Adm. John Richardson ordered an operational pause in all the fleets while the Navy investigates just the latest off crash.
Amid calls that it could be cyber sabotage, Adm. Richardson released a statement saying that he did not believe that was the cause but he was still looking into it
He tweeted,
2 clarify Re: possibility of cyber intrusion or sabotage, no indications right now…but review will consider all possibilities
— Chief of Naval Operations (@USNavyCNO) August 21, 2017
“ 2 clarify Re: possibility of cyber intrusion or sabotage, no indications right now…but review will consider all possibilities.”
And that may be the case but there is another disturbing report from a Senate investigation that exposes for the all the world to see how Obama ruined our military.
To be fair to Barack, the bungler in chief, he had little choice in the matter.
What happened is Bill Clinton signed NAFTA and George Bush and Barack Obama doubled down and pushed the misguided free trade ideas that ruined our middle class.
But worse they destroyed our manufacturing base.
Most people, Trump included thought this was foolish because if a war broke out and we can’t make weapons and spare parts our military will be crippled.
But that did not stop Obama from pushing ahead and sticking a dagger in the heart of American manufacturing through the disastrous policies.
But Obama thought he was smart and instituted a new global supply chain for our military to substitute for what we previously made here.
He had little choice save demanding we make stuff in America again.
But he was too weak and now we are at the mercy of a global supply chain that we cannot control and worse, one where we cannot verify parts that are legit.
Most stuff is made in China which is rife with subpar products and counterfeit parts that end up in our military.
My guess China makes sure they get the real parts while we watch helplessly as our military suffers.
According to CNN the report is a terrible reminder of the price we pay for Obama’s failures.
“Our report outlines how this flood of counterfeit parts, overwhelmingly from China, threatens national security, the safety of our troops and American jobs,” said Sen. Carl Levin, D-Michigan, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee said.
Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona said, “It should be in Chinese interest not to have counterfeiting of these electronic parts going on because it would harm legitimate Chinese companies as well.”
Not if they want to sabotage our military.
The committee looked at over 1,800 cases of suspect counterfeit parts in machinery and the grand total they found was whopping 1 million counterfeit parts.
The investigators made public a few of their findings including these disturbing ones below.
“The SH-60B is a Navy helicopter that hunts for enemy submarines and assists with surface warfare. The investigation found that a part that compromised the copter’s night-vision system contained counterfeit parts that investigators traced back to China.”
“The probe found counterfeit parts in the systems that tell pilots of the C-130 and C-27 cargo planes about the aircraft’s performances. The part could have caused those systems to go blank. Again the part in question was traced back to China.”
“The P8-A is a Navy version of the Boeing 737 used for anti-submarine warfare and other duties. The Navy is testing the aircraft now and intends to buy more than 100 of them. But the test planes contained a reworked part that never should have been on the airplane. The part was used but made to look new. The part, investigators found, originally came from China.”
Pentagon spokeswoman Col. Melinda Morgan told CNN, “We are aware (the Senate Armed Services Committee) has issued their report on counterfeit parts and look forward to reviewing it. The Department takes very seriously the issue about counterfeit parts. We are working aggressively to address this issue to include implementing section 8.18 of the FY12 NDAA.”