://allthatsinteresting.com/nazi-weapons

Wunderwaffe. Even in the original German, the term (which translates to "wonder weapon") sounds positively pleasant.

However, the terrifying yet often comedically ambitious weapons to which the Nazis applied this term during World War II were anything but.

From cannons to missiles to tanks, the Nazis dreamed up dozens upon dozens of weapons so outlandish, so potentially devastating that they could have come from no other group in history.

And history might have looked a lot different had the Nazis been able to actually complete these weapons, or at least reliably produce them on a large scale. But most of the time Hitler's reach far exceeded his grasp.

While these experimental wonder weapons saw little to no action, they remain fascinating what-ifs today. They're now artifacts of a time before nuclear weapons and military satellites and advanced computer circuitry, a time when guiding a missile to a target meant putting a man inside of it, a time when having the mightiest arsenal literally meant having the largest gun.

Although the Nazis didn't always succeed in having the largest gun -- literally and figuratively -- they certainly tried, and often came terrifyingly close.

From the Fire Lilly to the Vampir to the Sun Gun, above you'll find 23 of the most astounding Nazi weapons that, thankfully, never came to be.

https://www.trtworld.com/life/nazis-were-given-luxury-treatment-at-a-clandestine-camp-in-the-us-51354

Nazis were given luxury treatment at a clandestine camp in the US

A new documentary from Netflix explores the pleasant lives led by Nazi ... This was an unbelievable relationship forming there, between the Jewish refugees ...

https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/german-ww2-technology-helped-seed-the-worlds-advancement

How German WW2 Technology Helped Seed the World's Greatest ...

Nov 8, 2021 ... One of the most famous "confiscated" technologies of the Second World War was the jet engine. Developed in Germany by Hans von Ohain, who ...

https://allthatsinteresting.com/nazi-weapons
Nazi Weapons: 23 Crazy Devices Only They Could Have Dreamed Up

Oct 18, 2016 ... Among Nazi Germany's most pioneering and successful military advances was its series of Aggregat rockets. This series' success hit its high ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuh9qAgxQeY

The Powerful Secrets Of Nazi Science | Timeline - YouTube

May 3, 2022 ... This doc reveals the circumstances scientists faced under Hitler, and tracks amazing technological innovations.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfKC_XRRxvE

In Search of Aliens: WWII Time Travel Warfare (S1, E2) | Full Episode

Dec 12, 2021 ... At the height of World War II, the Nazis engaged their top scientists to develop "wonder weapons" --weapons that were so advanced they could ...

https://owlcation.com/humanities/Top-10-Secret-Weapons-of-Nazi-Germany

Top 10 Secret Military Weapons of Nazi Germany - Owlcation

Jul 19, 2022 ... Although amazing Nazi weapons such as Call of Duty's “Wunderwaffe DG-2” ... the technology for the Sun Gun was 50 to 100 years out of reach.

https://www.thecollector.com/wunderwaffe-super-weapons-ww2/

Wunderwaffe! 8 Superweapons of the Nazis - TheCollector

Jul 8, 2022 ... Some of these weapons were truly terrifying, utilizing technology that ... achieve unbelievable speeds that were unheard of at the time.

https://www.quora.com/What-where-the-reasons-behind-the-unbelievable-amount-of-technology-that-came-out-of-Nazi-Germany-in-such-a-small-timescale-The-sheer-amount-of-German-inventions-is-staggering

What where the reasons behind the unbelievable amount of ... - Quora

What where the reasons behind the unbelievable amount of technology that came out of Nazi Germany in such a small timescale? The sheer amount of German ...

https://gizmodo.com/the-definitive-collection-of-secret-nazi-weapons-1473126559

The definitive collection of secret Nazi weapons - Gizmodo

Dec 18, 2013 ... ... vertical launch rocket fighters, or infrared visors are just a few of many in this definitive collection of incredible Nazi weapons.

https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/10-products-created-by-nazi-germany-that-are-still-used-today.html

10 Products Created By Nazi Germany That Are Still Used Today

May 29, 2020 ... An iconic vehicle today, the Volkswagen Beetle was commissioned by Hitler in the 1930s as the “peoples car”, designed as a practical, affordable ...

https://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/feature/nazi-technology/index.html

Nazi Technology | History Detectives - PBS

Many of those scientists had questionable pasts. Braun himself had been an active member of the Nazi party, and his colleague at NASA, Dr. Hubertus Strughold, a ...

The HISTORY® Channel, a division of A+E Networks, is the premier destination for historical storytelling. From best-in-class documentary events, to a signature slate of industry leading nonfiction series and premium fact-based scripted programming, The HISTORY® Channel serves as the most trustworthy source of informational entertainment in media. The HISTORY® channel has been named the #1 U.S. TV network in buzz for seven consecutive years by YouGov BrandIndex, and a top favorite TV network by Beta Research Corporation. For a deeper dive, visit history.com or follow @history on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and TikTok. For additional press materials visit the A+E Networks Press Center at http://press.aenetworks.com

https://www.jstor.org/stable/41238463

Volksgemeinschaft Engineers: The Nazi "Voyages of Technology"

that Nazi ideology embraced modern technology and that engineers such as ... German technology must have appeared to most people as an unbelievable.

https://nypost.com/2015/06/27/meet-the-man-who-owns-the-worlds-largest-nazi-collection/

This man owns the largest collection of Nazi artifacts - New York Post

Jun 27, 2015 ... None of the major auction houses will handle Nazi memorabilia and eBay ... recovery were far more interesting than the objects themselves.

https://blogs.loc.gov/loc/2019/09/freuds-last-days-in-vienna-as-nazis-approached/

Freud's Last Days in Vienna as Nazis Approached | Timeless

Sep 23, 2019 ... The personal papers of Sigmund Freud at the Library of Congress have been digitized and are available online Included on the Library's ...

