Company accused of violations including Chinese employees improperly downloading files relating to Pentagon programs
Boeing said on Thursday it had reached a $51m settlement with the US state department for numerous export violations including Chinese employees in China improperly downloading documents related to US Pentagon programs.
The state department said from 2013 through 2017 three Chinese employees at Boeing facilities in China downloaded technical data involving programs including the F-18, F-15 and F-22 fighter jets, the E-3 airborne warning and control system, the AH-64 Apache attack helicopter and the AGM84E cruise missile.
Boeing said there were additional unauthorized downloads of technical data at Boeing and partner facilities in 18 countries, including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Morocco, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Thailand, Taiwan, Ukraine and the United Kingdom from 2013 to 2018.
Yes, especially because of that! How can you build a military if your top military contractors are leaking state secrets to the enemy? Going scorched earth here would be making sure decision makers, especially among top management, get fired and disbarred from government contractors. It’s not about destroying the company or its assets, it’s about punishing negligence and investigating corruption among decision makers.
It’s unfortunately not as simple as that, the government has to be really careful upsetting essential companies like defense contractors, as the military just straight up needs them (for new projects but also spare parts, fixes,…).
It’s not a good relationship.
Edit: I definitely don’t disagree with you though, stuff like this just shouldn’t happen.
The problem is that they have to be careful not because of a national security interest, but because the wealthy people in charge of them fund their reelection.
If money got out of politics, it would be a simple issue to clean house at Boeing while keeping them on as a defence contractor, and both Boeing and the army would be better off.