Moreover, the government failed to test the quality of the critical gun parts it bought and, as issues were being reported from the battlefront, took months to find out where most of the defective parts had ended up. Yet the Pentagon awarded new contracts to the same contractors, waiving new quality tests along the way. Records also show US military contractors made mistakes manufacturing critical weapon parts after the government waived quality tests, and often took months to fix the problems.
According to a 2010 Inspector General 16-month audit of M2 machine gun parts, the DoD agency responsible for buying weapons parts and supplying them to troops, the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), failed to inspect many of the critical M2 gun parts it was buying and shipping to troops. As a result, the report notes, "an increased risk was placed on the warfighter." Furthermore, the logistics agency failed to correctly process most of the quality deficiency reports it received from the field for M2 machine gun parts.Contacted by email, DLA said that since the DoD Inspector General audit, the agency has incorporated "several process and program enhancements designed to improve quality throughout the acquisition cycle."In almost every instance, the government stated it would take steps to tighten controls over problematic contractors. But it seems that bad parts kept on reaching the field.
Still, hundreds of pages of records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act spanning over 10 years give a better insight into the quality issues reported from the field. Some of those issues were critical. In one case, the government, in its internal investigations, stated that the weapons could "stop working as a result of the defect, which could result in operator injury or loss of life, especially in combat."Read more: The DLA is the largest military agency you've never heard of
"Report Bad Parts," PS urged in its January 2014 issue. "Small arms repairmen, if you discover the parts you ordered to fix your unit's weapons are defective, it's important that you file a product quality deficiency report (PQDR)." If not, the article says, "The Army won't know there are defective parts kicking around the supply system."But Defense Department investigators and small arms repairers say that soldiers and Marines would rarely report defective small arms parts back to the government."In combat, you don't waste time with that," says Kevin Holland. Holland served as an armorer in the Marine Corps from 2001 to 2006. He now works as a small arms repairer contractor for the Department of Defense. "If there were defective parts shipped to us, we would actually discard them and replace them with good parts that we had on hand," he adds.And the Pentagon, while it tries to locate and replace defective parts, ends up turning to the people who depend on them the most with the ultimate question. Every month, PS asks soldiers: "Would you stake your life (right now) on the condition of your equipment?"The military has known for years that defective gun parts were shipped to troops.
In May 2007, General Manufacturing Co. of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, was awarded a 5-year, $2 million contract for various M249 parts, including extractor pins. (On its website, the company says: "We are dedicated to providing our War Fighters with the highest quality assemblies a soldier could ask for.")"Having your big gun down in a firefight, honestly it's going to be a big 'Oh fuck' moment."
Upon receiving notice from the company, the Pentagon logistics agency that bought the parts was advised to tag them and keep them until the completion of an investigation that was expected to take not more than a week. But in January 2008, as the agency searched through depots for the parts, none of the material was reported in stock; it had already been shipped to US troops in Iraq.A few months later, previously unrevealed records show that Elizabeth Stange, then commander of the contracts agency's office in Indianapolis, sent a message to Colonel Dion King, then commander at the DCMA Detroit office, in which she wrote that DLA was "not inclined to put the parts to the side until this was resolved.""Bottom line: The weapon will not function with these parts," Col. King wrote the next day to a US Army official. In the same message, sent three months after the issue had first been reported, Col. King noted that the Pentagon had yet to determine whether the mistake put soldiers' lives in jeopardy. "We do not know whether the part causes a safety risk, or whether the part can even be installed on a full-up weapon," Col. King wrote."My concern is that some of these get issued and someone gets killed"
Months after the issue had been reported, then, the majority of the defective items were still unaccounted for. The US Army, however, required new parts urgently in order to support an M2 overhaul program scheduled to begin in February 2008. So, in January 2008, the logistics agency initiated an emergency buy for 3,000 more backplates and, on April 22, while most of the defective parts were still missing, Northside was awarded a new contract for the same items for $68,000.Once again, the testing was waived.An additional contract for the same M2 machine gun part would follow in 2009, with quality tests waived once again. But deficient backplates kept kicking around in the system: Troops were still sending quality deficiency reports flagging issues with Northside backplates in April and June 2009. Northside did not respond to emails posing specific questions and seeking comment, declined to answer questions about a former quality inspector, and refused to talk to me when I visited the company's headquarters.In an emailed response, DLA said that, upon notification of the defection, it "took immediate action to locate material delivered under this contract. Upon determining that all parts had been issued from stock to our military customer, we issued an alert to these field units. In response to this alert, the field units confirmed that the backplates received did not fit properly. All customers who responded to our alert were provided with conforming backplates."Read more: These FOIA'd military records detail the Pentagon's gun problem
General Dynamics Armament and Technical Product recently consolidated into General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems, whose vice president and general manager, Brian Berger, is also chair of the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA) Small Arms executive committee. The NDIA is an association that connects government and military officials with industry professionals. The Small Arms committee has held a conference on defective weapons parts in the past, NDIA Meeting Planner Rebecca Danahy said in an email.In the lawsuit, General Dynamics asserted that M2 machine guns it manufactured "were subject to rigorous quality control measures created by and performed by or on behalf of the United States military." The manufacturer also provided records showing that the machine gun had been tested, and the military inspected and accepted the weapon in April 2010. The case was settled in September 2014.General Dynamics could not comment on any specific aspect of the litigation. "General Dynamics has stringent quality, testing and safety processes to ensure each weapon manufactured is compliant to the military standard," a representative for the company wrote in response to a request for comment. "If deviations in materials are discovered, the non-conforming element is pulled immediately from production and corrective action is taken to rectify or replace the non-conforming material."When he joined the military, McMahon knew he eventually wanted to become a police officer after doing his time. His dad was a cop. It's something he grew up with."Now, after I was out, I was unable to, because of the disability," he says. "Not only the fact that I couldn't serve my country anymore, now I can't even protect my community. It hurts. But I'm still able to work. I'm still able to walk. I have a normal life. It hasn't affected me too much. But it definitely affected something that I always wanted to do."This investigation was supported by the Toni Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.With additional reporting and research by Brian Anderson and Yiwei Tian."Now I can't even protect my community. It hurts."