(Photo from JVHomes)Dangerous Fakes -- Businessweek
How counterfeit, defective computer components from China are getting into U.S. warplanes and ships
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.
In November 2005, a confidential Pentagon-industry program that tracks counterfeits issued an alert that "BAE Systems experienced field failures," meaning military equipment malfunctions, which the large defense contractor traced to fake microchips. Chips are the tiny electronic circuits found in computers and other gear.
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My Comment: I guess the quality control inspectors are not doing their job .... or it is a job that is very hard to do when one looks at the containers of microchips that flow in every day.