Nobel invented dynamite
They say the guilt in his mind
Compelled him to design the prize [1]

Phoenix, Arizona is the armpit of the United States. I’ll shy from a more crass the devil’s taint, but either way, I’ve said it. I’m a longtime Sonoran Desert dweller, based about 100 miles south in Tucson, Arizona and often can’t fathom calling another landscape ‘home’–so bear with me while I work through this. This desert–the most biodiverse on earth–abundant with endemic flora who thrive despite harshness, who bloom brilliantly even in the throes of drought, is tormented by the insatiability of the border-military-industrial complex; settler colonial pillage so frequently couched in more marketable progress…modernity…redevelopment…innovation.

As we bear witness to this ongoing, universe-ending genocide, ecocide, (-cide in every form) of Gaza and across Palestine, it is not enough to only post (re–repost…), sign petitions and circulate slogans. It is our duty to find through-lines that connect our complacency towards and complicity in the logistics, financing, aiding and abetting of US-led imperial plunder. Every bullet, bomb, bulldozer destroying Palestine, in addition to other Indigenous and vulnerable peoples and their lands throughout the world, has connection to US empire; and these weapons that hasten suffering in the present are generative of imperial debris whose effects will last generations. 

Cacti Older Than Colonizers 

There isn’t space here to detail the two millennia-and-counting history of the Indigenous Hohokam, Akimel O’odham, Tohono O’odham, Maricopa, Apache and Yavapai people of this territory, who’ve stewarded the land and constructed hundreds of miles of irrigation canals to grow beans, squash, tobacco and much more. But these lineages, these stories…ways of life, of communing between the human and more-than-human across this sacred, fragile landscape are what’s central.

Fig. 1 Indigenous communities across “Mesa, Arizona”, via nativeland.ca

The ongoing genocidal settler colonial project across this continent–from Columbus’s ravages (1492) and the Doctrine of Discovery (1493) through present day, always preying on our futures–is morphologically and ecologically exemplified by the Phoenix metropolitan area. Following the then-unprecedented theft of land, pursuant to the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848) and the Gadsden Purchase (1853-1854), President Ulysses Grant issued a land patent on April 10, 1874 for 320 acres–for a total of US $550. The brazen displacement, dispossession, extortion, and polluting of Indigenous land and water has only ceaselessly expedited since.

While the abundance of golf courses, strip malls, car dealerships, resorts, and the sprawl of Arizona State University’s campuses are pieces to this devastation’s puzzle–the primary culprit of the desecration of this desert is the border-military-industrial complex; namely, the “defense”[2] contractors and slew of subsidiaries that feed the Department of Defense’s Fiscal Year 2024 $842 billion budget’…$849.8 billion for 2025. These transnational “Aerospace & Defense” corporations–specifically those with corporate headquarters and manufacturing facilities across Phoenix, such as Northrop Grumman, Boeing, Honeywell, General Dynamics, and Lockheed Martin–pilfer water while simultaneously poisoning the aquifers. They dynamite and raze cultural and spiritual sites for weapons testing facilities. Saguaro cacti (mature species older than the “State of Israel”), ocotillo, cholla and creosote are uprooted (a displacement, too), transplanted, or mounded in landfills. 

These companies are today’s “pioneers”; and, while such a term is often used in harmony with trailblazers, entrepreneurs and enterprise–their violences are Manifest Destiny 2.0[3]–from vampiric development practices to their pipelines of workforce cultivation and the technologies of biopolitical securitization and surveillance that condition employees and community members…these are contemporary conceptions of military garrisons, not unlike Camp Verde, Fort Huachuca, the Barry M. Goldwater Bombing Range, Luke Air Force Base and Davis-Monthan Air Force Base whose carceral logics contaminate Arizona, and beyond. 

Live Toward the Water, A Flood

The Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community–the Pima (“Akimel Au-Authm” or River People) and the Maricopa (“Xalychidom Pipaash” or People Who Live Toward the Water) are descendants of the Hohokam; when the Salt River Indian Community formed a Reservation in 1879, it included these tribes within its boundaries. The Salt River, formed by the confluence of Black and White Rivers in the White Mountains, is fed by and courses through immensely varied terrain but, despite winding through Phoenix’s more affluent Mesa, Tempe and Scottsdale, is primarily a dry arroyo that only flows by occasional heavy upstream rains. 

Off the 202 Freeway and abutting the Red Mountain Ranch Master Planned community is Nammo Defense Systems, Inc. (hereafter, Nammo). It shares a swath of acreage with CalPortland (CEMEX Concrete Plant), Northrop Grumman, Boeing, and Amazon. Due north, the Granite Reef Diversion Dam, which impounds the Salt River for commercial irrigation purposes. (A dam, an inevitable rupture.)

