The Daily Beast revealed in August that ex-U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley’s husband co-owns a military vehicle exporter called Allied Defense LLC.
Now, The Daily Beast can report that up until late November this firm included an image of Russian weapons systems on its website: namely, a Kord heavy machine gun atop what appears to be a T-90A tank, key pieces in Moscow’s armored arsenal. The picture, complete with Russian tankers, appeared above a plug for the company’s offerings in “Defensive Systems.”
“From missile defense to anti-aircraft, defensive systems allow operations to continue even in hostile environments,” the caption reads.
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A screenshot of the Allied Defense website shows Kord heavy machine gun atop what appears to be a T-90A tank, a key piece in Moscow’s armored arsenal.
The Daily BeastThe picture came down, however, shortly after The Daily Beast reached out to the company and to the Haley campaign about its spotlighting the armaments of a hostile state—one that the former South Carolina governor has repeatedly declared “evil.”
Allied Defense, the stake in which was valued at up to half-a-million dollars according to Haley’s financial disclosures, registered with the Small Business Administration’s in 2022 as “Manufacturer, Broker (Intermediary), Service(s)” of military equipment exported to Taiwan—with a primary focus on producing tanks and tank components. The “Defensive Systems” quarter of a four-part buffet of offerings advertised on the site, which also hawks “Aircraft Systems,” “Ground Systems,” and “Communications.”
“That’s definitely a Kord,” observed Michael Sheldon, a Russia-focused researcher at nonprofit open-source intelligence outfit Bellingcat, on examining the image on Allied Defense’s site.
Sheldon told The Daily Beast the picture likely dates to a 2017 military cavalcade in the streets of Volgograd, the Russian city that formerly bore the name of Soviet tyrant Joseph Stalin. He further noted that the photo on the Allied Defense page began to appear online as a stock image around that same time.
In answer to queries from The Daily Beast, the Haley campaign—which has taken a hard stance on Moscow despite accepting cash from one of its former lobbyists—noted that the picture has enjoyed a six-year career as a stock photo on various websites. They maintained that Allied Defense has never provided equipment to the Russian military.
“They don’t sell to Russia,” a spokesman wrote in an email.
When pressed, the campaign further denied that Allied Defense had ever sold or serviced any Russian-made weapons systems, or provided clients with components for them.
Allied Defense and its non-Haley leadership did not respond to repeated emails, calls, and text messages on this same point. However, within a day of The Daily Beast’s request for comment, the company had replaced the Slavic imagery with a common photo of a U.S. soldier’s torso—complete with prominent American flag patch.
The former South Carolina governor’s isolationist rival, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, has pushed Haley to divulge Allied Defense’s clients.
Bellingcat’s Sheldon, for his part, speculated that an outside web developer might be to blame for Allied Defense’s use of the Kord and T-90A picture.
“I think it’s likely more a sign of how little work went into the website than some intentional message,” he suggested.
Michael Haley and his partners cannot claim to be ignorant of military hardware design, however—the company touts its deep and broad knowledge in the sector in its internet pitch.
“Our approach is to combine our political, legal, military, engineering, and manufacturing expertise to derive policy and technical solutions for our customers. When part of the solution is military hardware and systems, our network of providers and manufacturers is ready to support the cause,” the “About” section of its website reads.
Further, the aspiring First Gentleman is a major in the South Carolina National Guard, and has deployed to Afghanistan and Africa. Allied Defense’s other co-owners run a larger military contractor called Defense Engineering Services, which is registered as a veteran-owned enterprise.
