Chinese Counterfeit Parts Found in U.S. Military

What the Senate Arms Service Committee is hiding is this is purely a case of corruption by their own military contractors trying to make more money by buying the cheaper "counterfeit" version. If there's some sort of conspiracy by China as some are trying to make, something drastically more serious would be charged more than counterfeiting. If China knew what was happening and what these parts were being used for, wouldn't that be called sabotage. So what it is they're doing in the Senate Arms Service Committee is covering up and protecting the companies involved.

If this is true, well you can only blame yourself. When buying military hardware and parts, especially from foreign country, you should always check the quality of the systems. China cannot be even blame for this. The only group that can be blamed on is the Company and the corrupt officials that purchased this items.

In a way, I still kind of don't believe that this is true. IMO I think they are hyping the threat of buying Chinese.

There are legit hardware recycling / refab business that goes on all the time.
its not a "dark secret".

half of the time the components used in consumer electronics are refurbs. entire labtops are assembled using refurb parts.

it would actually be a giant waste if they all go to landfill.

what strikes me is the way these defensee contractors has no way (or purposely don't care) to keep track oftheir supply chain.


...

and ofcourse.
beat on china, the scape goat.

In the same article, you see how things are spin differently within a few paragraphs.

L-3 Vice President Ralph Denino, in a prepared statement to the committee, said “there has been no discernible effect” on the aircraft. The company “will take whatever corrective action its customer requests and the current remedy is to replace the chips during normal scheduled depot maintenance unless a failure occurs for any reason that would necessitate immediate repairs,” he said.

Which means the chips concerned are actually not defective but working normally "with no discernible effect".

But see how the story is spin as that the chips are being actually defective in just a few lines down.

“The fact that defective parts are in aircraft that are deployed in Afghanistan is evidence of the seriousness of the problem,” Levin said in an e-mail to Bloomberg News.

If I were an American, I'd be very interested in where my tax dollars went.

Originally Posted by CardSharp

If I were an American, I'd be very interested in where my tax dollars went.

Most of it went into Medicaid and Medicare and bailing out the "too big to fail" banks.

Originally Posted by ahho

If this is true, well you can only blame yourself. When buying military hardware and parts, especially from foreign country, you should always check the quality of the systems. China cannot be even blame for this. The only group that can be blamed on is the Company and the corrupt officials that purchased this items.

When you say "the Company", are you referring to a US company or a Chinese company that made the counterfeit parts? The Chinese companies that made the fake parts are certainly responsible. But if their goods were purchased in good faith by people who thought they were legitimate, I don't see how those purchasers were to blame. As Senator McCain said, these goods can get passed through many hands before they get to the purchaser. It's not possible to inspect every microchip that you buy being manufactured.

As for "China", that depends on whether tighter regulations and enforcement are required to reduce the amount of counterfeit goods produced in China. I'm sure there is more that China can do in that department.

Originally Posted by Mr T

When you say "the Company", are you referring to a US company or a Chinese company that made the counterfeit parts? The Chinese companies that made the fake parts are certainly responsible. But if their goods were purchased in good faith by people who thought they were legitimate, I don't see how those purchasers were to blame. As Senator McCain said, these goods can get passed through many hands before they get to the purchaser. It's not possible to inspect every microchip that you buy being manufactured.

As for "China", that depends on whether tighter regulations and enforcement are required to reduce the amount of counterfeit goods produced in China. I'm sure there is more that China can do in that department.

The Chinese company probably made these parts in good faith. They are not responsible for what their US buyers do with them. Perhaps they don't even know the first US buyer. There can be no doubt that the US company incorporating the parts into some device is responsible for ensuring that the parts used are up to specification.

Originally Posted by Mr T

When you say "the Company", are you referring to a US company or a Chinese company that made the counterfeit parts? The Chinese companies that made the fake parts are certainly responsible. But if their goods were purchased in good faith by people who thought they were legitimate, I don't see how those purchasers were to blame. As Senator McCain said, these goods can get passed through many hands before they get to the purchaser. It's not possible to inspect every microchip that you buy being manufactured.

