THOSE LITTLE OLD ISRAELI BLISK MAKERS

While researching the Mozaffar Khazaee story,  I plunged deep into backlots of air defense reporting.  And it's true what a one time KGB agent once said.  "If you want to know what's going on in America, read the business news.  Capitalists don't lie to each other about money."  At least those putting their money on air and defense industries don't settle for the sort of Pablum the public accepts as general news.

So I found the following astounding story filed back in  Monday, March 4th 2013 in Money News.

"Jet engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney said said Monday it had uncovered fraudulent testing of engine parts involving falsified records, but that no recalls or other problems resulted."  This is both shocking and puzzling.  Fraudulent testing went on, but in the grand scheme of things let's not get excited.

Except that according to the article, "….test data had been altered over 15YEARS at Carmel Forge, another United Technologies unit, in ISRAEL.

Here is the Forge's self description: "Carmel Forge Ltd. develops and produces titanium, steel, and nickel alloy parts for the aero engine and power generation industries. The company offers parts for turbo-fan and turbo-shaft engines, auxiliary power units for aircrafts, turbo chargers, and land and marine power turbines. Its products include rings, cases, and disks and rotating parts, such as low and high pressure compressor and turbine disks, fan disks, blisks*, impellers, and air frame parts. Carmel’s rings are used in various applications, such as seals, spacers, intermediate and low pressure turbine and compressor cases, spools for low pressure compressor disks, and ring shaped low pressure turbine disks. The company was founded in 1961 and is based in Tirat Carmel, Israel. As of 1994, Carmel Forge Ltd. operates as a subsidiary of Pratt & Whitney Company."

I have no idea how good a job they do when not falsifying data.  I do know that American workers can and do make similar products her in America.  So the obvious question is, why does a heavily taxpayer supported American defense firm choose to operate overseas, thus subsidizing Israeli workers at the expense of our workers?

How many of the general reading public imagines that in addition to hiring and trusting foreign nationals to develop, test and manufacture our most critical weapons systems, we also allow manufacture of those same systems to go on in countries that actively spy on us and transfer our technology to third parties?

Or is this just something we are not supposed to talk about?

* No, I have no idea what a blisk is either.