A
large number of counterfeit electronic components from China are used
in military equipment the United States, according to the findings of
the Senate Defense Committee of the United States.In
an investigation that lasted a full year, the U.S. Senate Military
Committee found there was about 1,800 cases of counterfeit parts in the
U.S. military aircraft.More than 70 percent of the approximately one million counterfeit components after the trace was derived from China.The
use of counterfeit components is considered to endanger the safety and
national security as well as causing increased Pentagon budget.This
committee report states that U.S. troops depends on a variety of small
electronic components'' highly sophisticated'' contained in the system
of night vision, radio, and GPS equipment, and the failure of one
component can cause a risk to a soldier.A
number of these spurious components have also been reported in the
SH-60B helicopter used the Navy, the C-130J cargo plane and the C-27J,
and the P-8A Poseidon aircraft.Besides China, the fake components are also suspected to come from England and Canada."Avoiding supervision"In
its findings, the U.S. Senate Committee on Military blamed weakness in
the U.S. supply chain and assess China fails to address the market of
counterfeit products.A
number of committee members who want to come to China for the
investigation of counterfeit components is said to not get canceled
because of visa requests."Counterfeit electronic components are sold freely in the public market in China.''''
Rather than acknowledge the problem and move aggressively to shut down
counterfeiting, the Chinese government would try to avoid scrutiny,''
according to a report.The
report also states that the use of the Government Industry Data
Exchange Program (GIDEP) belongs to the Department of Defense (DoD) U.S.
designed to detect counterfeit components, run'' bad'' because of
counterfeit goods can still be hacked.In
between 2009 and 2010, GIDEP only received 217 reports related to
allegations of false components, the majority of reports submitted by
the six companies. Only 13 reports from government agencies.Report
of the Senate Military Committee also noted in some cases, the U.S.
Defense Department requested reimbursement of contractor costs due to
failure to detect counterfeit components in the supply chain.However,
the report praised the Act of the National Defense Authorization act
signed by President Barack Obama on December 31 last, which is aimed at
stopping counterfeit components into U.S. and will cut off the source of
the components of an unknown provider.The report focuses on China comes at a time when the U.S. began a'' rotation'' defense strategy into the Asia Pacific region.The Pentagon is also preparing to absorb cuts of about 450 billion dollars or about Rp 4,000 trillion over the next decade.However,
it could face further cuts amounting to 500 billion U.S. dollars as
budgetary spending cuts into effect in late 2012, after Congress failed
to achieve the deficit reduction plan last year.
source : kompas.com
