These Superweapons Will Dominate the South China Sea Dispute

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The South China Sea dispute is about to morph into a superweapons war.

That's because the two main parties involved - the United States and China - are both global mega-powers with the means to create powerful new tools of war.

And as tensions mount in the ongoing South China Sea dispute, both nations have been crafting and honing their advanced weapons caches so as to one day inflict as much damage as possible on the other.

South China Sea dispute
U.S.S. Ronald Reagan transits in the South China Sea as an F/A-18 Hornet launches off her catapult.

What's more, were a Beijing-Washington superweapons war to break out soon - and the likelihood of this happening grows by the day in the South China Sea region - it wouldn't play out like any war we've ever seen in the past.

Not when the battle would take place at sea as opposed to on land.

And the United States and China are each innovating a very specific kind of superweapon to prepare for a modern-day naval war...

Drones.

These menacing aircraft can inflict just as much damage as any weapon we've seen before - including nuclear bombs - if not more.

Here's a look at the superweapon drone technology both nations are developing...

U.S. Drones in the South China Sea: Smart Swarms and Lethal Force

The U.S. Navy has not disclosed how long it has been working on swarming autonomous drone technology. But judging by the advanced capabilities these vehicles exhibited when they were first made public in January, it's clear that Uncle Sam's been building and finessing these little guys for years...

South China Sea
The Perdix drone.

These particular drones, known as Perdix drones, have wingspans of just 12 inches. And they're used for patrolling - which may leave you wondering how they could be superweapons capable of mass destruction.

The answer: strength in numbers.

Perdix drones share a distributed "brain" with other members of their swarm (the Navy has roughly 100 vehicles in all, reported BBC on Jan. 10). They carry out missions utilizing "swarm behavior" maneuvers such as collective decision-making, adaptive formation flying, and self-healing.

When military officers "tell" these drones to patrol a particular area, they don't need to manually control their movement.

And once Perdix drones' patrols are complete, they send data back to base. If that data gives an "all clear" sign, step two of the U.S. superweapon drone fleet begins...

Must See: The Defense Industry Is a Gold Mine - You Can't Afford to Miss This $6 Company...

This is where the Reaper MQ-9 drone comes in.

The Reaper is the largest in the U.S. military's drone arsenal, with a wingspan of 84 feet and a payload capacity of 3,000 pounds and/or 500 bombs.

Drones south china sea
The Reaper MQ9 drone.

On top of all that, the Reaper is easily customized, which means the version of the drone that exists today is wholly different than the version that first appeared in 2001. It has top-of-the-line laser-guided technology, a much larger payload capacity than before, and the ability to fly 36 consecutive hours.

According to Daily Military Defense & Archive on Nov. 17, 2016, the U.S. Reaper drone still is "the most feared U.S. Air Force drone in action."

Together, the Perdix and the Reaper make a deadly combination.

China, however, purportedly also has a drone that instills just as much fear as the Reaper...

China's Drones in the South China Sea: Amphibious Vehicles and the CH-5

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China is making the world's first amphibious drone that can perform both in the air and under the sea.

Called U650 drones, these vehicles are over 19 feet long and "can access the sea's islets and waters with little wear-and-tear, meaning 'low' maintenance costs," Forbes reported on Sept. 28.

Like the Perdix, the U650 isn't designed to inflict damage so much as it's meant to survey areas.

But, also like the Perdix, whatever data the U650 sends back to base could then make way for what China considers the most terrifying drone in existence...

US China south china sea
The CH5 drone.

The CH-5.

The CH-5 drone is capable of conducting both combat and reconnaissance missions, can reportedly stay in the air for up to 60 hours and be modified to fly for up to 120 hours, and it covers over 6,200 miles while carrying 16 air-to-surface missiles.

In fact, CH-5 designer Shi Weng said that this drone leaves the U.S.-made MQ-9 Reaper "in the dust," according to United Press International on July 18.

Drones are an emerging technology that is quickly becoming indispensable to world powers looking to defend their dominance, sovereignty, and safety. That's why we love them as investors, even though we take no comfort in the thought of conflict in the South China Sea.

If you're looking to profit from the drone industry's rapid growth, consider defense contractors that have a hand in superweapons like the MQ-9 Reaper. Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA), for example, makes the GPS-based JDAM guidance kit for the Reaper - a high-tech system used on the drone's laser-guided artillery.

Boeing has already grown 317% since Money Morning Executive Editor Bill Patalon first recommended it in 2011.

But there's another opportunity in the drone market now that is beyond anything Bill has seen before...

Financial Guru Bill Patalon Just Uncovered Your Next Profit Opportunity

Before Bill moved into the investment-research business in December 2005, he spent 22 years as a journalist, most of it covering financial news as a reporter, columnist, and editor for outlets such as Gannett Co. Inc. and The Baltimore Sun.

He has covered finance and investing, economics, manufacturing, the defense sector, biotechnology, and telecommunications. The companies he's covered include Eastman Kodak Co., Xerox Corp., Harley-Davidson Inc., Caterpillar Inc., Westinghouse Electric Co. LLC, Verizon Communications Inc., MedImmune LLC, and Black & Decker Inc.

