vladrichdemaclant
58970
1548
32
"The incidents took place at an Evraz facility in Oregon from 2017 to 2019, according to Evraz’s probe and company officials, who said employees at the Portland plant skipped mandatory hardness tests and inputted fake results on an estimated 12,800 armor plates of various types. Those plates were labeled as tested and approved, though some later showed signs of cracking."
"A primary customer for the armor plates was Oshkosh Defense LLC, a maker of a wide range of military vehicles, including the JLTV"
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-03-11/armor-plates-for-us-army-s-jltv-didn-t-pass-quality-control-tests
Gryphonosiris
You want to eliminate waste and fraud, start here.
tafoyGiraffePrincess
Also building the new USPS trucks coming out.
chefsoda
If this seems amazing to anyone, remember this Russian purchase was in 2006-7, when most of the US felt Russia had been defanged. Even up to the 2012 election, when Romney & Obama debated, and the concept of Russia returning as a threat was laugh worthy to many. Of course, two years later, they spilled into Chechnya and began a war that has run hot & warm since.
bluto1415
"I had a guaranteed military sale with ED 209 - renovation program, spare parts for twenty-five years... Who cares if it worked or not?"
-Dick Jones senior executive at OCP
MoonMoon89
Well, it is in Putin's and Trump's best interest that they don't work.
peterpanisavampire
Only if we sold them to our allies. If we kept them, then Putin would want high quality for us, since he now owns the US military through his subsidiary Trump and Co.
TheZommie
he owns it like a venture capitalist owns it, he wants to run it into the ground, make any profit, make it unusable for anyone else, then move on to the next thing
Tygermann
Sounds like fraud, waste, and abuse.
FPAlpha
So... the military in general?
mrsparkle001
I too think it's smart to have a Russian-owned steel plant supply armor for our military vehicles
memepawn
Every soldier knows their gear was made by the lowest bidder.
justarancher1234
I know who was president then…
meganical
Well, the US military does abominable things to their soldiers so this is nothing new. Remember the Edgewood Arsenal experiments or the more-recent Camp Lejeune contaminated water lawsuit? The government and military don’t care. Billions of dollars go to the military every year and yet, they pay a pittance in settlements when caught actively harming soldiers.
OtisTDrunk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qU7ra6HdH8E&t=1s&ab_channel=PSYCHO-THERAPY
101Medic
I was reading recently that essentially every post/base's water is contaminated with PFAS. As an Army brat who joined later in life, I'm waiting for my third arm or malignant tumor whichever comes first.
PicassoCT
Well, you didnt buy the extended warranty against hyper-oligarchy, so say it with me: "Its not service related!"
jetact12
Sounds like there's a CHEETO involved
Urgalicity
As someone who used to build military equipment, I wish this were even news.
UnluckyLunkhead
That is negligence by the US people responsible for testing the product. As a public sector purchaser, I never allow the suppliers to mark their own homework. I sample-test and if it fails, the contract is toast. They know this in advance, no problem.
merxman
I was head of QA for a children's products wholesaler. We never trusted supplier's own test results...and as a result, never had a recall.
FPAlpha
Like the FAA allowed Boeing to test and certify its own planes?
You may not allow this but a wild guess tells me you're not too high in the food chain to be noticed by lobbyists with their full suitcases of special vacations, fancy restaurant visits and paid top colleges for your kids.
phobosorbust
that's how NASA does business, but apparently DoD gets to be special
101Medic
I've seen multiple members of the senior brass devolve from caring about their Joes and switch into "fuck em all for the sake of profits" mode as they eye the exit door into their cushy contractor job. PMCs are a bane on our planet.
Necrothean
As a veteran and a former inspector:
The Russian angle is probably not the reason they did this.
Every. Corporation. And. Military. Manufacturer. Does. This.
They bypass tests, metrics, and deadlines like they were tiny, insignificant bubbles in champagne. And they do it with a smile on their face until the auditor or inspector shows up, then they suddenly "start an investigation".
Oh look, "Evratz investigation"...
MaleProstateMilker88
True, but Russia has been intentionally sabotaging things in several countries for decades, and some of the most recent ones were Russian workers in some - either it was guns, drones or ammo - manufacturing plants sabotaging them because they were headed for Ukraine, so they were shit quality but at least they got caught pretty quickly. Tried to find the article but there's so many about different European countries where they've struck. It seems like US is not prepared for the same.
