Senators call on Pentagon to better detect and prevent counterfeit parts
The Hill – Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) said the Pentagon needs to establish a uniform system to detect and prevent counterfeit parts from ending up in weapons.
“This problem must be addressed now,” said Brown, the chairman of the Banking Subcommittee on Economic Policy. “The people committing this fraud should be held accountable for endangering lives and threatening critical missions."
Apart from disrupting supply chains and delaying missions, counterfeit parts have the potential to seriously affect weapons' performance.
According to the two senators, in one case, the Defense Department detected brake shoes made with substandard materials, including seaweed. In another case, a supplier re-packaged a circuit from a personal computer and labeled it as a $7,000 military-grade circuit for a missile guidance system.