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-51204090

'I was 90% dead': Henri's story of surviving Auschwitz - BBC News

Jan 27, 2020 ... Henri Kichka lost his family in the Nazi death camp, but lived on to ... It married the technology of the railway and the factory with the ...

https://medium.com/exploring-history/19-insider-images-of-hitlers-war-

machine-that-will-leave-you-stunned-29a32b13fce9
19 Insider Images of Hitler's War Machine That Will Leave You ...

In-depth pictorial exploration of Nazi military technology. ... Unbelievable stories of simple photos — from mundane to memorable. medium.com ...

Mar 7, 2023 ... Cyndi Lauper compares anti-LGBTQ bills to Nazi Germany: 'This is how ... Average Nursing Salary in 2023 is Just Unbelievable (View List).
https://today.ucsd.edu/story/psychiatrist_joel_dimsdale_deciphers_psyche_of_nazi_leaders_in_new_book_ana

Psychiatrist Joel Dimsdale Deciphers Psyche of Nazi Leaders in ...

Apr 28, 2016 ... “The Nazi hierarchy was responsible for an unbelievable amount of suffering and carnage,” said Dimsdale. “At the end of the war, 75% of ...
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-97999-1_8
The Nazi's Pursuit for a “Humane” Method of Killing | SpringerLink

Dec 28, 2018 ... Put simply, many Nazis believed extermination to be necessary, and for the German camp staff Zyklon-B helped deactivate the censuring gaze of ...
https://facts.net/nazi-party-facts/
Nazi Party: 50 Facts About The National Socialist - Facts.net

Jun 7, 2022 ... Definitely one of those unbelievable Nazi Party facts. The swastika is the Nazi Party symbol. The principal symbol of the Nazis was the swastika ...
https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/01/man-in-the-high-castle-when-a-nazi-ruled-world-isnt-so-dystopian/384708/
'The Man in the High Castle': When a Nazi-Run World Isn't So ...

Jan 22, 2015 ... The Nazis won World War II, and the American flag now bears a swastika. ... Make your inbox more interesting with newsletters from your ...

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/central-european-history/article/volksgemeinschaft-engineers-the-nazi-voyages-of-technology/29A322122EEBE44FE2A62714BF8B71F5
Volksgemeinschaft Engineers: The Nazi “Voyages of Technology”

“The special train of German technology in the Sudentengau demonstrates that . . . the German engineer is also a great activist and propagandist.” Fritz Todt in ...
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/626561/strange-weapons-world-war-ii
10 Strange Weapons Invented During World War II - Mental Floss

Jul 16, 2020 ... Of the numerous Nazi Wunderwaffen (wonder weapons) developed during World War II, the Windkanone, or Wind Cannon, was one of the least ...
https://www.hsdl.org/?view&did=845485
NAZI GERMANY'S MASS MEDIA INFLUENCE APPROACH

Jun 14, 2019 ... Nazi Germany propagandists effectively massed multiple media dissemination means to ... technology was utilized to increase their propaganda ...
https://www.mapquest.com/travel/10-significant-world-war-ii-sites-to-visit-in-germany/
10 Significant World War II Sites to Visit in Germany - MapQuest Travel

Sep 17, 2015 ... Vorbunker and Führerbunker were once the places where Adolf Hitler took shelter and eventually lived. The elaborate underground concrete ...

https://www.watchmojo.com/video/id/19217
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Delving deep into the atrocities committed by the Third Reich, we'll be exploring the evil lengths to which Nazi Germany went with their inhumane scientific ...
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Why were the Germans during the Nazi era so inventive? [closed]

Oct 20, 2015 ... Operation Paperclip. It is amazing how the USA and the USSR both made the same technological discoveries shortly after the War. Hello Space Race ...

https://bookauthority.org/books/best-nazi-germany-books

20 Best Nazi Germany Books of All Time - BookAuthority

The 20 best nazi germany books recommended by Ben Wikler, Mark Suster, Javed Akhtar, Jason Goldman and (((Jon Benjamin))). ... Appreciate this amazing life.

https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/nazi-secret-weapons-changed-wars-outcome/story?id=10252843

Could Nazi Secret Weapons Have Changed the Course of War?

Mar 31, 2010 ... Under Hitler's heavy hand, the German military developed some of the world's most destructive technology during World War II.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/hitler-secretly-made-the-weapons-of-the-future-during-the-second-world-war-10489978.html
Hitler secretly made the weapons of the future during the Second ...

Sep 7, 2015 ... Hitler's Nazi engineers made technological developments which were innovative and far ahead of their time, manufacturing weapons such as ...

https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/second-world-war-weapons-that-failed
Second World War Weapons That Failed | Imperial War Museums

This ungainly device was intended to be used against the beach defenses of Hitler's Atlantic Wall. It consisted of two rocket-propelled wheels, ...

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Wunderwaffe! 8 Superweapons of the Nazis

During the Second World War, the Germans created some of the most advanced weapons, pushing the boundaries between reality and science fiction.

