The ACU includes a new universal camouflage pattern and provides moisture wicking, functionality and ergonomics.
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The company had three government contracts for helmets and five worldwide contracts as of February.
During a surprise inspection, investigators found prison inmates working on combat helmets openly using makeshift tools, like this screw-through-a-stick tool, that did not conform to manufacturing requirements, damaged helmets, and presented a risk to those supervising the prisoners.
A Justice Department Inspector General report released Wednesday said inmates at a Beaumont, Tex., prison passed off hack helmets between 2006 and 2009, as part of a $30 million deal between the Department of Defense and Ohio-based manufacturer ArmorSource. It immediately implemented a quarantine on the ArmorSource helmets and issued a stop work order on the contract on February 3, 2010, he said. The helmets, used by Army soldiers, began being recalled in May 2010 after many failed safety ballistics tests. The new report states that FPI made helmets that had unauthorized or degraded materials, expired paint and other deformities. Specifically, parts of the combat helmet were merely filled with dust and fragments of Kevlar, and numerous helmet’s serial numbers were altered or changed. But FPI “pre-selected” the helmets it sent, keeping the production problems under wraps, the report said.
The report said a surprise inspection of FPI’s Beaumont, Texas, facility on January 26, 2010, discovered various contract violations, including use of makeshift hatchets and “scew tools”. “At least in one instance an inspector certified the lots as being inspected over a fax machine”.
A March press release from the Department of Justice announced ArmorSource agreed to pay $3 million to resolve the allegations under the False Claims Act. No criminal charges resulted from the investigation.
It is estimated that a total of 126,052 helmets were eventually recalled – equating to a $19.1 million loss. An initial shipment of Marine Corps helmets resulted in a quarantine of 23,000 and a halt to additional deliveries.
“The minute they found out about the misconduct at Federal Prison Industries, they severed their ties”. Peter Carr, a Justice Department spokesman, said that as a matter of policy, the department does not explain why charges haven’t been filed. In the settlement, Garcia said, ArmorSource “was not found guilty of any wrongdoing or fraud regarding its ACH contract”.
The investigation did not find evidence that any service members were injured or killed because of the defective equipment. The report, however, doesn’t quite say that. Some 44,000 were used by USA troops deployed overseas in Afghanistan. Pentagon officials said Wednesday that they are still researching the issue.
The helmets were manufactured at a prison in Beaumont, Texas, by federal inmates. It also announced that whistleblowers Melessa Ponzio and Sharon Clubb, FPI employees, would receive $450,000.
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A government investigation found “endemic manufacturing problems” at a company that led to the sale of millions of dollars’ worth of defective combat helmets.
