An internal investigation conducted by Evraz North America revealed that employees at an Oregon steel mill bypassed key tests of armor plates used in U.S. Army vehicles. As a result, armor plates designed to protect military personnel from enemy fire have not passed the necessary strength tests and may be unreliable in combat conditions.
According to an internal report, from November 2017 to December 2019, employees at the Portland, Oregon plant skipped mandatory hardness tests and entered false data manually. This allowed them to speed up the inspection process, but resulted in about 12,800 armor plates being untested and subsequently showing signs of cracks. These plates were intended for use in the Joint Light Tactical Vehicles (JLTV) and the family of medium tactical vehicles (FMTV).
The JLTVs are the successors to the Humvee and are used by the U.S. Army to protect against bullets, mines, and explosive devices. However, due to falsification of data, some of these vehicles may be equipped with cracked armor plates, which jeopardizes the safety of military personnel in combat conditions. At the moment, it is unclear how many of the 12,800 untested plates were installed on vehicles.
After the report was published, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) conducted an inspection at several Evraz enterprises in the United States and issued a subpoena demanding that production records be preserved. At the same time, Evraz North America stated that its products had passed independent government tests and that they had not received any complaints from customers. However, internal documents show that the company has been aware of possible violations since November 2019.
This incident raises serious concerns about the reliability of the armor plates used in U.S. Army vehicles. In modern warfare, where the risk of detonation and attacks using firearms is high, untested armor plates can become a vulnerable link in the defense system of military personnel.
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