Necrothean
I get that, but this is Imgur, where assuming based on race, country of origin, gender, etc. is usually frowned upon. I get that Russia does this and I even agree that this assumption is consistent with our current fascist situation, but extraordinary claims usually require extraordinary evidence here... so it's weird to me how readily "Russian owners equals Russian spies and saboteurs" was the agreed upon answer rather than waiting for the evidence.
ChaoticGoofy
Jimthebutler
Wrongful death lawsuits for service member families go!
cronostrike
Yeah, good luck with that. I lost hearing in the military while working in the training section and setting up rifle range training, the government sued 3M later for selling faulty earplugs to the military, settled to the tune of 6 billion, and my hearing loss claim was denied so I'm never seeing a dime of that lawsuit. You have to prove everything and it's so stupidly hard and probably only worse with recent cuts.
101Medic
Holy shit, that's insane luck. You might be the first vet I've heard of being denied hearing loss. I was under the impression that it was an automatic 10% rating
WhatSayYouCitizen
Funny enough, you can't do this.
anarchoFeline
the VA has determined your condition (dead) was not service related
Jimthebutler
Problemwoodchuck
Family lawyer: Hi, I need detailed records on where my client's MRAP was manufactured and whether its armor plating passed quality control
DoD:
EchoDelta141
Recovered MRAPs are disassemble for good parts and sent for scrap as per military protocol. The ones not recovered sit on an active battlefield if it's not already burnt to crisp and tampered with, goodluck towing that back for your lawsuit *laughs in evil lawyer*
Jimthebutler
LifeIsADanceOfMinds
"Этот Джокер просит у нас документы.... I mean, sure, we will send them in the mail"
"Деметри, заставь Deepseek собрать некоторые старые результаты тестов. Стат"
jj86
It should go without saying that military hardware should not rely on components from non-US companies.
Hurch
You'd think so, would you not?
jackal696
*laughs in Canadian* or you can use use Chinese steel and aluminum *laughs harder in Canadian*
huffnpuff72
How do they even get a contract to supply the military when owned by an enemy? There's your waste and corruption. Not in erroneously listing social security birthdays wrong.
sagejosh0
Oh good, we are going the way of the empire. They were space nazis and lost but damn did they look good.
hellospacemonkey
I didn't even have to look to know it took place under Trump's first administration. Trump is a fucking Russian asset. Why the fuck are Republicans going along with this?
friendsofsandwiches
Not quite forged in fire.
Mithi
more like forged in ink.
TheVampireDante
"forged in lighter flames" sponsored by Bic.
petety
Why is a Russian owned steel plant providing armor for U.S. Infantry?
pothocket
Because that was when Trump was president and he is a literal traitor to the country
Randazzo
Why in the everloving fuck would you let Russia be in charge of making armor plates for ANYTHING?
SunBrolem
Um fucking excuse me, just a quick question, um, yes, hi, WHY DO WE HAVE RUSSIANS MAKING ARMOR FOR OUR WAR MATERIEL
jetact12
Cause they're our bet friends now. Haven't you heard?
freshthrowaway1138
Actually it was Americans making the armor and lying on forms. The reality is that the Russians aren't even needed, because there will always be a capitalist willing to do the sabotage to increase their cut of the profits.
duktayp
Remember ED 209? Buggy as hell, piece of crap product. But "we're going to make $billions$, who cares if it doesn't work?"
Pally01
The Sgt York Anti-Aircraft tank almost pulled an ED209 on several members of Congress in the 1980s during a test run.
nothingunused
Maybe we can set up a demo of ED209 for Congress soon?
CallMeMcGyver
Every republican is a poorly written OCP character (evil corporation from the movie) that didn't make it to the movie because they were too poorly written or unbelievably greedy, bad and stupid.
FlintNorth44
TheVampireDante
If I remember right, he was given five bullet points about why he was fired at the end of the director's meeting that week.
nothingunused
I see what you did there!
gaggmaggot
yalczero
To be fair it's feet and center of gravity were not designed for human sized stairs.
CorGoBrrrr
And yet it is clearly programmed to know how to walk down stairs. Just one more corporate oversight. Like installing a screen door on a submarine. 😆
Sh1tMovieGroup
One of my favourite parts of that movie is after it's proved to be a colossal failure and kills an executive at its showcase, is that it's still pressed in to service later in the movie it's seen guarding the building (and in later movies they're still in use).
mckjm2
And in the Robocop game one of them malfunctions again, and Murphy is forced to kill it after it guns down one of his fellow officers.
eggmuffin
There are many RoboCop games.
mckjm2
Ah, I was talking about Rogue City.
micuu
With the money they spent on R&D, no way they'd let it go to waste. Who cares if it sometimes kills people for no reason?
