Madison Ruppert/Activist Post

Last year I reported on the Pentagon’s 1033 Program, wherein local law enforcement agencies can obtain surplus military hardware through a website, only having to pay to pick up the equipment.

Now, according to the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), law enforcement will be even further militarized through the use of hundreds of military robots acquired by the Department of Defense over the past decade.

According to the head of the eastern team of DLA’s disposition services office, Dan Arnold, the older and more heavily used items will likely be robots for explosive ordnance disposal and surveillance, although some of the hardware is nearly brand new and never been deployed overseas.

According to National Defense, Arnold said to the attendees of the GovSec conference in Washington, D.C., that these robots are just one instance of the surplus equipment that will likely become available as the conflict in Afghanistan supposedly winds down.

These items will be available to absolutely any law enforcement agency, be they federal, state or local, so long as they have a counter-narcotics or counterterrorism mission of some kind.

Arnold said that they are still working out the final details with the Army’s Tank Automotive, Research and Development Command out of Warren, Michigan.

He said that they expect these surplus robots to be available as soon as this summer.The 1033 Program is all about making it as easy as humanly possible for law enforcement agencies to get their hands on military equipment.

They have a website where agencies can procure everything from a folding chair to a helicopter to an armored personnel carrier to assault rifles to fixed-wing aircraft to night vision goggles to boats.

Similarly, through the 1706 Program, non-law enforcement agencies can acquire equipment as well.

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