Machines sold to Ukraine: Russian plant for 2 years supplied a defective armor for the US Army - media

The internal investigation showed that the plant workers in Portland have forged the test results for approximately 12,800 armored plastics of different types. They were used to make light tactical cars that were sold to allies and partners, including Israel and Ukraine, Bloomberg writes. According to the internal report that journalists of the publication were introduced, employees of the Russian steel plant Evraz North American Inc.

Portland from 2017 to 2019 missed mandatory tests of armored plastic for strength and marked them as proven and approved, although some of them later appeared cracks. The main customer of the plant armored was Oshkosh Defense LLC, which produces a wide range of military vehicles, including light tactical machines for the US army and for sale to allies and partners: Ukraine, Israel, Brazil and Lithuania. It is unknown how many unverified plates were used in cars, journalists say.

In response to the request of the publication, the company reported that the internal report "studies quality control protocols and emphasizes the commitment of Evraz North America to constantly improve the process for the production of a high quality reliable plate" and the plant adheres to "strict compliance with all industry standards".

Representatives of the enterprise also stated that the plates underwent "independent testing in the approved state institution" and that there were no complaints from clients against products, and the military check the quality of coating samples on landfills.

The authors of the material note that according to its own documents and reports of Evraz officials, the company launched an internal investigation after being charged with non -compliance with quality control procedures at the end of 2019. The report of December 10, 2019 shows the conclusions of internal inspectors, which since November 2017 did not use the machinery staff permanently for measuring the hardness of armored plates and often introduced counterfeit results manually.

Four employees in an interview with the inspectors confessed that they had falsified the grades because they lacked the time to carry out proper tests for each plate on the production line. Instead, some of the plates were given estimates based on the results of others, which took place at about the same time.

One of Evraz representatives said unverified plates were sent for the manufacture of military transport under the program of development of lightweight tactical vehicles (JLTV) and armored trucks known as Medium Tactical Vehicles, also produced by OSHKOSH. After reporting on possible problems on the production line, Evraz stopped supplying an armored coating for the JLTV program. The journalists of the publication could not determine whether the armored armored plastic were assembled on vehicles.

Evraz North America is a subsidiary of Evraz Plc. It is one of the largest steel and mining companies in Russia. According to Bloomberg, the largest shareholder Evraz PLC is the Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, a trusted person of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Journalists did not find evidence that the Russian company Evraz aimed to undermine US national security. According to the authors, the problem was the poor adherence to the procedures in the production.

In 2022, Evraz PlC stated that she was going to sell its units in North America, but the agreement has not yet been completed. We will remind, on March 10 Focus with reference to the Stockholm Institute of Peace Problems Research (SIPRI) wrote that Ukraine came first in the import of weapons in the world during 2020-2024.