Editing History and Applications of HAARP Technologies (section)

== BACKGROUND ==

On Nov. 3, 1993, the U.S. Air Force announced that the prime contractor on the first phase of the HAARP project was ARCO Power Technologies, Inc. (APTI). At the time the project was put out for bids, APTI was a subsidiary of Atlantic Richfield Oil Company (ARCO) and owned the patent rights to various patents pertaining to the HAARP project, such as those invented by Bernard J. Eastlund. How did a small subsidiary get the military contract for such a large project? One that was five times large than APTI's annual budget? The answer seems to lie in the patents owned at the time by APTI.

And why should ARCO be interested or involved?

ARCO is one of the largest employers in Alaska, where it is primarily involved in the North Slope oil fields. As ARCO oil is a major industry there, the Alaska State government has been very supportive of the HAARP Program. The University of Alaska has also benefited from this program in several ways, and would also be supportive of HAARP. (Begich and Manning, 1995).

In those ARCO oil fields, the natural gas is re-injected into the Earth rather than "flared" off or produced for use, as done in most other oil fields around the world. The re-injected gas increases the oil field pressure and thus creates enhanced oil production. No market for this natural gas exists, as it would be very expensive to pipe it from there to market in the US. The HAARP site is close to an already granted right-of-way for a future Trans-Alaska gas Pipeline! All of the significant regulatory hurdles have been passed for constructing the gas line should markets be found. Does HAARP and its possible military mission represent a huge natural gas market for ARCO?

At its present stage, HAARP does not represent a high energy consumer in terms of input power for ARCO. The first two phases of the project may not have consumed more than one to ten megaWatts of power. HOWEVER: What about the future? If the project follows the plans outlined in the patents and what the project planners may want, the power demands could SHARPLY increase - to ARCO's advantage. The patents talk about using billions of Watts of power. The HAARP Home Page references 3.6 billion Watts! Who would stop such a project if it its power levels got that far?

And the story gets more involved. After the HAARP contact was awarded to APTI, APTI was sold to E-Systems in June 1994, under undisclosed terms. That is interesting in that APTI is reported to have shown no net income since it opened in the late 1980's. E-Systems changed the name of the company to Advanced Power Technologies Incorporated (a different APTI, yet the same spelling as in the patents), and assumed control of the patents and the HAARP project. E-systems is also one of the largest intelligence contractors in the U.S. The value in this sale seems to be the patents and the HAARP contract.

In 1995, Raytheon Corporation was reported to have bought and acquired E-Systems for $2.3 Billion (Wall Street Journal, 1995). Raytheon is a very large company with several large military contacts, some of course classified. What is Raytheon doing with HAARP? The value of the HAARP program may only be found in its patents.