Advertisement

Lockheed used substandard equipment

WASHINGTON, Feb. 19 (UPI) -- A report by the Inspector General for the Department of Homeland Security finds that Lockheed Martin used substandard equipment on U.S. Coast Guard ships.

An investigation spanning several months revealed that Lockheed Martin Corp. installed a communications package using materials that did not comply with contract design requirements on eight new Coast Guard cutters and several smaller boats in the Deepwater program, Navy Times reported Friday.

Advertisement

The investigation resulted from allegations made by a former Lockheed Martin employee who claimed that the company installed substandard cables in the cutters to allow electronic eavesdropping. The former employee also suggested that surveillance cameras on some of the ships made them vulnerable to sneak attacks.

The DHS IG found that Lockheed Martin did install substandard equipment, some of which did not meet the Coast Guard's environmental requirements. However, the report did not find that the materials endangered the security of the Coast Guard personnel.

While the IG determined that Lockheed Martin's choice of cables was "technically equivalent" to the equipment listed in the contract, some of the cables did not meet requirements of being "low-smoke," meaning that they give off lower levels of toxic fumes than normal cables in the event of a fire.

Advertisement

The report comes at a time when Lockheed Martin's contracts with the U.S. Coast Guard are under scrutiny from Congressional oversight committees.

Latest Headlines