Fig. 2 Nammo in Mesa, AZ, via Google Maps (December 1, 2024)

The Nammo Mesa site is the largest US production facility for the Norwegian company, which touts itself as “one of the world’s leading providers of specialty ammunition and rocket motors for both military and civilian customers.” Norway, Sweden and Finland merged ammunition companies in 1998 and today, Nammo is owned by the Norwegian Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries (50%) and the Finnish aerospace & defense company Patria Oyj (50%).Their website describes:

Our day-to-day operations are managed through four business units: Commercial Ammunition, Small and Medium Caliber Ammunition, Large Caliber Systems, and Aerospace Propulsion. Our product portfolio includes shoulder-launched munitions systems, ammunition for both military applications, as well as sports shooting and hunting, rocket motors for military and space applications, and environmentally friendly demilitarization services.

 In addition to its range of ammunition offerings, Nammo creates shoulder fired systems:

Nammo has manufactured shoulder fired systems since the 1960s, with licence production of the M72 beginning at Raufoss in Norway in 1966. Today Nammo is the only licensed manufacturer of the M72, with active production lines in two locations – Raufoss and Mesa, Arizona, the latter also being the only facility to manufacture such weapon systems anywhere in the United States. In addition to the M72, Mesa also manufactures the M141 Bunker Defeat Munition for the US Army, while Nammo’s facilities in Columbus, Mississippi manufactures ammunition for the SMAW-system for the US Marine Corps.

Fig. 3 From Nammo’s website: A marine fires a M72 during an exercise in Jordan. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. James Stanfield

The landing image for the product’s description does ample heavy lifting; though photographed in Jordan, these very well could be the Superstition Mountains in Tonto National Forest, Arizona, or, one of the dozens of the US military’s Forward Operating Bases during its occupation of Afghanistan. As captioned, the M72 remains as relevant as ever; we are properly lodged within the cogs of Forever War. 

This ‘anti-tank rocket-propelled grenade launcher’, aka the M72 LAW (light anti-tank weapon/anti-armor weapon) and its variants have documented service history across the world. For example, the British Army used it during the 1982 Falklands War and in the Invasion of South Georgia (British Overseas Territory in the South Atlantic). It was utilized by the US Marines, US Army and Canadian Army throughout the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. Both Norway and Canada supply thousands to Ukraine for its present war against Russia. During the Yom Kippur War in October 1973, it was the Israeli Occupation Force’s primary weapon as part of Operation Nickel Grass and was integral to the IOF during 2014’s Operation Protective Edge. The weapon is being used extensively during this current genocidal campaign across Gaza. According to AOAV in April 2024:

Norwegian law asserts that the sale of weapons to Israel and other countries in war is prohibited. However, according to Norwegian Church Aid, a loophole in Norwegian law exists that allows Norwegian arms manufacturers to sell arms to Israel through foreign companies. Nammo, 50% owned by the Norwegian government, has a subsidiary in the US state of Arizona called Nammo Talley, which produces M72 anti-tank missiles amongst other weapons. Norwegian media outlet NRK has stated that a M72 rocket launcher has been seen used by Israel’s soldiers. The CEO of Nammo, Morten Brantzæg, has claimed that they are a ‘tiny player’ in the US and that they have little influence over the way in which US export licences are applied to their products. 

The wild thing is–an entire matrix of “tiny players”–or, let’s call it, a 2023 annual report where Nammo sales rose by 23 percent to NOK 9.19 billion ($832,852,940) and “achieved a substantial increase in sales, profits, and order reserves, reflecting its strong market position and strategic initiatives amidst a challenging geopolitical environment”–are executing comprehensive annihilation of Palestine and its people. 

Siphon, and Sustainable Slaughter

For more than sixty years, this M72 combined the Panzerfaust and the bazooka into an adumbration for imperial pillage. Presumably, for more than sixty years, these weapons poisoned the Sonoran Desert. 

In the 1960s, Talley Industries, Inc. began manufacturing munitions in Mesa, Arizona and was purchased by Nammo in 2007. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA): 

[M]anufacturing caused groundwater contamination of perchlorate and other substances. Perchlorate is both a naturally occurring and manmade substance that is harmful to human health. Perchlorate is an ingredient in rocket fuel, munitions, and explosives. Currently, contamination from this site does not impact public drinking water. The facility began environmental study and cleanup efforts in the 1990s.[4]

In addition to perchlorate, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) were detected. Dear reader, I ask: what is your acceptable threshold for rocket fuel consumed in your water? 

In February 2021, Nammo signed an Administrative Order on Consent with the EPA to commence “interim” remediation. From the Order:

The Respondent’s approximately 534-acre Facility is located on land owned by the State, near Mesa Arizona (see Appendix A). The Facility, a munitions manufacturing operation, previously treated reactive (D003) waste propellant through open burning from 1966 to 2006 in the TTU. The waste propellant burned included lead nitrate, ammonium perchlorate, ammonium nitrate, sodium azide, and magnesium teflon. The RCRA Facility Assessment (RFA) Report dated April 1994 identified 52 Solid Waste Management Units (SWMUs) and 16 Areas of Concern (AOCs) at the facility. There are two distinct groundwater plumes with known contaminants that include perchlorate, 1,4-dioxane, and VOCs. One plume originates at the Plant No. 3 Former WBO SWMU and one plume originates from the TTU, with a source area distance approximately 1.4 miles apart.

