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To: Robert A Cook PE

“Sales clerk scanning the bomb at the check out stand, “Do you want the 10 year electronics warranty on this fuze too?””

I expect that the DOD’s Chinese electronic components (since we no longer bother making our piece-parts) have some ‘duds’ in them, EXACTLY for this purpose.


25 posted on 04/26/2025 4:04:44 AM PDT by BobL
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To: BobL

When I last worked on Patriot, around 2014, Chinese parts were excluded from DoD contracts, with certain exceptions. Pretty much everything was U.S. made. The only exception I recall was LCD displays in the engagement control station to replace LED numeric displays (like on clocks) because China was the only source. The contract required a 20-year buy, in other words the logistic chain was loaded with 20 years of spares. If the spares got short, alternatives could be found.

Around 1998, someone at Beech Aircraft, then a Raytheon subsidiary, purchased Chinese hardware for Air Force training aircraft, because they were cheaper. He forgot to include the cost of the associated fines and the end of his career. Everyone at Raytheon was required to attend a hastily thrown together hectoring “ethics class”. What was most infuriating was being lectured about ethics by a government headed by Willian Jefferson Clinton.


32 posted on 04/26/2025 7:19:58 AM PDT by Lonesome in Massachussets
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