His most memorable interviews include former U.S. President Richard M. Nixon, General Electric CEO John F. "Jack" Welch, Forbes magazine publisher and former presidential candidate Steve Forbes, and business-turnaround specialist and helicopter industry pioneer Stanley Hiller, Jr.

It was Bill's work covering Eastman Kodak Co. during the latter half of the 1990s that solidified his reputation as one of the nation's top analytical business journalists. With his award-winning reports on Kodak's competitive travails, he consistently scooped his competitors in the national business media. His chronicles of Kodak's turnaround efforts took him to China, Japan, Silicon Valley, New York, Washington, D.C., and even Hollywood.

Along the way, he earned the esteem of heavyweights like Anthony Gallea, senior portfolio management director at Morgan Stanley, who collaborated on Bill's groundbreaking 1999 book "Contrarian Investing."

Bill's ideas so impressed Jim Rogers that the hedge fund genius eagerly wrote a glowing, six-page introduction to the book.

A winner of approximately two-dozen journalism awards - including top honors from the Associated Press and the prestigious Society of American Business Editors and Writers (SABEW) - Bill has had his work featured in Kiplinger's personal finance magazine, USA Today, and The South China Morning Post, among other publications.

Before taking over Money Morning, he served as the editor of The Rebound Report, an investment newsletter focused on turnaround stocks.

Bill has a Bachelor's in Print Journalism from Penn State University and an MBA in finance from the Rochester Institute of Technology.

Yes, he's uncovered a lot of investment stories. And he's even been nominated for two Pulitzer Prizes.

But he's never seen a story as potentially lucrative as this one...

The Next $127 Billion Profit Opportunity

In the barren, hostile plains of the New Mexico desert, not far from the Mexican border, they're building a city like no other.

A city with high rises, avenues, parks, a big-box store, churches, and gas stations for a population of 35,000, all at a ground-up cost exceeding $1 billion...

It's made to look like so many other cities in America, except for one thing: people. There are none. It's a ghost town, and it always will be.

Here's what Bill learned about this ghost town and what he believes is really going on.

Its location in New Mexico is the first key: The state scoops up tons of government research dollars straight from Washington.

And indeed, located in hardened shelters far beneath this empty city will be teams of top-secret scientists and federal contractors hard at work...

Driven by what they call "mother's milk" - the hope of seeing billions of dollars in government funding coming their way. Not to mention the many billions more in new wealth that they hope to create.

Bill has identified the main group of scientists and researchers behind this project.

They are quite clearly inventing a big future, with new technologies that stretch the imagination - new technologies that are about to be everywhere.

They call their ghost town "Project CITE."

It's the brainchild of the government contractor Marble Arch.

And when you learn how tight Marble Arch is with the Pentagon and how many massive government contracts Marble Arch has scooped up over the years, you know something big is happening here.

"Big," as in "$127-billion-in-new-wealth-for-early-investors Big," Bill's findings suggest.

Marble Arch is run by Bob Brumley, who was U.S. President Ronald Reagan's point man for privatizing commercial space transportation. He's definitely a big thinker - like an Elon Musk with a direct line to government funding!

And this new venture of his is every bit as ambitious as space travel, with an even bigger impact, because it's happening right before our eyes.

Now, as we mentioned, the specific details of this venture are not public. But after Bill's investigation, he's incredibly confident it will involve the next big thing in tech, security, and investing.

He's talking about unmanned flying machines.

Yes, drones.

But not the drones you're probably thinking of. Not the kind the military uses to hunt down and kill enemy terrorists. Not any kind you've ever heard of before.

These are what Bill calls "AI Drones" - a brand-new breed of amazingly intelligent, super-capable drones unlike anything Bill's ever witnessed; drones that can use artificial intelligence to benefit more people, businesses, and countries than you could have ever imagined possible.

But there's another reason why these new drones will soon be everywhere.

I'm talking about a big event that just happened...

An event that's blowing the lid off the drone market not two years from now... not a year from now... not even six months from now...

IMMEDIATELY.

It's happening as we speak.

And Bill has uncovered one tiny company sitting at the center of it all. You may never have a better shot at getting in on the ground floor of such a massive new market.

By getting in early, you could profit from the potential 4,636% gain that Bill's projecting. A gain like this would be the equivalent of turning...

Every $50 you invest into $2,318...

Every $2,500 into $115,900...

And every $10,000 into $463,600.

As you know, these kind of quadruple-digit returns are exceptional and don't happen every day. But think about it - even a fraction of these gains could make you a fortune.

Plus, this kind of spike makes perfect sense when you think about it. This is investing in the next frontier in aviation - the next great leap forward.

Bill sees dollar signs, pure and simple, which is why he put a briefing together for you, including this investment recommendation, as well...

Now, because this is a small stock, there will be volatility. So he'll also recommend a tight buying strategy. The last thing any investor wants to do is blindly chase a small stock upward with no plan in mind. And, as always, never investing more than one can afford to lose is good advice.

Here's everything you need to know about how you could pocket $115,900 from the next frontier in flight.

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