Chinese Are Flooding Pentagon Supply Chain With Counterfeit Electronic Parts And Putting U.S. Military At Risk
China is dumping counterfeit electronic parts into the Pentagon’s supply chain, two senior lawmakers alleged on Monday.
Two Senators, John McCain, Republican-Arizona, and Carl Levin, Democrat-Michigan, said the counterfeits are putting U.S. troops at risk and undercutting the American economy.
One day before a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the issue, the Senators offered details of the panel’s ongoing investigation. They described a deceptive process in which parts are burned off old circuit boards, washed in rivers, dried on streets and sanded down to remove identifying marks. The salvaged parts, which can look brand new, are sold on the Internet or openly in the markets, the Associated Press reports. The panel’s investigators reviewed more than 100,000 pages of Defense Department documents and material from more than 70 companies. They found about 1,800 cases of suspect counterfeit electronics being sold to the Pentagon. The total number of parts in these cases topped one million.
The committee hearing will examine three cases in which suspect counterfeit parts from China were installed in military systems made by Raytheon, L-3 Communications and Boeing. Levin, the committee chairman, told reporters at a Capitol Hill news conference: ‘Now, a million parts is surely a huge number. ‘But I want to just repeat this: We’ve only looked at a portion of the defense supply chain. So those 1,800 cases are just the tip of the iceberg.’
The investigators found that counterfeit or suspect electronic parts were installed or delivered to the military for several weapons systems. They include military aircraft such as the Air Force’s C-17 and the Marine Corps’ CH-46 helicopter, as well as the Army’s Theatre High-Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) missile defense system.
Investigators traced more than 70 per cent of the cases to China.
Investigators traced more than 70 per cent of the cases to China.
Nearly 20 per cent led to the United Kingdom and Canada, the lawmakers said.
They said material in Hong Kong was trucked to cities in mainland China, specifically to the counterfeiting district of Shantou in Guangdong Province. SOURCE
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