Air Force Prepares to Dismantle HAARP

First time accepted submitter registrations_suck (1075251) writes in with news about the dismantling of the HAARP project. The U.S. Air Force gave official notice to Congress Wednesday that it intends to dismantle the $300 million High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program in Gakona this summer. The shutdown of HAARP, a project created by the late Sen. Ted Stevens when he wielded great control over the U.S. defense budget, will start after a final research experiment takes place in mid-June, the Air Force said in a letter to Congress Tuesday. While the University of Alaska has expressed interest in taking over the research site, which is off the Tok Cutoff, in an area where black spruce was cleared a quarter-century ago for the Air Force Backscatter radar project that was never completed. But the school has not volunteered to pay $5 million a year to run HAARP. Responding to questions from Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski during a Senate hearing Wednesday, David Walker, deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force for Science, Technology and Engineering, said this is 'not an area that we have any need for in the future' and it would not be a good use of Air Force research funds to keep HAARP going. 'We're moving on to other ways of managing the ionosphere, which the HAARP was really designed to do,' he said. 'To inject energy into the ionosphere to be able to actually control it. But that work has been completed.' Comments of that sort have given rise to endless conspiracy theories, portraying HAARP as a super weapon capable of mind control or weather control, with enough juice to trigger hurricanes, tornadoes and earthquakes."

Re:Oh no

[jythie]

Oh that is easy, they will simply claim that HAARP was never dismantled, it was just moved to a dark site, or the moon.

Cameras are too easy to use now

[Viol8]

Even conspiracy theory morons can figure them out and this is the result. There should be a mandatory IQ test before anyone is allowed to use any technology or access the internet.

Re:The silence for the Whales will be deafening

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow, those must be really high flying whales. When they fall from up there, it would very likely be very damaging.

Re:What happened to HAARP being essential?

[Required Snark]

You don't understand the immense inertia of political pork. To put it in perspective, political pork has is the organizational equivalent of neutronium. One it comes into existence and starts moving, it is almost impossible to stop.

Remember that this was the turf of Alaska US Senator Ted Stevens. He was the longest serving Republican Senator in US history, being in the senate from 1978 to 2008. He died in a plane crash in 2010. He was also involved with the infamous freeway to nowhere.

That's why HAARP lasted so long. Even dieing is not sufficient grounds for ending a major pork event. A big time pork wrangler has to be gone and in the ground for a few years before anyone is willing to interfere with with the money flow. (Note: this is not a Republican vs. Democrat issue. The "Big Dig" in Boston was a monument to the pork prowess of Ted Kennedy.)

Re:Project done?

[Ambitwistor]

Or:

- 4. Didn't turn out to be all that useful for routine military applications, despite earlier hopes.

Re:Climate Science Defector Forced to Resign

[Jeff Flanagan]

When you post something insane, don't expect people to spend a lot of time on you. The only asshole here is you.