Inquiry into Counterfeit Electronic Parts in the Department of Defense Supply Chain: Report of the Committee on Armed Services, United States Senate, May 21, 2012

A Senate Armed Services Committee investigation discovered counterfeit electronic parts from China in the Air Force's largest cargo plane, in assemblies intended for Special Operations helicopters, and in a Navy surveillance plane among 1,800 cases of bogus parts. The year-long investigation launched by Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., the committee's chairman, and Ranking Member Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., found a total number of suspect counterfeit parts involved in those 1,800 cases exceeding 1 million. The Committee's report includes detailed descriptions of how counterfeits are flooding the supply chain, risking the performance and reliability of critical defense systems. In just one example described in the report, the U.S. Air Force says that a single electronic parts supplier, Hong Dark Electronic Trade of Shenzhen, China, supplied approximately 84,000 suspect counterfeit electronic parts into the DOD supply chain.