Sh1tMovieGroup
yes, that's exactly the lampooning of the absolutely psychotic business decision's they're playing out
Currahee63
Hey, Guyz! What's happening in this thread?
HenryFondle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gOGHdZDmEk
MortimerMango
what does the most effective anti-armor platform of the late cold war have to do with this?
Hekatombe
DannyJammy
the bradley fighting vehicle movie?
Hekatombe
Yes
ElPoloDiablo
In fairness the Bradley has proven to be an excellent vehicle. Colonel Burton was a jackass, member of the Fighter Mafia, who totally misunderstood the reasons for tests being performed in the way they were and why the Bradley wasn't just an M113. The Bradley should be seen as a response to the BMP AFVs, not to M113, it's made for an entirely different doctrine and performs well in it. I thought we dispelled the myths perpetuated by the Pentagon Wars with Ukraine War tbh.
DrunkGermanGuy
The "Pentagon Wars" myths were dispelled by the stellar performance of the Bradley during Desert Storm already.
It boggles my mind how people still buy into the bullshit that reactionary forces such as the fighter mafia spouted decades ago. If things went their way, combat vehicles would still be on the technological level of the Korea war ffs.
SalmonTheWise
Everything would be on technological level of Korean war, since their whole ideology is based on the idea that F-4 Phantom was too complicated and unable to dogfight.
SalmonTheWise
After that footage of a Bradley bullying a T-90 tank the proof is really in the pudding.
Recursiv3
How TF our govt let Russia, one of our adversaries, own a fucking steel plant making armor plates for our soldiers....
[deleted]
[deleted]
Hekatombe
The steel planet was in Oregon. I think that's in America. The plant was owned by a Russian company
sanguium
Because that adversarie shit is bullshit, they do bussiness when they find them profitable, saying they are 'the enemy' is just a con to justify military spending and to use when convenient. See how the EU is parroting at every second how bad is russia and how evil is putin while buying from them as much gas as they can to this day.
huuuhhhfffhhhhfffffhuhhhhhhhhhhhfff
Trump
PigsWeGetWhatPigsDeserve
It happens. A lot of titanium that went in to the SR-71 blackbirds was purchased from Russia through shell companies.
SumOneElse
That was different. It wasn't Russia allegedly covertly owning US Titanium suppliers, it was because the only major producer of Titanium at the time was the Soviet Union. It was cheaper to buy it covertly in the limited quantity needed than to build up our own supply line.
djangojazz
Well they have a president and an entire political party, so there is that
ErudiousRex
Don't take the bait! Epstein! Give us the list! Stfu about everyyyything else... list... no... i don't wanna see the alien ship you just found.... gimme the list!
HippoTel
That mill was acquired in 2006. https://www.aist.org/evraz-to-acquire-oregon-steel-mills-for-us$2-3-billion
Leithoa
Russia wasn't a whole lot different. Ask Chechnya, Georgia, Ossetia, etc.
BrdCdn
No Russia hasn't changed. Every US administration has thought they could change that and tried to do a Russian reset. Even Obama foolishly tried and Obama enabled alot of Putin's aggressiveness. Russia is an enemy of freedom, democracy and human rights and they always have been and probably always will be.
0570
Money
haggerton
NATO claims Russia is not its enemy.
gablestout
NATO does not maintain an official list of adversaries, as it is a mutual defense organization and therefore does not have "enemies" when there is no conflict involving a NATO member. HOWEVER, NATO does consider Russia a potential threat.
https://euromaidanpress.com/2025/01/04/not-if-but-when-nato-prepares-for-russian-attack-on-finland-baltics-and-norway/
Nice try.
minipancho94
We've been an oligarchy for a while my dude. Citizens united made it so neither party had to actually make concessions to its base and they could bury any calls to hold them accountable in bullshit. Gow do you think we got in this mess? Even our leftist party refused to even bother lying about Medicare for all, college tuition, or any of its usual promises in this last election. The oligarch class wins no matter who we elect and they didn't even need to hide it this time.
apatternlanguage
Yup
eggmuffin
Who benefits from Ukraine receiving defective equipment?
Russia.
Who benefits from making that happen?
Russian assets.