Jul 8, 2022 • By Greg Beyer, BA History and Linguistics, Diploma in Journalism
wunderwaffe horten h229 aerial view

Throughout the Second World War, the Nazis created a slew of unorthodox weapons, some of which saw battlefield action and some of which never made it out of the concept stage.

Some of these weapons were truly terrifying, utilizing technology that very few people had seen before.

They struck terror into the hearts of their victims, whether those victims were soldiers on the battlefield or civilians in the cities and towns.

Most of these weapons were revolutionary in design and went on to become the fathers and grandfathers of weapons systems that we have today, as their ideas were improved upon by the victors of World War II. And while some were awe-inspiring and impressive beyond a doubt, some were truly bizarre. Here are some of the most noteworthy examples of the Wunderwaffe inventory.
1. Me-262 “Schwalbe”: Germany’s Flying Wunderwaffe
wunderwaffe world war ii me 262
An Me-262 at the Berlin Airshow in 2010, from Fabrizio Bensch/ Reuters, via Der Spiegel

The Me-262 “Schwalbe” (Swallow) was the world’s first jet-powered fighter aircraft and arguably the most prominent of Hitler’s Wunderwaffe aircraft. It would have seen active service earlier in the war, but problems with metal quality, engine, and political interference meant the aircraft only saw action from April 1944. The Me-262 was so superior in the air that the Allies could only counter its effectiveness by destroying it on the ground and during take-off and landing. Its incredibly high rate of climb compared with prop-driven fighter planes at the time meant that once airborne, the Me-262 was almost impossible to intercept.

Had the Me-262 been introduced earlier in the war, it might have had a significant impact, but the reality was that too few were manufactured. Allied bombing had a disastrous effect on Germany’s ability to source quality material, and it slowed down production time drastically. As a result, Germany decided to focus on producing aircraft that were easier to manufacture.

2. The V-1
v 1 buzz bomb
The V-1, via roundsixpod.com

It went by many names. The Germans named it the Kirschkern (Cherry Stone) or the Maikäfer (Maybug), while the British called it the “Buzz Bomb” and the “Doodlebug.” The Reich Aviation Ministry designated it the “Fi 103,” but whatever name it went by, the V-1 was a terrifying weapon. It was the first of the so-called Vergeltungswaffen, or “Vengeance Weapons,” used by Nazi Germany and designed to strike terror into the hearts of the enemy. The V-1 was the world’s first cruise missile.

The Nazis first launched V-1s at London on June 13, 1944, one week after the Allied landings at Normandy. At first, over a hundred V-1s were being launched every day, but as the Allies progressed further eastwards, the V-1s limited range meant that targets had to move eastwards as well. As England fell out of range, V-1s were launched at targets in the Netherlands and Belgium and continued right up until the end of the war.

Defenses against the V-1 included barrage balloons and the usual anti-aircraft guns, but one method was effective, albeit extremely dangerous. Fighter pilots could use their aircraft’s wing to flip the V-1 upside down in flight and confuse its guidance system.

Ultimately, the V-1 proved effective in that it was cost-effective for Germany, and it forced Britain to divert much of its war effort into defending against them. By the end of the war, many thousands of V-1s had been launched.

3. Me-163 “Komet”
wunderwaffe me 163
The Me-163, via aeropedia.com.au

The Me-163 represented an extremely bold experiment with weaponry. This Wunderwaffe was extremely dangerous to fly, partly due to the fact that it was not a true jet aircraft but a flying rocket with a skid for landing gear. Upon take-off, the wheels would detach, and landing would require the pilot to land the plane on the runway using a skid.

The hazardous operation of this aircraft was also compounded by the highly volatile rocket propellant called “T-Stoff,” which led to many mishaps, including the death of the high-ranking Oberleutnant and fighter ace Josef Pöhs.

The fact that the aircraft was rocket-powered meant that it could achieve unbelievable speeds that were unheard of at the time. It was the first piloted aircraft to reach a speed of over 1,000 kilometers per hour, and its record speed is 1,130 kilometers per hour (700mph). For comparison, the top speed of the P51-Mustang, considered a very fast prop-driven aircraft, was 440 miles per hour (708kph).

Only 370 Me-163s were ever built, and despite their revolutionary design and incredible speed, they proved to be underwhelming in their performance. Ten were lost in combat, while the Me-163 shot down only between nine and eighteen Allied aircraft.

4. Schwerer Gustav
schwere gustav hitler
Hitler and his generals inspecting the largest gun ever built, “Schwerer Gustav,” via worldwar2facts.org

Schwerer (heavy) Gustav was the largest artillery piece to have ever been built. It was a railway gun designed specifically for destroying French forts along the Maginot line. The gun was not ready in time for the campaign against France, but it did see action later in the war, during the Siege of Sevastopol, where it proved highly effective with its 800mm (31-inch) shells. During the siege, it destroyed a munitions depot located 30 meters (98 feet) below ground.

Fortunately for the Soviets, Sevastopol was the only instance where they would be on the receiving end of Schwerer Gustav. The gun was moved to Leningrad to take part in the siege there, but the Soviets had already lifted the siege before the gun could fire.

The whole artillery piece weighed 1490 tons and had a length of 47.3 meters (155 ft 2 in). It required a crew of 250 to perform the myriad duties involved in prepping the gun for firing. This involved laying track dedicated to the gun, digging entrenchments, and assembling the gun.

