"In your lifetime, do you feel like the world has become a better place or a worse place?" That is the question Cory Hubbard asks prospective clients. As co-owner of DEFCON Underground, a U.S.-based manufacturer of bomb shelters, Hubbard caters to a growing, increasingly mainstream market of consumers seeking protection from worst-case scenarios. From backyard bunkers in the Midwest to deep subterranean hideouts in Northern Europe and the Middle East, the industry offers a range of designs, locations, and price points.
Developers told Newsweek that business is booming amid an era of heightened geopolitical and technological upheaval. I haven't put a precise figure on it, but the rise in inquiries and website traffic has been unmistakable,” Michael Brait, CEO of the Massachusetts-based Bunker Building Consulting LLC, said. Motivations range from specific to general, and from the simple desire for peace of mind to more acute existential fears.
Someone else is concerned about the grid or a cyberattack. We hear about AI, political unrest, another pandemic, natural disasters. Often a client will mention three or four things in the same conversation,” Naomi Corbi, partner and director of operations at Strategically Armored & Fortified Environments (SAFE), said.
Beyond presenting its own, Corbi said it's “acting as a catalyst” for existing threats in the cybersecurity and physical security space, and now “comes up much more frequently” in client discussions. Four things have driven “heavy sales” since 2020, according to Ron Hubbard, CEO of the Atlas Survival Shelters, a Texas-based designer of bomb-proof bunkers and safe rooms. On top of COVID-19, the war in Ukraine, the Iran war and “illegal immigration,” he said AI can now be “added to the list.” “It’s a cocktail for disaster in the future with no letup in sight, so business is good," he said.
And demand has grown alongside this list of perceived threats. James Anders Bourne, director of the United Kingdom-based Bunker Safe Ltd., said his company had witnessed “a significant increase in inquiries for both nuclear and non-nuclear shelters.” And Dante Vicino likewise said inquiries had jumped notably in recent months alone. Vicino is executive director at the survival shelter outfit Vivos, whose story goes back to 1980, when Robert Vicino “was inspired to build a shelter for 1,000 people, deep underground to protect us from a coming life-extinction event.” “Robert was not very religious at the time and had no motivation or cause to be alarmed,” the website reads.
Brian Camden, founder and president of Hardened Structures, a Virginia-based bomb shelter and fortified facility firm, told Newsweek his company has $100 million worth of projects currently underway. It's even assisting foreign governments in the Middle East, Poland, Spain, and Ukraine to build their own "hardened facilities" with the approval of the U.S. Despite the price tags on these projects, the industry appears reluctant to appeal exclusively to the super rich.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
