Make Mine Green Without Military Funding: The Electric Vehicle Connection to Drone & Missile Manufacturers

Well alrighty then, you decide you want to rid yourself of reliance on oil and one of the ways you are thinking about doing it is by purchase of a Nissan Leaf and a charging station.  Sounds good, doesn't it?  Even though you might not be sure about the oil and war connection, your cousin Chakra goes off on the connection between war and the extant energy industry all the time.   Then there are the conspiracy theories that your neighbor spouts about a very small number of companies and the people behind them that are manipulating our economy and controlling the government.  

The clearest explanation of the Big Brother connection between the car charger and the drone manufacturing industry I've found is from an unlikely titled nsource called clearancejobs.com

AeroVironment, which is designing and building small, hand-launched drones, is another area company that is seeing sales improve. AeroVironment also has a commercial division that is creating charging stations for the Nissan Leaf and other electric vehicle technologies. A company spokesperson told the Pacific Coast Business Times that the company is working to apply its drone know-how to commercial markets.

“We don’t think the market opportunity for small unmanned aerial vehicle systems is limited to military customers,” said Steven Gitlin, a spokesman for AeroVironment. “Law enforcement, first responders, even companies that have to inspect widely distributed assets like pipelines and wire lines could use our system to great effect.”

Further behind the scenes connections to the missile section of the industry of war is found in  UNITED STATES. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION. Washington, D.C. 20549. SCHEDULE 14A. Proxy Statement:

Charles R. Holland has served as a member of our board of directors since May 2004. General Holland retired as Commander, Headquarters U.S. Special Operations Command in November 2003 and currently serves as an independent consultant for various entities. Mr. Holland has been a consultant for AeroVironment since February 2004.  ... Mr. Holland previously served on the board of directors of General Atomics, Inc. and currently serves on the board of directors of Protonex Technology Corporation and as an advisor to Camber Corporation, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, and Raytheon Company.

 ...

Jikun Kim was appointed as our Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer effective June 22, 2010, after serving as Interim Chief Financial Officer since March 31, 2010. Prior to the interim appointment Mr. Kim served as our Vice President and Controller since June 2009. Prior to joining AeroVironment, Mr. Kim served with Raytheon Company, a defense contractor, for more than eight years, most recently as Chief Financial Officer of Raytheon Vision Systems.

 So when you purchase a charging station for your electric vehicle, check out the manufacturer carefully or you may end up directly supporting one of the major manufacturers of drones that are now being used in civilian surveillance by police, immigration, and domestic "security."  So you will end up paying for the development of new and better methods of invading your privacy.