Along with Schwerer Gustav, “Dora,” a second gun was ordered. Traditionally, when artillery was ordered, the Krupp company, which manufactured the gun, never asked for payment for the first piece. As such, Schwerer Gustav was provided to the Wehrmacht for free. Although it looked impressive, this Wunderwaffe did not get to see much action.

5. Panzer VIII Maus
panzer viii maus
The surviving Panzer VIII Maus at the Kubinka Tank Museum in Russia, via tankmuseum.ru

The Maus (Mouse) was anything but little. It was the biggest fully-enclosed armored fighting vehicle ever built. Weighing in at 207 tons and with a length of 33 feet (10.2 meters), the Maus would have certainly been a terrifying sight on the battlefield if it had ever been deployed. Five were ordered, but only two were ever built.

They underwent trials in late 1944, and the 128mm gun was proven to be capable of destroying any and all armored vehicles used by the Allies, with some tests being successful at 3,500 meters (11,500 feet).

This Wunderwaffe, however, had considerable drawbacks. Building an engine powerful enough but small enough to fit in the vehicle was a challenge, and during testing, the fastest speed ever achieved was 14 miles per hour (22 kph). In addition to its slow speed, the vehicle’s weight made it impossible to cross most bridges. As such, the tank was intended to drive through rivers with the aid of a snorkel and was supposedly capable of submerging 26 feet (8 meters).

The war ended before the Maus could ever be put into action. The Russians captured the prototypes and sent them back to Russia for testing. The turret of the second tank was connected to the hull of the first tank. The surviving vehicle is housed in the Kubinka Tank Museum near Moscow.

6. The Horten Ho 229: A Wunderwaffe Far Ahead of Its Time
wunderwaffe horten h 229
A CGI screenshot from “War Thunder” of a Horten Ho 229 in flight, via nationalinterest.com

The project was a response to Hermann Goering’s demand for a light bomber that could carry 1,000 kilograms for 1,000 kilometers at a speed of 100 kilometers per hour. The result was a flying wing design that did more than its creators realized.

Like many other German Wunderwaffe, this machine never made it out of the prototype phase. Only three aircraft were built, but none ever saw action beyond the testing phase.

After the war, tests were done on mock-up versions of the Ho 229, and it was found that the aircraft did, indeed, have a smaller radar cross-section than other conventional aircraft at the time, although not significant. Although tests showed only a moderate improvement in the size of radar cross-section, being 80% of a contemporary prop-driven aircraft, the Horten’s speed, combined with this reduction, would have made it nigh impossible to intercept.

Although Reimar Horten claimed that he had ideas to coat the plane in radar-absorbing dust, his claim came decades after the war, when stealth technology was being understood in the media.

Historians remain skeptical of his claims. Nevertheless, the aircraft did absorb radar waves, serving as a starting point for America’s own stealth program.

The only surviving piece is the third prototype central chassis with engines and cockpit, housed at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC.

Perhaps one of the best known of Hitler’s Wunderwaffe was the V-2, a successor to the V-1 and the world’s first long-range guided ballistic missile.

The V-2 was Hitler’s revenge for the Allied bombing of German cities, and they began falling from the skies over Allied cities from September 1944 onwards. Over 3,000 were launched during the course of the war, and over 9,000 civilian targets lost their lives. But its most deadly toll was on the forced laborers. Over 12,000 laborers and concentration camp prisoners died in the production of these weapons.

The guidance system was a particular problem for the Allies, as it used a complex set of gyroscopes that could not be jammed. Initially, the British assumed the guidance system made use of radio, and efforts to jam the weapon proved useless, especially since it descended on its targets at a speed of almost Mach 3.

The V-2 traveled at supersonic speeds, and there was no defense against it. It struck without warning and made no sound before impact. They were launched from mobile platforms that could be well-hidden in wooded areas, making it extremely difficult for Allied bombers to spot and neutralize them.

After the war, the Soviets and the Western Allies raced to retrieve as many V-2s and German scientists as possible. The principal scientist who worked on the program, Wernher von Braun, was captured by the Americans and went on to form the foundation of the first rockets used in America’s space program. The Soviets also used V-2 technology to further their space program. Sputnik was launched into orbit by the world’s first intercontinental ballistic missile, a direct descendant of the V-2 and designed by German scientists working for the Soviets.

8. Landkreuzer P. 1000 “Ratte”: A Wunderwaffe Too Big for the Battlefield
wunderwaffe p 1000 ratte

An artist’s impression of the P. 1000 “Ratte” superheavy tank, via weaponsandwarfare.com

Although it never made it out of the concept stage, it deserves a place as one of Germany’s Wunderwaffe for the sheer audaciousness of its design.

The P. 1000 Ratte was more than a tank. At over 1,000 tons, the vehicle was more of a mobile battle platform than an actual tank. The vehicle was designed to be a platform for two 280mm guns and protected by four 128mm anti-aircraft guns. Between 20 and 41 soldiers would operate the entire machine.

Hitler was enamored with the concept, but Albert Speer, seeing no use for such a ridiculously large tank, canceled the project before any prototype could be built. Of course, this list is only a small portion of the Wunderwaffe employed or imagined by the Nazis. Some designs were outlandishly ridiculous, some were science fiction that would take decades to build, and some were absolutely deadly. If there’s one thing we know for sure, it’s that the cruel and unstoppable Nazis were not lacking in the creativity department.

