Behind the Scenes: The Code Name of Project GROMET

Project GROMET was the code name for an Indian rain augmentation project initiated with U.S. support at the end of 1966

Project GROMET was a classified weather modification project undertaken in India in 1967, with support from the United States, aimed at increasing rainfall to alleviate severe drought conditions.

The project was initiated during a period of significant drought in India, particularly affecting states like Bihar, which faced near-famine conditions due to monsoon failures in 1965 and 1966. India, under Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, was heavily reliant on U.S. food shipments, a situation that U.S. President Lyndon Johnson sought to leverage. Johnson, a proponent of using science and technology to address global issues, saw weather modification as a potential solution to mass starvation and a way to exert influence.

Project GROMET was a dual-purpose initiative, serving both humanitarian and strategic interests. From a humanitarian perspective, it aimed to avert a serious crisis in India by inducing rainfall through cloud seeding with silver iodide. From a strategic viewpoint, the U.S. military was simultaneously engaged in Operation Popeye in Vietnam, a highly classified effort to enhance rainfall over the Ho Chi Minh Trail to impede Viet Cong movements. The experimental data gathered from weather modification in India were expected to be useful for Project Popeye.

The project faced several challenges and complexities:

• Secrecy and Diplomacy: The Indian government insisted that the project be linked to agriculture, not military objectives, to avoid public perception of it as a joint military endeavor and to manage public expectations. The U.S. also had to navigate the illegality of weather modification within its own borders at the time, raising suspicions that India was being used as an experiment.
• Technical Hurdles: In early 1967, a lack of clouds over the target states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh initially hampered operations, as cloud seeding requires existing cloud formations.
• Geopolitical Concerns: The potential for seeding clouds over India to reduce rainfall in neighboring Pakistan, especially given the recent 1965 Indo-Pakistani War, posed a significant diplomatic risk. Pakistani leaders, already wary of India, might have viewed such an action as an attempt to “steal its water,” leading to further conflict.

Despite these challenges, a joint task force began activity in early 1967. The project was officially recognized in U.S. diplomatic communications as an element of the broader U.S. support package for India, alongside economic aid and food shipments. However, the project’s effectiveness remained unclear due to the secrecy surrounding it. The summer of 1967 brought abundant monsoons to India, and Project GROMET was quietly withdrawn. While the drought ended, it was uncertain whether the U.S. efforts were responsible.

Project GROMET was part of a broader Cold War context where the U.S. military and scientists explored the potential of human-engineered climate change for both strategic advantage and humanitarian aid. Other related projects included Project Stormfury, an attempt to weaken hurricanes, which served as a conceptual basis for Popeye and GROMET. The U.S. also conducted Project GROMET II in the Philippines in 1969, which was also a classified military project to increase rainfall. These initiatives highlight a period where scientific exploration and geopolitical ambitions often intertwined, with lasting implications for international relations and environmental understanding.

Despite the significant investment, with GROMET costing at least $300,000 (nearly $2 million in present-day U.S. dollars), its effectiveness in ending the drought was ultimately unclear, as the utmost secrecy surrounding the project limited attempts to measure and verify its success.

Ref:

1. A 1967 Secret Project That Could Have Stolen Pakistan’s Rains. [ https://www.outlookindia.com/making-a-difference/a-1967-secret-project-that-could-have-stolen-pakistans-rains-news-297327 ]
2. Is it true that Operation Popeye had a trial run in India (code name Project Gromet)? [ https://history.stackexchange.com/questions/33753/is-it-true-that-operation-popeye-had-a-trial-run-in-india-code-name-project-gr ]
3. Ecological Militarism: The Unusual History of the Military’s Relationship with Climate Change. [ https://www.historicalclimatology.com/features/category/weather-modification ]
4. Telegram From the Department of State to the Embassy in India, March 31, 1967. [https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v25/d430 ]
5. Fixing the Sky: The Checkered History of Weather and Climate Control. [ https://cup.columbia.edu/book/fixing-the-sky/9780231144139]
6. Project GROMET 1 (India & Pakistan) & 2 (Philippines) (3) – 1966 – 1971. [ https://antiweathermodification.weebly.com/project–operation-gromet-1–2.html ]
7. Is it true that Operation Popeye had a trial run in India (code name Project Gromet)? [ https://history.stackexchange.com/questions/33753/is-it-true-that-operation-popeye-had-a-trial-run-in-india-code-name-project-gr ]
8. Was NWO, Popeye, aka John Rolls plant, involved in Operation Popeye which drowned Vietnamese food crops [ https://beforeitsnews.com/awakening-start-here/2022/06/was-nwo-popeye-aka-john-rolls-plant-involved-in-operation-popeye-which-drowned-vietnamese-food-crops-in-the-growing-season-17237.html ]

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