Pentagon Received Faulty Armor Plates from Russia-Owned US Plant: Report

A Russian-owned factory in Oregon supplying the U.S. Army and allied militaries faked some of its quality control tests for armored plating used on combat vehicles, according to a new report.

Employees working at steel manufacturer Evraz North America in Portland between 2017 and 2019 skipped over some obligatory tests and registered fake results for nearly 13,000 armor plates, some of which showed “signs of cracking” further down the line, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.

Newsweek has reached out to the Pentagon and Evraz North America for comment via email.

Why It Matters

One of the main users of the armor plates is Oshkosh Defense, which makes the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle, or JLTV, used by the U.S. military and several of its allies, according to the report. The JLTV is a multi-purpose military vehicle, and an update on the Humvee, or High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle.

It is not clear how many of the roughly 12,800 plates falsely labeled as tested and approved were then used in armored vehicles, the outlet reported. Once Evraz managers were notified about possible production line issues, the company stopped delivering armored plates for the JLTV, according to Bloomberg.

Two officials at the company, not identified by Bloomberg, told the outlet that they were worried that vehicles used by the military may have compromised armored plating.

Newsweek has reached out to Oshkosh Defense via email.

What To Know

Evraz North America launched an internal investigation in late 2019 after quality control concerns were raised internally, Bloomberg reported, citing a document seen by the outlet and information from anonymized officials in the company.

A report marked “confidential” from December 10, 2019, concluded that production line staff in the Portland plant had not always used a machine designed to test the hardness of armor plates, opting instead to input fake results, according to Bloomberg.

Falsified results on hardness rating would reportedly be based on plates that had been manufactured at roughly the same time.

Several employees had told internal investigators there wasn’t enough time to complete testing on each plate when trying to keep up with the demands placed on the production line, according to the report.

The practice was “widespread,” the Evraz report concluded.

One Evraz manager cited in the report admitted being aware of data falsification, but reportedly told internal investigators: “When you’re thrown in the fire, you gotta do what you gotta do to keep the line rolling.”

The day after the internal report was published in December 2019, employees from Evraz and Oshkosh joined a conference call, during which Oshkosh raised the issue of a problem the company had detected, according to the news report.

Local media had reported in mid-2024 that FBI agents had visited Evraz North America’s facility in Pueblo, Colorado. No reason was given beyond “court-authorized law enforcement activity.” A spokesperson for Evraz said at the time that it was fully cooperating with authorities, according to local reports.

Who Said What

Evraz North America told Bloomberg that its internal report, seen by the outlet, “examines quality control protocols and underscores EVRAZ North America’s commitment to continual process enhancements to produce high-quality, reliable plate.”

A spokesperson for the FBI’s Chicago field office told the outlet that the agency would not comment on “the existence or nonexistence of any investigation that may be occurring.”