Chinese counterfeit parts found in U.S. weapons

[alp227]

Source: Wash. Post

U.S. officials say a problem that has long plagued luxury handbag makers such as Gucci and Louis Vuitton is now afflicting the Pentagon’s high-end weapons systems: cheap Chinese counterfeits.

A months-long congressional probe found at least 1,800 cases of counterfeit electronics in U.S. weapons, with the total number of suspect parts exceeding 1 million.

The results of the investigation, conducted by the Senate Armed Services Committee, are to be presented at a hearing Tuesday, where senators plan to grill defense contractors about lapses in monitoring their parts supply chain.

“We cannot allow our national security to depend on electronic scrap salvaged from trash heaps by Chinese counterfeiters,” said committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.). He called the report’s findings — based on records from 10 defense contractors and their testers — “just the tip of the iceberg.”

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/chinese-counterfeit-parts-found-in-us-weapons/2011/11/07/gIQAQGh7wM_story.html

[Old and In the Way]

1. It wouldn't surprise me if this stuff is long obsoleted electronic components.

I've had to purchase components in the past for subcontractors looking for old logic parts that no one is making anymore...the only parts available are knock-offs that have no traceability. Some of these systems are pretty old and they only need a few pieces. OEMs that had the design don't want to set-up to manufacture these parts or the price is truly exorbitant...so they are sourced from 3rd party suppliers.

[VWolf]

16. Yep. The counterfeit alarms go off as soon as the part

goes into obsolescence.

[tawadi]

2. Chinese counterfeit.

Redundant.

[Arctic Dave]

3. Go to show that the MIC is not about defending our nation but is a way to

steal from the taxpayers.

I really hope a lot of people go to prison for a long, long time.

[MedicalAdmin]

7. Prison?

The punishment for treason is death, is it not?

This is about the welfare of our service members and security o the nation. Anything less than 100% is intolerable.

[quakerboy]

13. Im pretty sure.

its being selected for public office, followed by years of corporate money as a spokesperson for business. Thats what treason gets you now-days.

Patriotism, on the other hand, receives a far far different "reward".

[MedicalAdmin]

14. Cynicism is that last refuge of the insightful. n/t

[plumbob]

4. Meanwhile, never mind the missing $9 TRILLION that no one's

even looking for. They may have a plan of how to begin to start to look for it by 2014. Maybe.

[Cassandra]

10. They actually found it last week.

It was in an Iraqi bank.

[Poll_Blind]

17. 9 Trillion? In an Iraq bank? More like a Swiss bank!

:rofl:

PB

[plumbob]

19. That was the $9 billion on a few pallets. I misspoke in my post.

The Federal Reserve can't account for $9 trillion, and the Pentagon can't account for $2.3 trillion.

Those two numbers added together are awfully close to our debt of $14 trillion.

[Cassandra]

20. Sorry, I mis-read.

Maybe we can look under the sofa cushions.

[plumbob]

22. We'd be trying harder than they are to find it if we did.

Some days it is discouraging.

[baldguy]

5. Having a robust & diverse manufacturing base is a national security issue.

[SharksBreath]

11. Defense Contractors Pay Little To No Corporate Income Tax While Earning Billions

While they get their parts on the cheap.


Last week, Citizens for Tax Justice released a report showing that 30 major corporations have paid no income taxes for the last three years, as they made $160 billion. CTJ looked at 280 companies in the Fortune 500, and found that “while the federal corporate tax code ostensibly requires big corporations to pay a 35 percent corporate income tax rate, on average, the 280 corporations in our study paid only about half that amount.”
In fact, over the last three years, only two industries — retail and health care — paid an effective tax rate of 30 percent or more. And as the Hill noted today, one industry is doing very well when it comes to tax avoidance — defense contractors:



http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/11/07/362646/defense-industry-tax-no/

[madrchsod]

6. well duh..

[IDemo]

8. Nobody could foresee this happening....

[RowdyRacer]

9. These Motherfuckers

should be lined up against a wall and SHOT.

[nadinbrzezinski]

12. Well when you outsource...

Oh never mind...

[Blue_Tires]

15. holy damn...

"Fake electronic parts often are produced in China by burning raw material off old circuit boards, washing the components in sometimes-polluted rivers and drying them on city sidewalks, Senate investigators said. They said the resulting parts are unreliable over the long term, even if they pass initial factory testing by manufacturers...."

Can't the story AT LEAST name the contractors who outsourced to several subcontractors who subcontracted to dozens of shitty overseas bargain-basement, no-questions-asked, gray market parts suppliers?? Or is that part of the recently 'sealed' record?

[eppur_se_muova]

18. Nice to know our national defense relies on these ...

[mrdmk]

21. I wonder what is in the blue can?

Maybe I should check the the minus twelve db crossover in my stereo speakers. They have not been sounding to good lately. It cannot be that I play Rage Against the Machine at eleven on a constant basis, now could it?