Has US sold India defence equipment with dud Chinese parts?

[manojb]

New Delhi: The Ministry of Defence is investigating the possibility that crucial and expensive equipment bought from the US includes defective Chinese parts.

Defence Minister A K Antony today told the Rajya Sabha that the"Government is verifying reports" about this.

A US Senate investigation has concluded that between 2009 and 2010, 1800 incidents were detected in which more than a million fake parts had been sourced from China. The US Senate panel report that was released this May states that counterfeit electronic parts from China were used in the Air Force's C-130J cargo plane, helicopters for special operations and the Navy's Poseidon surveillance plane.


India has purchased six C-130J aircraft from the US manufacturer Lockheed Martin. The planes have joined the IAF fleet and are based at Hindon near Delhi. Also New Delhi has signed on to buy the Poseidon ( named P8I) surveillance plane from Boeing.

In the last five years, India has shopped extensively with the US for its defence needs. Its purchases include the Indian Naval Ship Jalashwa, UH-3H helicopters, Harpoon missiles, Long Range Acoustic Devices, and more.

In a related development, Mr Antony told the Parliament that the proposal for procurement of the Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) is currently at the stage of commercial discussions." The first of these aircraft are expected to join the Indian Air Force in 2017.

French made Rafale aircrafts have been short listed from six competitors which included US made F- 16s, Swiss made Gripen's and Russian made MiG-35.

The purchase of 126 fighter aircraft - pegged at a cost of at least USD 10.4 bn, making it one the biggest-ever defence deals.

 

[ahfatzia]

LOL these defense contractors in the US must be hit hard by defense budget cuts and world economies too and have to resort to buying cheap third rated parts for their equipments instead of the top lines to squeeze some profit out of them. Buyers must beware!

 

[Abingdonboy]

It is a maybe at this stage- nothing more,nothing less. If it is found to be the case then the US companies are contractually obliged to cover the costs of replacement or repair caused by faulty parts so no "biggy". Indian forces too are not idiots-they throughly check their equipments and all new inductions are put through their paces and any failures/short-comings addressed early on. Now that this issue has been brought to the fore the US is going to be ultra-sensitive to deliver quality to exports because now more than ever exports are key to US and supplying defect-ridden platforms to a player like India would be unimaginably disasterous. This is not the first time such things have happened, not even to US- many new build USN subs and surface vessels were berthed because of serious issues with steel quality. This lead to cost-ovveruns and massive delays not to mention depletion of forces in the short-term. Let's wait and see, I doubt much of this will affect India if at all IMHO.

 

[INDIAISM]

If its true then its definatly going to effect U.S reputation in Arms market...which will obviously force us to think twice before passing on any Billion Dollar deal to U.S.....I mean even the Soviet Junk will be more usefull in war as compare to shiny new U.S Dud.....

 

[Sergi]

If I am not wrong the news of these so called dud parts came from USA itself. And one of our transport plane order is hit by this as Pentagone ordered a full check. So it will be more likily that all the planes will be rechecked and correction will be made. Nothing to worry. After all USA will have to do it to keep its market alive