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Transformers 2 Revenge of the Fallen, is due out next year. Many highlighted the movie’s relentlessly pro-military overtones and the sequel appears to stay on that track. Transformers 2 has been given approval by the Department of Defense, and as we can expect with all things involved with Michael Bay, the sequel will have more bang for the buck than the original.

Among the equipment the movie is using in this desert sequence alone: two A-10 Thunderbolt II “Warthog” tank-killing jets; six F-16 Fighting Falcons; 10 armored Humvees; the Army’s Golden Knights parachute team; two Abrams tanks; two Bradley tanks; two missile-launcher vehicles; two armored personnel carriers; and a quarter-mile of the missile testing range, cleared of unexploded ordnance and built into an Egyptian town and temple. (Signs warn not to cross a perimeter just over the gypsum dunes, because live bombs could be hidden in the sand.)

Military personnel are also getting in on the film

Among the most important military assets, however, are the off-duty enlisted men and women paid to be extras or play bit parts, Hamm says. “They are absolutely loving it. It’s a great opportunity for them. Not only do they get to be in the movie, but they get to showcase what they can do. When Michael Bay’s directing them, they know all the basics of their weapons and what they’re actually supposed to do, so it’s easier for filmmakers to direct the scene because they’re real soldiers and airmen.”