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9/11 in the media way before 911

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Costs of the 20-year war on terror: $8 trillion and 900,000 deaths

A report from the Costs of War project at Brown University revealed that 20 years of post-9/11 wars have cost the U.S. an estimated $8 trillion and have killed more than 900,000 people.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Nearly 20 years after the United States’ invasion of Afghanistan, the cost of its global war on terror stands at $8 trillion and 900,000 deaths, according to a new report from the Costs of War project at Brown University.

The Costs of War project, founded more than a decade ago at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs and co-directed by two Brown scholars, released its influential annual report ahead of the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania, the impetus for an ongoing American effort to root out terrorism in the Middle East and beyond.

Stephanie Savell, Catherine Lutz and Neta CrawfordThe Costs of War project is co-directed by Stephanie Savell (left), Catherine Lutz (center) and Neta Crawford (right).

“The war has been long and complex and horrific and unsuccessful... and the war continues in over 80 countries,” said Catherine Lutz, co-director of Costs of War and a professor of international and public affairs at Brown, during a virtual event hosted by the Watson Institute on Wednesday, Sept. 1. “The Pentagon and the U.S. military have now absorbed the great majority of the federal discretionary budget, and most people don’t know that. Our task, now and in future years, is to educate the public on the ways in which we fund those wars and the scale of that funding.”

The research team’s $8 trillion estimate accounts for all direct costs of the country’s post-9/11 wars, including Department of Defense Overseas Contingency Operations funding; State Department war expenditures and counterterror war-related costs, including war-related increases to the Pentagon’s base budget; care for veterans to date and in the future; Department of Homeland Security spending; and interest payments on borrowing for these wars. The total includes funds that the Biden administration requested in May 2021.

The death toll, standing at an estimated 897,000 to 929,000, includes U.S. military members, allied fighters, opposition fighters, civilians, journalists and humanitarian aid workers who were killed as a direct result of war, whether by bombs, bullets or fire. It does not, the researchers noted, include the many indirect deaths the war on terror has caused by way of disease, displacement and loss of access to food or clean drinking water.

“The deaths we tallied are likely a vast undercount of the true toll these wars have taken on human life,” said Neta Crawford, a co-founder of the project and a professor of political science at Boston University. “It’s critical we properly account for the vast and varied consequences of the many U.S. wars and counterterror operations since 9/11, as we pause and reflect on all of the lives lost.”

“ Twenty years from now, we’ll still be reckoning with the high societal costs of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars — long after U.S. forces are gone. ”

Stephanie Savell Co-director, Costs of War project

The report comes at the end of a contentious U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, where Taliban insurgents captured every major city and seized governmental control as American military units worked to extract 123,000 troops, diplomats and allies. Of the $8 trillion, $2.3 trillion is attributed to the Afghanistan/Pakistan war zone, according to the report.

In an address to the nation on Tuesday, Aug. 31, President Joe Biden cited Costs of War estimates to convey the financial and human burden of the 20-year war in Afghanistan as he defended his decision to withdraw from the country.

“We no longer had a clear purpose in an open-ended mission in Afghanistan,” Biden said. “After more than $2 trillion spent in Afghanistan, costs that Brown University researchers estimated would be over $300 million a day for 20 years — yes, the American people should hear this... what have we lost as a consequence, in terms of opportunities? ...I refuse to send America’s sons and daughters to fight a war that should have ended long ago.”

Even as the U.S. exits Afghanistan, Costs of War estimates show that Americans are far from done paying the bill on the war on terror, which continues across multiple continents. The cumulative cost of military intervention in the Iraq/Syria war zone has risen to $2.1 trillion since 9/11, and about $355 billion more has funded military presence in other countries, including Somalia and a handful of African countries.

And when the wars do end, the costs of war will continue to rise, the report notes: A towering $2.2 trillion of the estimated financial total accounts for future care that has already been set aside for military veterans, the researchers said, and the U.S. and other countries could pay the cost of environmental damage wrought by the wars for generations to come.

“What have we truly accomplished in 20 years of post-9/11 wars and at what price?” said Stephanie Savell, co-director of the Costs of War Project and a senior research associate at the Watson Institute. “Twenty years from now, we’ll still be reckoning with the high societal costs of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars — long after U.S. forces are gone.”

The Watson Institute’s virtual event included commentary from multiple researchers associated with the Costs of War Project, U.S. Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., and U.S. Reps. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., David Cicilline, D-R.I., and Ro Khanna, D-Calif. It was moderated by Murtaza Hussain, a national security reporter at the Intercept.

The terrorist attacks on the US on September 11, 2001, can be considered a watershed moment in the 21st Century. Its importance in defining the future course of global events is, perhaps, on par with the Russian revolution or the fall of Nazi Germany and atomic annihilation of Nagasaki and Hiroshima.

Two major wars, interventions by the US and NATO in numerous other countries, rise of new terror outfits and new geopolitical alliances and rivalries have marked the responses to 9/11 in the past 20 years.

In 2010, a group of scholars at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University in Rhode Island began work to chronicle the costs of the US interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan and related violence in Pakistan and Syria. The team, called 'The Costs of War Project', recently released figures of the costs incurred by the US and others in responding to 9/11.

The budgetary costs of the post-9/11 wars incurred by the US federal government was estimated by The Costs of War team to be over $8 trillion. Successive US governments, including the Joe Biden administration, have sought $5.8 trillion to react to the 9/11 attacks. This includes expenditure on war zones, homeland security and interest payments on war borrowing.