The EPA cites its “coordination” with the land’s Indigenous communities: “The Salt River Pima Maricopa Indian Community is a federally recognized Tribe with land located next to the Nammo facility. EPA coordinates with the SRPMIC on the study and cleanup. EPA oversees the Order and coordinates the study and cleanup among all the parties.” Of course we want this remedied; we want clean soil, subsoil, waterways and air. But the ever-cynic in me sees little more than a Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Statement or Land Acknowledgement at the footer of a defense contract.

Fig. 4 Nammo Defense Systems Facility, Mesa, AZ remediation efforts, via US EPA

Unsurprisingly, Nammo’s 149-page “Annual and Sustainability Report” (2023) makes zero mention of Indigeneity–whether in reference to the Sámi, Akimel O’odham or Salt River Pima. Fleetingly mentioned in the “Waste & Hazardous Materials” section: “In 2023, the ongoing remediation efforts at our Mesa, Arizona facility continued with steady progress by the installation of four new monitoring wells to further delineate the ammonium perchlorate contamination that predates Nammo Group ownership of the site.” There is no quantification of remediation efforts and ecological improvements, let alone any sliver of mention of reparations for intergenerational damages wrought by the company across the desert. There is, however, a big and bolded section: Sustainability: A strategic imperative in the defense industry. Perhaps we need a beat to catch our breath, confronted with such audacity. Sustainable slaughter, and such.

Also in the 2021 Administrative Order against Nammo, the EPA includes: 

Hazardous Wastes may further migrate into the environment by the

following pathways:

• Aerial deposition
• Soil/soil vapor to groundwater,
• Groundwater migration,
• Groundwater to surface water migration,
• Groundwater to soil/soil vapor, and
• Soil/soil vapor to indoor air migration (vapor intrusion).

This insists we further attune to the scale and speed of planetary ecocide–particularly as A Big Corporation insists…no no it’s fine we will ‘voluntarily’ clean this up…the ruination of the land, air, and water has permanent consequences that we cannot and must not ignore. While the fervor with which the US, UK, Germany and the IOF are currently decimating Gaza must at once be explicitly named, documented, shamed, and above all…whatarewewaitingfor halted–today’s salvo cannot be separated from the continuum of horrific violence against the land of Palestine and its people, for 107 years (and counting). Across Abya Yala, for 531 years (and counting).

We consume the widely-circulated flashpoints of brute force…the chemical munitions whose many plumes we can track…the obliteration of olive groves, greenhouses, gardens and agricultural spaces…the horrific contamination of wells, sewage pumps, wastewater treatment plants, and natural springs. As if these gases, contagions and the byproducts of bombings–heaving tectonic plates–could possibly ever be contained by the borders of settler colonial desire. The Sonoran Desert soil, on all sides of the so-called US/Mexico border, is more frequently treated solely as staging ground for the next-best Tech Park…laboratory for necro and biopolitical warfare…university extension…lithium gigafactory. Seldom do we pause to contemplate, and assign culpability to, the ways decimation of this desert is concurrently connected to and precipitating the destruction of an elsewhere, and an everywhere. For all we consume, take, what have we given?

We’re bearing witness to the extirpation of universes–of life in all forms–and we must know, and see, how the endless flows of munitions–a core tenet of Forever War–are ravaging not only those on the receiving end of the missiles, but these Indigenous lifeworlds impacted by every stage of their production, for generations. And we must insist, then, and it must be a relentless insistence, on arms embargoes that not only disrupt the weapons’ deployment–but marks the cessation of manufacture entirely. 

Footnotes

[1] Lowkey “Neoliberalism Kills People” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NMVIEjysPI

[2] I’ll place “defense” in quotes here once. But never for a moment are we to forget…defense, who whom? Against what? One people’s Israel Defense Forces is another people’s (I)Occupation Forces. One people’s War of Independence is another’s nakba.

[3] Indigenous scholar Nick Estes analyzes: ““Settlers” can encompass individuals benefiting from the displacement of Indigenous people and corporations like Energy Transfer Partners, pushing DAPL through Native land. This framework is complementary to Marx’s analysis of capitalism. Settler colonialism and its ideological companion manifest destiny are baked into the development of the United States, much like slavery and racism, and cannot be extracted without overhauling the entire system.”

[4] See also, the EPA’s Administrative Order against the US Air Force and Raytheon regarding use and disposal of metals, chlorinated solvents and other substances at the AFP 44 facility since 1951 (https://19january2017snapshot.epa.gov/www3/region9/water/drinking/files/af-raytheon-admin-order.pdf) and additional contaminations across the Tucson Superfund Site (https://www.azpm.org/p/earthday/2024/6/19/220690-epa-orders-air-force-az-national-guard-to-address-pfas-contamination-at-tucson-superfund-site/). For more, read Sunaura Taylor’s Disabled Ecologies: Lessons from a Wounded Desert (UC Press, 2024).