1,800 cases of fake ICs in US military aircraft were discovered last year,says the US Senate Armed Services Committee,and 70%of those could be traced back to China.After China come the UK and Canada as the biggest sources of fake chips.
Counterfeit parts were found in SH-60B helicopters used by the Navy,in C-130J and C-27J cargo planes and in the Navy's P-8A Poseidon plane.
The US has a programme called the Government-Industry Data Exchange Program(GIDEP)to report fake parts but,from 2009-10,only 217 reports of fake parts were filed mostly by six com0anies and only 13 reports were filed by government agencies.
It turns out that,when contractors found they had used fake parts,the US Department of Defence re-imbursed them their costs in replacing them.
Analysts IHS say that 1,363 cases of counterfeit parts being used were discovered in 2011.
IHS says 32%of the discovered cases were in the US and 33%were in China with the main sources of fake parts being Malaysia,Korea,Japan and the Philippines which collectively accounted for 64%of the identified fake parts.
