US Senate committee finds anti counterfeiting programmes ‘woefully lacking’
1 min read
A year long probe investigation by a US Senate committee has found 1800 instances of where fake parts have been used in US military aircraft. According to the Senate Armed Services Committee, more than 70% of an estimated 1million suspect parts were traced back to China and it blamed weaknesses in the US supply chain and China's failure to curb the counterfeit market.
The report highlighted suspect counterfeit parts in SH-60B helicopters, C-130J and C-27J cargo planes and in the P-8A Poseidon plane.
The P-8A, pictured, is a modified Boeing 737 featuring anti submarine and anti surface warfare technology. Boeing alerted the US Navy to the fact that an ice detection module contained a 'reworked part'. Earlier, Boeing had found the part – a discontinued fpga – had literally fallen out of its socket. Investigations showed the fpga was a previously used part which had been made to appear new.
The suspect parts had been purchased from a Californian company, which had acquired them from a Florida based distribution – Abacus Technologies – who, in turn, purchased them from a Chinese company. Although reputed to be excess stock from an oem, the devices appeared to have been reclaimed from scrap pcbs and exposed to potential heat damage.
While the report criticised as 'woefully lacking' some existing programmes, it praised the National Defense Authorization Act, which aims to stop counterfeit parts from entering the US.
It concluded the US defence industry had routinely failed to report cases of suspected counterfeit parts, 'putting the integrity of the defence supply chain at risk'.
