I know I sound like a broken record but, I had to post about this. I really can not give specifics but I swear on my mother’s grave what I am saying is true and is first hand. Until this month my company has been selling a component to a company that sells equipment to The US military. We were just told that we lost the business to a Chinese importer that had previously failed to pass military testing. Our product passed the test on the first attempt and has been working well for years. I am not sure how many chances we give the Chinese to pass our military tests and build our military equipment. As I have posted before, we have gotten some customers back because of field failure, I hope our military men and women don’t have to pay the price for field failures of Chinese built equipment.
I also hate when people try to justify ripping off the taxpayer and stuffing defense contractor products by using the “safety and lives of the troops” to justify the ripoff.
Competition needs to be in place to keep costs down. If china can build some of the stuff a lot cheaper but with quality there is no reason they shouldn’t win the contract. I’m sure in some cases the troops are better served because with the costs being less more of them can get specialized equipment because we can afford to buy more.
The problem is that most of the stuff out of china is NOT up to the same quality. And a lot of the times the US people are not allowed to go there and audit the quality systems and controls because most factories are Government controlled.
As such, anything military we’re handing them the Chinese government is collecting, analizing, reverse engineering, sabotaging, etc; especially if it’s military stuff.
We just pulled all our production out of China due to quality and cost issues. It’s actually cheaper to make it here at better quality than it is to go over there and import it.
Military contracts are next to impossible to profit on…we pass em up all the time. Its no wonder the Chinese are getting the work. But with the ridiculous quality requirements the military wants, I can’t see how the Chinese can deliver.
I have serious doubts about any Chinese made goods being sold to our Military. Working on governtment contracts requires suppliers to meet FAR and DFAR regulations. In those regulations they state certain countries goods and materials cannot be purchased from, with China is right on the top of the list. These regulations are supposed to be pass through, meaning it applies to every subsupplier right down to the printed on recycled paper the manuals are to be printed on. I am sure at some point down the line a small percentage of generic Chinese/Indian material will be used in some of the products, but they are so far removed from the final product that its a non factor.
My guess would be the equipment your customer is supplying with Chinese components are being sold to other customers than the US Military.
Well, all I can tell you is that our customer told us this. These units have always been known as “the military units” and we were told about the military testing of these units and the imports.
Edit: I am familiar with DFAR and I should mention this is not one of our aerospace customers.
If you have read my other posts in the past you know that is not true.
My point has always been that the playing field is not level. I am not going to repost everyhting I have posted in the past in this thread.
Capable yes… allowed to by their government not typically…
Able to document that it meets said specifications; of course, but anyone can write a peice of paper…
Able to be audited to confirm that they are making parts to the specs… nope; as US citizens we are not allowed in factories which manufacture parts for the Chinese Military or Government… AKA 95%+ of the factories in China.