"The research team’s $8 trillion estimate accounts for all direct costs of the country’s post-9/11 wars, including Department of Defense Overseas Contingency Operations funding; State Department war expenditures and counterterror war-related costs, including war-related increases to the Pentagon’s base budget; care for veterans to date and in the future; Department of Homeland Security spending; and interest payments on borrowing for these wars," Brown University said in a statement.

Future medical care and disability payments for veterans would likely exceed $2.2 trillion, according to The Costs of War project, making for a figure of about $8 trillion in current dollars. The Costs of War project noted the figure of $8 trillion does not include the money spent on humanitarian assistance and development in Afghanistan and Iraq or expenditure by US allies.

Death toll

The Costs of War project notes the death toll in the wars after 9/11 is between 897,000 to 929,000 people. This includes "US military members, allied fighters, opposition fighters, civilians, journalists and humanitarian aid workers who were killed as a direct result of war, whether by bombs, bullets or fire".
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A total of 7,052 US military personnel have died in the post-9/11 conflicts, with Iraq (4,598 deaths) and Afghanistan (2,324) accounting for the most fatalities. Highlighting the role played by private 'contractors' in the conflicts, a total of 8,189 contractors have lost their lives in these conflicts. Again, Afghanistan (3,917 deaths) and Iraq (3,650) account for the most fatalities.

Civilians account for the largest category of deaths. Civilian fatalities are estimated to be between 363,939 to 387,072, with Iraq accounting for approximately 208,964 deaths, the highest figure for a single country.

Refugees

The post-9/11 conflicts have led to around 38 million people being displaced. Since 2001, 5.9 million people have been displaced in Afghanistan and 3.7 million in Pakistan. Over 9 million people have been displaced in Iraq since 2003, while over 7.1 million have been displaced in Syria since 2014.

The Costs of War project states this figure exceeds people displaced in all conflicts since 1900, with the exception of the Second World War. The researchers caution the figure of 38 million is a "conservative" estimate, noting the the actual number could be closer to 49 million-60 million, rivalling the refugee numbers seen in the Second World War.

On September 10, 2001, then U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld disclosed that his department was unable to account for roughly $2.3 trillion worth of transactions. The next day, the U.S. sustained the terrorist attacks that changed the world, and this startling revelation was forgotten.

When an account discrepancy occurs that cannot be traced, it’s customary to make what is called an “un-documentable adjustment.” This is similar to when your checkbook balance is off by, say, ten dollars; you add or subtract that amount to make everything balance with the bank. In 1999, the amount that the Pentagon adjusted was eight times the Defense Department budget for that year; it was one-third greater than the entire federal budget.

By 2015, the amount reported missing by the Office of the Inspector General had increased to $6.5 trillion—and that was just for the army. Using public data from federal databases, Mark Skidmore, a professor of economics at Michigan State University, found that $21 trillion in unsupported adjustments had been reported by the Defense and Housing and Urban Development departments between 1998 and 2015. That’s about $65,000 for every American.

There is no sign that the government’s internal auditors have made much headway in finding the missing money. Jim Minnery of the Defense Finance and Accounting Service traveled the country in 2002 looking for documents on just $300 million worth of unrecorded spending. “We know it’s gone. But we don’t know what they spent it on,” he said. He was reassigned after suggesting that higher-ups covered up the problem by writing it off. He’s not the only who thinks so. “The books are cooked routinely year after year,” says former defense analyst Franklin C. Spinney.

According to a 2013 Reuters report, the Pentagon is the only federal agency that has not complied with a 1996 law that requires annual audits of all government departments. The Pentagon has spent tens of billions of dollars to upgrade to more efficient technology in order to become audit-ready. But many of these new systems have failed and been scrapped.

Predictably, the government did not race to correct the problem even after investigators sounded the alarm. Skidmore contacted the Office of the Inspector General but was not permitted to speak to anyone who had worked on the corruption report. Both the Congressional Budget Office and the Government Accountability Office assured him that congressional hearings would have been held if there was a significant problem. When Rumsfeld eventually did appear before Congress in March 2005, his testimony offered no substantive answers.

In short: the military doesn’t know how its budget is being spent. The “total military expenditures” that analysts so confidently cite are whatever the Treasury Department says they are, and the individual line items, at least for the army, are for the most part unknown. If money is being diverted from the armed forces, the losses are degrading our defense capability in ways difficult to observe. The same is true on a smaller scale for the Department of Housing and Urban Development, where billions in missing expenditures could have gone to support the perennially cash-strapped federal mortgage-loan program, and possibly other unrelated programs, without congressional knowledge or approval.

Though each passing year diminishes the likelihood that already-disbursed funds will be tracked down, Americans should insist on a renewed effort to rein in future discrepancies. The Trump presidency presents a fresh chance to prioritize accountability, and the president campaigned on robust military spending and reducing government waste. With congressional cooperation, the president should ask the secretaries of the Departments of Defense and of Housing and Urban Development to testify about any misplaced spending, and commission new independent audits of their expenses. This ongoing mismanagement of the public trust—and public dollars—is possibly the greatest silent scandal in America today.

If it were measured as a country, then cybercrime — which is predicted to inflict damages totaling $6 trillion USD globally in 2021 — would be the world’s third-largest economy after the U.S. and China.

Cybersecurity Ventures expects global cybercrime costs to grow by 15 percent per year over the next five years, reaching $10.5 trillion USD annually by 2025, up from $3 trillion USD in 2015. This represents the greatest transfer of economic wealth in history, risks the incentives for innovation and investment, is exponentially larger than the damage inflicted from natural disasters in a year, and will be more profitable than the global trade of all major illegal drugs combined.

