Has someone got a deal for you?

A recently published report by a US Senate committee found 1800 instances of where fake parts were used in US military aircraft. But it also found a culture which was 'woefully lacking' and which routinely failed to report instances. One example cited by the committee was of an fpga, claimed by the supplier to be excess stock, but which appeared to have been recovered from scrap pcbs. The device literally fell out of its socket when in use. Yet it took Boeing more than 18 months before it told the US Navy that it had identified the use of fake parts. But the fpga was only one example. Another module featured fpgas with evidence of remarking. A further, unidentified, part was found to have been 'blacktopped and resurfaced'. It was not possible to validate who made the device. The committee was also interested in tracing the parts back through the supply chain and made 126 such investigations. Of the 126, 70% were found to have origins in China, but the UK featured in 11% of the cases. The committee concluded the UK acted as a 'resale point for suspect counterfeit electronic parts from China'. One example was emi filters for the SH-60B helicopter. These parts were purchased, says the report, from UK based Pivotal Electronics. In turn, Pivotal bought the parts from Huajie Electronics in Shenzhen. While a range of components featured, recurring themes included mosfets, memories and fpgas. In one instance, 84,000 suspect memories from one company entered the US defence supply chain and 'many have been installed on aircraft', said the report. The report only looked at military applications; it's probably safe to assume a similar state of affairs might be found in the automotive world and in the commercial airliner business, amongst others. And that's just electronic parts. Then there are mechanical components. If this is the tip of the iceberg, you have to wonder just how large the bit beneath the surface might be.