"Report says U.S. military vulnerable to bad parts" Greedy contractors, unsafe parts and troops die.

[jody]

Report says U.S. military vulnerable to bad parts

"Existing procurement and quality-control practices used to identify deficient parts are limited in their ability to prevent and detect counterfeit parts in DoD's supply chain," the Government Accountability Office said in its report.

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The GAO defined counterfeit as cases in which companies or individuals knowingly misrepresented the identity or "pedigree" of parts. The Defense Department is unable to gauge the problem's scope for lack of a consistent way to identify cases of suspected counterfeits, the study said.

GAO, Congress's audit and investigative arm, said the Defense Department draws from a complex network of global suppliers and manages more than four million different parts at a cost of more than $94 billion.

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The finding that knockoffs had entered the U.S. military supply chain in a time of war was the "most troubling" aspect yet of counterfeiting and piracy problems known to cost U.S. businesses $250 billion a year, said Senator Evan Bayh, an Indiana Democrat.

[Ernesto]

1. I almost lived it years ago....as a casulty replacement for 2/3 hill fights

.... "2/3 (and their sister battalion, 1/3) had taken on the best that the NVA could throw at them and whipped them hands down, but it was not without cost. Many a dead or dying Marine was found with a cleaning rod shoved down the bore of the little black rifle...
The constant pressure on I Corps starting that Spring left 2/3 manning the ramparts as one of the two SLFs ("Special Landing Force") for a period of nine months (versus the normal 6 weeks)! When the smoke finally settled, 2/3 had taken over 800 casualties and those who survived walked away with a sigh of relief. By August of ’67, my company (Hotel, 2/3) had only 5 Marines without at least one Purple Heart, and I was not one of them."...


http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/archive/index.php/t-10425.html

[TreasonousBastard]

2. Well, everything the military uses was bought from the lowest bidder,...

so we should expect this sort of thing to happen, nu?