The damage cost estimation is based on historical cybercrime figures including recent year-over-year growth, a dramatic increase in hostile nation-state sponsored and organized crime gang hacking activities, and a cyberattack surface which will be an order of magnitude greater in 2025 than it is today.

Cybercrime costs include damage and destruction of data, stolen money, lost productivity, theft of intellectual property, theft of personal and financial data, embezzlement, fraud, post-attack disruption to the normal course of business, forensic investigation, restoration and deletion of hacked data and systems, and reputational harm.

The United States, the world’s largest economy with a nominal GDP of nearly $21.5 trillion, constitutes one-fourth of the world economy, according to data from Nasdaq.

Cybercrime has hit the U.S. so hard that in 2018 a supervisory special agent with the FBI who investigates cyber intrusions told The Wall Street Journal that every American citizen should expect that all of their data (personally identifiable information) has been stolen and is on the dark web — a part of the deep web — which is intentionally hidden and used to conceal and promote heinous activities. Some estimates put the size of the deep web (which is not indexed or accessible by search engines) at as much as 5,000 times larger than the surface web, and growing at a rate that defies quantification.

The dark web is also where cybercriminals buy and sell malware, exploit kits, and cyberattack services, which they use to strike victims — including businesses, governments, utilities, and essential service providers on U.S. soil.

A cyberattack could potentially disable the economy of a city, state or our entire country.

In his 2016 New York Times bestseller — Lights Out: A Cyberattack, A Nation Unprepared, Surviving the Aftermath — Ted Koppel reveals that a major cyberattack on America’s power grid is not only possible but likely, that it would be devastating, and that the U.S. is shockingly unprepared.

Billionaire businessman and philanthropist Warren Buffet calls cybercrime the number one problem with mankind, and cyberattacks a bigger threat to humanity than nuclear weapons.

A bullseye is squarely on our nation’s businesses.

Organized cybercrime entities are joining forces, and their likelihood of detection and prosecution is estimated to be as low as 0.05 percent in the U.S., according to the World Economic Forum’s 2020 Global Risk Report.

RANSOMWARE

Ransomware — a malware that infects computers (and mobile devices) and restricts their access to files, often threatening permanent data destruction unless a ransom is paid — has reached epidemic proportions globally and is the “go-to method of attack” for cybercriminals.

A 2017 report from Cybersecurity Ventures predicted ransomware damages would cost the world $5 billion in 2017, up from $325 million in 2015 — a 15X increase in just two years. The damages for 2018 were estimated at $8 billion, and for 2019 the figure rose to $11.5 billion.

The latest forecast is for global ransomware damage costs to reach $20 billion by 2021 — which is 57X more than it was in 2015.

We predict there will be a ransomware attack on businesses every 11 seconds by 2021, up from every 40 seconds in 2016.

The FBI is particularly concerned with ransomware hitting healthcare providers, hospitals, 911 and first responders. These types of cyberattacks can impact the physical safety of American citizens, and this is the forefront of what Herb Stapleton, FBI cyber division section chief, and his team are focused on.

Last month, ransomware claimed its first life. German authorities reported a ransomware attack caused the failure of IT systems at a major hospital in Duesseldorf, and a woman who needed urgent admission died after she had to be taken to another city for treatment.

Ransomware, now the fastest growing and one of the most damaging types of cybercrime, will ultimately convince senior executives to take the cyber threat more seriously, according to Mark Montgomery, executive director at the U.S. Cyberspace Solarium Commission (CSC) — but he hopes it doesn’t come to that.

CYBER ATTACK SURFACE

The modern definition of the word “hack” was coined at MIT in April 1955. The first known mention of computer (phone) hacking occurred in a 1963 issue of The Tech. Over the past fifty-plus years, the world’s attack surface has evolved from phone systems to a vast datasphere outpacing humanity’s ability to secure it.

In 2013, IBM proclaimed data promises to be for the 21st century what steam power was for the 18th, electricity for the 19th and hydrocarbons for the 20th.

“We believe that data is the phenomenon of our time,” said Ginni Rometty, IBM Corp.’s executive chairman, in 2015, addressing CEOs, CIOs and CISOs from 123 companies in 24 industries at a conference in New York City. “It is the world’s new natural resource. It is the new basis of competitive advantage, and it is transforming every profession and industry. If all of this is true — even inevitable — then cyber crime, by definition, is the greatest threat to every profession, every industry, every company in the world.”

The world will store 200 zettabytes of data by 2025, according to Cybersecurity Ventures. This includes data stored on private and public IT infrastructures, on utility infrastructures, on private and public cloud data centers, on personal computing devices — PCs, laptops, tablets, and smartphones — and on IoT (Internet-of-Things) devices.

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly half the U.S. labor force is working from home, according to Stanford University. As employees generate, access, and share more data remotely through cloud apps, the number of security blind spots balloons.

It’s predicted that the total amount of data stored in the cloud — which includes public clouds operated by vendors and social media companies (think Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Twitter, etc.), government-owned clouds that are accessible to citizens and businesses, private clouds owned by mid-to-large-sized corporations, and cloud storage providers — will reach 100 zettabytes by 2025, or 50 percent of the world’s data at that time, up from approximately 25 percent stored in the cloud in 2015.

Roughly one million more people join the internet every day. We expect there will be 6 billion people connected to the internet interacting with data in 2022, up from 5 billion in 2020 — and more than 7.5 billion internet users in 2030.