RetrogradeLlama
Oligarchs launder money by investing in legit companies.
willpostanything
Thats how they make America Great Again
LaughingMan2Gig
capitalism
whatdidyoureallyexpect
Look at who was president then. Hmmmm…. The shit gibbon!
MicroChannelMaster
We transitioned from an industrial / trade economy to a bloated service economy that sells suffering and white collar crimes and left all the industries that actually produced things to rot, which allowed China, India and Russia to buy them all up for peanuts.
Windborne
From Google: EvrazNA is a US based subsidiary of a UK incorporated company, that has a significant portion, at least 28%, of its shares owned by Russian oligarchs. That's the facts. Whether or not that translates to "Russia owns a steel mill that is sabotaging armor plates for Oshkosh" is up for debate. But they are under "scrutiny".
lspec
That's some weak sleuthing.
Windborne
Thanks.
Windborne
Additionally, looking at the (reported) demographics of EvrazNA. None of them speak Russian, and around 50% of the employees are white males, with the majority being self-proclaimed Democratic voters. So it's probably top down corruption/laziness, with little to no intention, of the grunt employees, to be supporters of a Russian agenda.
WhatSayYouCitizen
Would you like to ban foreign ownership of businesses and facilities in the US?
gablestout
How about banning military and other sensitive contracts to companies owned by entities of countries designated as "foreign adversaries" (as defined by 15 CFR 791.4)
YES. ABSOLUTELY FUCKING YES.
mohavewolfpup
Yes. Start by kicking the Middle East companies out of Arizona and their wholesale water table/colorado river watershed theft for their damn Alfalfa going overseas. Think we’d be able to do the same over there?
Jimthebutler
Maybe for businesses directly tied to our overinflated deficit increasing military budget, yeah.
WhatSayYouCitizen
So, the thing you are talking about that doesn't involve widespread bans on companies, is supply chain vulnerability management. Most if not all DoD entities are supposed to be doing this or passing the responsibility on as part of issuing contracts. This is a failure on Oshkosh Defenses' side, not "the government" or "the DoD"
Jimthebutler
Yeah almost like they should have sourced their material from an ally like canada or Mexico and tested it properly before letting countless soldiers die from their negligence.
TheZommie
and spend .000001 of a cent more per unit? that sounds an awful lot like communism...or socialism...whichever, americans don't know the difference, they just know that it isn't capitalism
coderay
YES, we should ban foreign ADVERSARIES from making our MILITARY assets. YES. YES.
WhatSayYouCitizen
But we buy a bunch of equipment and goods from foreign countries, you know?
Mack1986
Most critical defense manufacturing is banned from.overaeas manufacturing for this reason. A 3P vendor to a DoD manufacturing company is a degree out and not subject to same.rulws
oldmanfromscenetwentyfour
My guy, you gotta proofread your comments.
ArchangelZeriel
In this case, I think it would be just as useful to punish Oshkosh for not evaluating their vendor appropriately since they're the prime contractor.
altxatu
Who was president in 2017-2019?
jetact12
Is it ....ORANGE????
Callipygius
It's not, actually
bingtittletittlebong
Must of been Obama /s
HEARTS0FSPACE
*have
justfiguredoutimc4azyanddumbb
*Must've
HEARTS0FSPACE
Yeah, that's perfectly fine, too.
bingtittletittlebong
Sorry. *have of been Obama /s
barnwolf
2007 actually. https://web.archive.org/web/20110525152458/http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/2007/01/22/daily22.html
dank69
Well who was President in 2007?
migratingotter
Bush.
MadamPuddifoot
/gallery/InmFM8q/comment/2448274111
barnwolf
Dick Cheney?
Weblord
Would the real Dick Cheney please stand up, please stand up
My earworm is now yours
barnwolf
Huh, that is technically true. He was acting president for a couple hours in July while Bush was undergoing a medical procedure.
LordHotPie
Dubya
Carl99
To be fair to Bush, Russia was seen as non-adversarial at the time.
TrilithonStone
To be fair ... Dubai was the first "reset" attempt to be friends with Putin. Then, Obama made a second attempt as he was determined to just continue Bush policies because he was the first black president and needed that cover, except, of course, domestic stuff like healthcare. And, they both got duped into thinking Putin and company were part of the human race. They are not.
wadatahmydamie
Yup. He was buddies with Putin too. Even called him Pootie Poot.
LordHotPie
"I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be very straightforward and trustworthy”
“I was able to get a sense of his soul.”