Fake Chinese Chips in US Military Ships and Jets

Fake Chinese Chips in US Military Ships and Jets

www.businessweek.com

The American military faces a growing threat of potentially fatal equipment failure—and even foreign espionage—because of counterfeit computer components used in warplanes, ships, and communication networks. Fake microchips flow from unruly bazaars in rural China to dubious kitchen-table brokers in the U.S. and into complex weapons. Senior Pentagon officials publicly play down the danger, but government documents, as well as interviews with insiders, suggest possible connections between phony parts and breakdowns.

(visit the link for the full news article)

This is freaking unbelievable. After the confiscation of over 400 fake routers used by the military, it turns out the problem is much more complex than once thought.

These fake chips are used for virtually all highly sophisticated military hardware such as jets and ships.

'Counterfeit products have been linked to the crash of mission-critical networks, and may also contain hidden 'back doors' enabling network security to be bypassed and sensitive data accessed [by hackers, thieves, and spies].'

www.businessweek.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Oh, come on people.They field test this stuff.They don't make a jet and not test its capabilities.This is not a big deal,and it is no wonder they play it down.

That is beyond outlandish! Why would there be any foreign parts in any of our defense equipment? McDonald Douglas, Honeywell, Lockheed, TRW, Raytheon, UT . . . and they're using inferior (wholesale) chinese knockoffs!!

I really don't see how anyone can say this wasn't orchestrated in some way . . . it just seems like we are being set up for the fall. At least, it used to be subtle!!

To outbid other competitors, companies have to save costs in one way or another. One way is to purchase counterfeit part off the Chinese market.

The fact that so much is currently being manufactured in China is in my opinion a very dangerous development, particularly when it comes to homeland security.

I remember a story my Uncle told me when he worked for GE Aviation Systems (formerly Smiths Aerospace)
GE Aviation Systems
Website for GE Aviation

His job was refurbishing circuit boards for cruise missiles/UAV's. Anyway when they would run out of stock/Components for the circuit boards they would go down to the local Dixons (Radio Shack) and pick up of the shelf components etc. Rebuild the damaged circuit boards and re-install them. He said it didn't matter who made the part they were all the same.

His training was via the RAF and was trained in repair/creation of avionic components. What really amazed me was the fact that he had components for cruise missiles sitting at home and he would install them in to his RC model planes. These weren't those small ones, he made 1:6 scale UAV with GPS etc with same identical components used by the military as he bought from the local electronics shop.

[edit on 4-10-2008 by greenfruit]

[edit on 4-10-2008 by greenfruit]

reply to post by daeoeste


Wake up my friend. It matters not if they were field tested, the fact is the MTBF of counterfeit parts are not the same as the real macoy. Besides that they could have undocumented or added functions that could be a self destruct operation or allow external tampering.

Quality is one of the big problems with any Chinese products...!

In China you could say, buy a DVD player for about 70 USD...

But... It may not even last 90 days..(warranty time) and even if it has a

warranty... It may be very hard indeed to get the manufcturer to enforce it


....Sabotage or just incompetence...You be the judge...!

[edit on 4-10-2008 by cosmokatt7]

I know the arguments for cheap labour...

I know parts are largely generic...

I know China manufacturers pretty much all chips that are designed in the US and Europe...

It's all globalization and has given rise to incredibly cheap consumer electronics.

But.

It's all crap that is almost guaranteed to fail in a few years.

The thought of that stuff ending up in mission-critical kit is a bit disturbing.

But then again, so is the thought of even eating something from China.

[edit on 4-10-2008 by mattguy404]

Nice post. A few years ago I pointed out we were getting PCs from China now. After reading one of Tom Clancy's books I talked to security. My thought was what if there was some "extra" that was somehow doing spying. They took it seriously and switched manufacturers.

reply to post by daeoeste


That's not the point. Low quality chips are more likely to fail and have a shorter lifespan in general.

Ok ...stop the fear mongering...EVERY part shipped from an outside source is subjected to a 2/6 random inspection. Is it foolproof...NO. But don't think this nation ISN'T taking precautions. I have first hand knowledge so knock it off.

I assume this is related to the cisco router problems exposed earlier this year. See the thread below for details.


FBI Fears Chinese Hackers Have Back Door Into US Government & Military

No doubt. Mil-spec parts are much more heavily scrutinized. The example above of someone at GE Aviations putting in stuff from radioshack, is no big deal as long as it is mil-spec exact replacement.

Suppliers swapping mil-spec for fake replica, with knowledge, is unlikely. Who would purposely risk losing multi-million dollar contracts just to save some money? It IS possible that they unwittingly bought fake mil-spec, but no one in their right minds would do it purposely.

edit: That is, no one who wanted to maintain a contract. I could see someone making a one time sale and running, but you expect to believe that military contractors purchase parts from those types? Most parts are purchased through reliable vendors on a consistent basis. Wholesale and long term customer discounts are applied, making it cheaper and easier to purchase from the big vendors than it would be to use a smaller, less reputable source.

[edit on 4-10-2008 by Ionized]