Cyber threats have expanded from targeting and harming computers, networks, and smartphones — to people, cars, railways, planes, power grids and anything with a heartbeat or an electronic pulse. Many of these Things are connected to corporate networks in some fashion, further complicating cybersecurity.

By 2023, there will be 3X more networked devices on Earth than humans, according to a report from Cisco. And by 2022, 1 trillion networked sensors will be embedded in the world around us, with up to 45 trillion in 20 years.

IP traffic has reached an annual run rate of 2.3 zettabytes in 2020, up from an annual run rate of 870.3 exabytes in 2015.

Data is the building block of the digitized economy, and the opportunities for innovation and malice around it are incalculable.

CYBERSECURITY SPENDING

In 2004, the global cybersecurity market was worth $3.5 billion — and in 2017 it was worth more than $120 billion. The cybersecurity market grew by roughly 35X during that 13-year period — prior to the latest market sizing by Cybersecurity Ventures.

Global spending on cybersecurity products and services for defending against cybercrime is projected to exceed $1 trillion cumulatively over the five-year period from 2017 to 2021.

“Most cybersecurity budgets at U.S. organizations are increasing linearly or flat, but the cyberattacks are growing exponentially,” says CSC’s Montgomery. This simple observation should be a wake-up call for C-suite executives.

Healthcare has lagged behind other industries and the tantalizing target on its back is attributable to outdated IT systems, fewer cybersecurity protocols and IT staff, extremely valuable data, and the pressing need for medical practices and hospitals to pay ransoms quickly to regain data. The healthcare industry will respond by spending $125 billion cumulatively from 2020 to 2025 to beef up its cyber defenses.

The FY 2020 U.S. President’s Budget includes $17.4 billion of budget authority for cybersecurity-related activities, a $790 million (5 percent) increase above the FY 2019 estimate, according to The White House. Due to the sensitive nature of some activities, this amount does not represent the entire cyber budget.

Cybersecurity Ventures anticipates 12-15 percent year-over-year cybersecurity market growth through 2025. While that may be a respectable increase, it pales in comparison to the cybercrime costs incurred.

SMALL BUSINESS

“There are 30 million small businesses in the U.S. that need to stay safe from phishing attacks, malware spying, ransomware, identity theft, major breaches and hackers who would compromise their security,” says Scott Schober, author of the popular books “Hacked Again” and “Cybersecurity Is Everybody’s Business.”

More than half of all cyberattacks are committed against small-to-midsized businesses (SMBs), and 60 percent of them go out of business within six months of falling victim to a data breach or hack.

66 percent of SMBs had at least one cyber incident in the past two years, according to Mastercard.

“Small and medium sized businesses lack the financial resources and skill set to combat the emerging cyber threat,” says Scott E. Augenbaum, former supervisory special agent at the FBI’s Cyber Division, Cyber Crime Fraud Unit, where he was responsible for managing the FBI’s Cyber Task Force Program and Intellectual Property Rights Program.

A Better Business Bureau survey found that for small businesses — which make up more than 97 percent of total businesses in North America — the primary challenges for more than 55 percent of them in order to develop a cybersecurity plan are a lack of resources or knowledge.

Ransomware attacks are of particular concern. “The cost of ransomware has skyrocketed and that’s a huge concern for small businesses — and it doesn’t look like there’s any end in sight,” adds Schober.

AI AUGMENTS CYBER DEFENDERS

You don’t bring a knife to a gunfight.

The U.S. has a total employed cybersecurity workforce consisting of nearly 925,000 people, and there are currently almost 510,000 unfilled positions, according to Cyber Seek, a project supported by the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE), a program of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Faced with a domestic worker shortage, the heads of U.S. cyber defense forces — CIOs and CISOs at America’s mid-sized to largest businesses — are beginning to augment their staff with next-generation AI and ML (machine learning) software and appliances aimed at detecting cyber intruders. These AI systems are trained on big data sets collected over decades — and they can analyze terabytes of data per day, a scale unimaginable for humans.

The panacea for a CISO is an AI system resembling a human expert’s investigative and reporting techniques so that cyber threats are remediated BEFORE the damage is done.

If enemies are using AI to launch cyberattacks, then our country’s businesses need to use AI to defend themselves.

FOR THE BOARDROOM

Cybersecurity begins at the top.

CSC has an urgent message for boardroom and C-suite executives: The status quo in cyberspace is unacceptable, which is spelled out in its groundbreaking 2020 Report which proposes a strategy of layered cyber deterrence — to protect all U.S. businesses and governments from cybercrime and cyberwarfare. But, this is hardly the first warning. “Some of the same things we’re recommending today, we were pushing 23 years ago,” says Montgomery.

Someone should be in the boardroom who will wave the red flag and get everyone else paying attention to the severity of cyber risks. Montgomery says attention is the number one priority, not bringing in a new CISO — instead empower the CISO that you have.

The value of a business depends largely on how well it guards its data, the strength of its cybersecurity, and its level of cyber resilience.

If there’s one takeaway from this report, then let it be this: Don’t let your boardroom be the weakest cybersecurity link.

U.S. BUDGETARY COSTS The vast economic impact of the U.S. post-9/11 wars goes beyond the Pentagon's "Overseas Contigency Operations" (War) budget. This chart and the attached paper estimate the more comprehensive budgetary costs of the wars.

Posted on September 1, 2021

https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/figures/2021/BudgetaryCosts

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