# Bogus Chinese parts in J model Hercs



## PMedMoe (12 Jun 2012)

Article Link

The Canadian government is ignoring U.S. warnings that a flood of bogus military parts from China has been discovered in American-made fighter jets, transport planes, missiles and other weapons, potentially putting the lives of Armed Forces personnel at risk.

A 14-month U.S. Congressional investigation uncovered 1,800 cases of counterfeit electronic components for American military equipment, in total involving over one million bogus parts.

Investigators discovered fake electronic components in all kinds of military equipment, including: targeting systems for helicopter-launched hellfire missiles; instrument panels of military cargo planes; mission computers for interceptor rockets and in crucial ice-detection sensors for naval patrol aircraft.

The investigation reported a failure of the fake parts could have caused missiles to go haywire, or left military transport pilots staring at blank instrument panels in mid-flight.

The Canadian military recently bought 17 of the same Hercules transport planes.

The probe by the powerful U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee found the bogus parts are typically from discarded computers and other electronic trash being recycled in China, and have high failure rates with potentially "catastrophic" results.

Julian Fantino, Canada's associate defence minister, shrugs off the U.S. alarm bells.

"At this point in time, other than continuing to be vigilant, we don't have any particular concerns in this country," Fantino tells CBC News.

Fantino's reaction is puzzling defence experts who say the Canadian military has to be equally at risk of bogus parts getting into critical equipment.

They point out Canada buys a majority of its military equipment, spare parts and other gear from the same American defence contractors used by the U.S. military, many of which are cited in the congressional investigation.

More at link

Makes one wonder why we aren't taking this warning seriously....   ???


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## Wookilar (13 Jun 2012)

Two reasons come to mind really:

1) If true (and since this is American politics we are talking about, I have my concerns. After all, these are the same people that declared pizza a vegtable  :) there is little we can really do about it. We do not have the infrastructure or PY's to even attempt our own audit like this.

2) One possibility is that the amount of high-tech stuff we have is considerably less than the US forces. If we have black market chips in the DAGR's, are we really going to notice? They can't really suck more than they allready do. New planes and ships aside, the US is just a lot more reliant on technology than we are so this potential threat is going to be higher for them.

Just one small cog in the supply chain's thoughts.


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## bison33 (9 Jan 2013)

Well, no shocker by this and what DND is saying publicly.


http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2013/01/09/f-vp-weston-hercules-counterfeit-chinese-parts.html


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## The Bread Guy (9 Jan 2013)

Merged with earlier discussion & stories of then-Minister Fantino saying "we don't have any particular concerns in this country" last summer.

*Milnet.ca Staff*


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## chowchow1 (11 Jan 2013)

One of these hercs is coming out for our para-coy jumps next week and because of this we can only jump out of one side. Very strange.


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## Jarnhamar (12 Jan 2013)

chowchow1 said:
			
		

> One of these hercs is coming out for our para-coy jumps next week and because of this we can only jump out of one side. Very strange.



Seems legit.


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## The Bread Guy (6 Feb 2013)

.... signed by the boss of the RCAF, not the Minister:


> To the Editor:
> 
> In response to recent media reports on the presence of alleged counterfeit parts in Canada’s CC-130J Hercules aircraft, I would like to reiterate that, as with any piece of Canadian Armed Forces equipment, safety is paramount. Whether our aircraft are made in Canada or imported, there are rigorous processes to track their components and ensure they are safe to fly.
> 
> ...


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## AirDet (8 Feb 2014)

There's nothing new about counterfeit a/c parts. Every technician is trained to evaluate the parts he's/she's using. Anything suspect is discarded. From time to time every air force encounters bad parts with the words "Made in China" somehow attached to them. Given that, I have to agree with the CAD. The risk to the RCAF is relatively minor.


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