On September 19, Immigration and Customs Enforcement made a $61,218 cost for “guided missile warheads and explosive elements,” in keeping with the Product and Service Code (PSC) included within the cost file on a federal contracting database.
“This award supplies a number of distraction units to assist legislation enforcement operations and ICE- Workplace of Firearms and Tactical Packages,” the file’s description part reads.
The Substack Standard Info talked about this cost in a Monday article, which targeted on the truth that ICE spending within the “small arms, ordnance, and ordnance equipment manufacturing” product class elevated by 700 % between 2024 and 2025. (Spending elevated by about 636 %, per WIRED’s evaluation of the identical class and time intervals Standard Info measured.) Phrase of the cost additionally circulated on Tuesday after a submit on BlueSky by Democratic Wisconsin state senator Chris Larson went viral.
It seems, concern over ICE brokers planning to make use of warheads is probably going based mostly on a mistake. Quantico Tactical, the corporate listed because the provider of stated warheads within the federal cost data, doesn’t promote any explosive units. (It sells a wide range of firearms, switchblades, and weapon equipment.) David Hensley, founder and CEO of Quantico Tactical, instructed WIRED in an e mail that the PSC “seems to be an error.”
“Quantico Tactical doesn’t promote, and I believe that CBP ICE doesn’t buy, ‘Guided Missile Warheads,’” Hensley stated, referencing Customs and Border Safety. He added that the remainder of the cost file seems to be appropriate.
PSCs are assigned by a authorities company’s contracting workplace, not the non-public contractor. Hensley declined to take a position on what the right PSC for the cost could also be. He additionally declined to make clear which “distraction units” ICE bought. Nonetheless, ICE made two different funds to Quantico Tactical for “distraction units” in September 2024 and August 2025.
The descriptions for each cost data declare that they’re for coaching applications run by ICE’s Workplace of Firearms and Tactical Packages (OFTP). Each funds data use the PSC for “chemical weapons and tools,” which contains gadgets like “flame throwers” and “smoke turbines.”
An ICE “Firearms and Use of Power” handbook from 2021 doesn’t point out any accredited use of flame throwers, nevertheless it does point out using “chemical munitions” akin to smoke, pepper spray, and tear gasoline. (It notes that their use have to be accredited by the company’s affiliate director and the OFTP.) Quantico Tactical doesn’t checklist smoke bombs, pepper spray, or tear gasoline on the market on its web site, although it does checklist equipment like smoke-resistant goggles and holders for mace, flash grenades, and smoke bombs. It’s unclear what ICE might have bought.