As for "China", that depends on whether tighter regulations and enforcement are required to reduce the amount of counterfeit goods produced in China. I'm sure there is more that China can do in that department.

Counterfeiting has always existed. China should be blamed for not having a good enough regulation, while the US companies may not get away unscathed since it always looks kinda dumb to be duped by someone else. As the companies supplying for the world's most elite military, these US companies look kinda dumb IF they honestly have been duped. In reality, I think these companies looked for cheap products so that they could make more profit. So in a sense, they got what they ask for. Greediness is the number one prerequisite to get conned.

Another thing. Why is the US military using chips made in China knowingly? As I understand it correctly, chips are brains of these high-tech equipments, China could easily mess with the chips so that they might fail in a crucial time of operation, like in war. These things should be supplied by the most trusted parties, definitely made in America. Parts made in any foreign country should be out of question.

Originally Posted by vesicles

Another thing. Why is the US military using chips made in China knowingly? As I understand it correctly, chips are brains of these high-tech equipments, China could easily mess with the chips so that they might fail in a crucial time of operation, like in war. These things should be supplied by the most trusted parties, definitely made in America. Parts made in any foreign country should be out of question.

If I am not wrong, they are using "Assemble in China" chips. Microchips got this unique property that, it only works as the intellectual patent know-how owner's demand. Those who doing the assembly work can not "trick" anything (like trick the IFF of a fire countrol computer or something). Americans invented Internet, Americans invented microchips, and in this case, I have no doubt the mentioned chips are US's ownd patent.

The ethic issue in this topic, besides (American's) patriotic moral, is that the American companies chooses off-shore sweatshop (in this case, Chinese sweatshop) as their supplier, for maximum profit in the process. If you want to stop the killing of seals, stop eating (and a whole lot "package" to utilize seal bodies) seals at its demanding market.

That is the ethic the Senate Arms Service Committee is trying to hiding from you.

I love how somehow this is China's fault. So China knew what these parts were going to be used for? How? How did China know who to go to to sell fake chips for military use? And they couldn't have been unique parts because how would China have known how to make it? So these parts had to be available for commercial use. It's the American defense contractor who went out to find a cheaper version so they can make more money that's 100% to blame. But it's still China's fault even though an American defense contractor would've had to have told the Chinese everything according to those that only lay blame on China. The anti-China camp again is trying to make it sound as if China put a gun to their head so it's not at all anyone's fault but China's. That's the only way you can make it only China's fault.

Again, if China knew what these parts were being used for, there would be more serious charges than a scandal of counterfeit parts being use for military use. Yet you hear nothing more than that. If they were not commercially available, there'a a serious case of Chinese infiltration in US defense industries because someone would've had to have passed the knowledge to make a counterfeit. We've already seen such charges in other areas like cyberwarfare yet here they can only go as far as countrerfeiting? Why don't the blame China camp demand the sky is green with pink polka dots while you're at it? And the term "counterfeit" is being used to sensationalized this as much as they can. Because again, if these parts were unique for only the military it wouldn't be at all about counterfeiting. So the fact is these parts were commercially available and like anything else sold commercially, there are competing versions that are cheaper.

It's the US contractors cut corners to earn more so they sourced MIC parts, not Chinese companies / suppliers sell at their own initiative. But given US is gettting into gear for election year and the increasing China-bashing rhetoric on all channels and venues, such finger-pointing is far from surprising.

Many military systems were designed decades ago using chips and parts that were manufactured back then, but may no longer be made today. There's a thriving business in resale of old chips, recycling old chips, after-market chips, etc. Some unethical businessmen would scrub the print on top of the chips off and print something else on it, then sell it unsuspecting customers.

The US government tried to combat this problem by establishing programs like Trusted Foundry Access, which requires the manufacturer to be located in the US with proper security procedures and staff with security clearance. But this only works if there are business willing to manufacture the parts in the US AND bid on military contracts. Although it's good money, many companies dislike dealing with military/government procurement because the attitude from government procurement is that they're doing you a favor for buying from you, and if they don't need you anymore, adios and go hang yourself out to dry. From business standpoint you only need to get burned once before you start looking for greener pastures.