Warplanes: Billion Dollar Stealth Fighter Blunder

[rangerrebew]

Warplanes: Billion Dollar Stealth Fighter Blunder
 

Ezoic

October 11, 2024: The American F-22 recently had its sensors upgraded. This is one of its most extensive upgrades, as well as expensive, costing a billion dollars. At the same time, Raytheon, which is doing the upgrades, was fined $200 million because Raytheon employees' incompetence between 2017 and 2023 allowed Russia, China, Iran and other foreign countries to hack the laptop computers of employees employed by Raytheon subsidiary RTX containing technical details of the F-22 stealth fighter, Aegis BMD (Ballistic Missile Defense), the B2 bomber, as well as F-18 and F-35 fighters. These accidental and very damaging disclosures reduce the effectiveness of the American warplanes involved because potential opponents now have access to how electronic systems in these aircraft operate and what their weaknesses are. The extent of the damage was indicated by the $200 million fine imposed by the U.S. State Department on Raytheon.

This is not the first intelligence scandal of this magnitude. Previous information leaks involved Chinese students studying in South Korea and Japan being caught and arrested for espionage activities. This is nothing new as China has been expanding its espionage activities for some time. China has long developed an international network of spies, local agents, and operatives. The foreigners working for this network are often unaware that they are working for China. This is part of China’s concealment of the extent of their operations. China also obtains the services of internet hacking groups through a third party to conceal the fact that data is being stolen for the Chinese. Despite years of successful efforts to conceal the extent of their espionage network, that anonymity has been stripped away over the last few years. Chinese espionage has steadily been discovered and eliminated despite Chinese efforts to delay, disrupt, or stop the counterespionage efforts.

https://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htairfo/articles/2024101115731.aspx#gsc.tab=0

[jafo2010]

How about criminal charges for those that failed to comply with the rules set forth to maintain secrecy?  Every person violating the rules should be terminated, indicted, and convicted of violating said rules, laws, etc

[Kamaji]

How about criminal charges for those that failed to comply with the rules set forth to maintain secrecy?  Every person violating the rules should be terminated, indicted, and convicted of violating said rules, laws, etc

[Smokin Joe]

How about we quit selling the Chinese parcels of land within just a few miles of Military Bases where they can monitor any and all transmissions and sort out codes, etc.?

[mountaineer]

Raytheon Company to Pay Over $950M in Connection with Defective Pricing, Foreign Bribery, and Export Control Schemes
Wednesday, October 16, 2024
For Immediate Release
Office of Public Affairs, U.S. Dept. of Justice

Raytheon Company (Raytheon) — a subsidiary of Arlington, Virginia-based defense contractor RTX (formerly known as Raytheon Technologies Corporation) — will pay over $950 million to resolve the Justice Department’s investigations into: (i) a major government fraud scheme involving defective pricing on certain government contracts and (ii) violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and the Arms Export Control Act (AECA) and its implementing regulations, the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR).

Raytheon will enter into a three-year deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) in connection with a criminal information filed today in the District of Massachusetts charging Raytheon with two counts of major fraud against the United States. As part of that resolution, Raytheon admitted to engaging in two separate schemes to defraud the Department of Defense (DOD) in connection with the provision of defense articles and services, including PATRIOT missile systems and a radar system.

Separately, Raytheon entered into a three-year DPA in connection with a criminal information unsealed today in the Eastern District of New York charging Raytheon with two counts: conspiracy to violate the anti-bribery provision of the FCPA for a scheme to bribe a government official in Qatar and conspiracy to violate the AECA for willfully failing to disclose the bribes in export licensing applications with the Department of State as required by part 130 of ITAR. ...

[PeteS in CA]

In this legal realm, "Export" is not limited to a thing like an aircraft part or a computer microprocessor. It could be software transmitted electronically or documents, dead-tree or electronic. The act of export also need not a transfer/transport from the US to another country. It can simply be a US company employee giving the whatever to a person from a non-US entity. So a Raytheon employee may "simply" have handed a flash drive to some non-US entity's employee at a seminar in the US or in Elbonia. The Raytheon employee should have been trained to know this, just like employees at Intel or IBM or other non-defense contractor companies should.

The nearly $1B penalty suggest that the violation was particularly egregious and/or that Raytheon was less than fully cooperative with the investigation.