[url]http://www.cbsnews.com/now/story/0,1597,320425-412,00.shtml[url]

CBS News | Smart Bombs Made Dumb? | Thu, 06 Dec 2001 23:50:06 EST

Eagle-Picher says there is no evidence to support the
allegations, and that their batteries work just as they
should.

Vince Gonzales' Eye on America investigation into smart bombs
that miss their targets.

Smart Bombs Made Dumb?

Did Faulty Batteries Cause Failure Of Precision Guidied
Weapons?

JOPLIN, Mo., Dec. 6, 2001

(CBS) In Afghanistan, American aircraft have dropped more
so-called smart bombs than in any other war, reports CBS News
Correspondent Vince Gonzales.

But dozens of these missiles and guided bombs have missed
their target, some hitting civilians, allied troops, even our
own soldiers.

Sometimes faulty coordinates or bad weather are to blame, but
in other cases the weapons' guidance systems fail, as happened
twice one October weekend.

"Preliminary indications are that the weapons guidance system
malfunctioned," said Victoria Clarke, assistant Secretary of
Defense.

A 1,000-pound smart bomb went off target and hit a senior
citizens' center near Herat. In Kabul, 500-pound guided bombs
went astray and slammed into a residential area, reportedly
killing 25 civilians.

"People's lives depend on those weapons working and chances
are, they're not going to work," said Rick Peoples.

Peoples used to work at Eagle-Picher Technologies in Joplin,
Mo. The plant makes sophisticated batteries that power the
guidance systems inside virtually all of America's precision
guided weapons.

"It's very possible that these failures, and it's very likely
these failures are happening because of the batteries,"
Peoples said.

Due to production and testing problems at the plant, Peoples
said, some were duds. Others exploded. Many developed cracks
and should have been discarded, costing the company hundreds
of thousands of dollars.

But employees tell us after-hours - with government inspectors
gone - that they were ordered to seal the cracks with an
unapproved material called loctite.

"And Eagle Picher did this not on hundreds, not on thousands,
but on millions of batteries that they sold," Peoples said.

The airtight batteries are supposed to survive inside stored
missiles for years, but loctite can degrade, letting air in
and rendering the batteries useless.

Eagle-Picher officials declined our requests for an on-camera
interview, but the company said there is no evidence to
support the allegations, and that their batteries work just as
they should.

Former chief of staff of the Air Force, Gen. Ronald Fogleman,
said this potential problem needs to be checked out.

"Any end-to-end investigation I think will require them to go
back and look at the internal components of the guidance
system to make sure there is no history of failure," Fogelman
said.

Peoples, a former Marine, has filed a whistle-blower suit
against Eagle-Picher.

The alleged cover-up, Peoples said, "has jeopardized our
national defense to the point where it is criminal fraud and
someone should pay."

On Friday on the Evening News, another former Eagle-Picher
employee tells how the company allegedly covered up defective
batteries and rigged tests, possibly endangering U.S. soldiers
in Afghanistan.

© MMI, CBS Worldwide Inc. All Rights Reserved.

I'm gonna run this thing back to the top for the folks that missed it.

I would take this kind of crap with several grains of salt.  I've worked in several businesses that manufacture weapon/aircraft/space products for Uncle Sugar.  He's always got a contingent of inspectors that live there inspecting, witnessing tests and checking paperwork.  If this sort of thing happened, many people would go to jail rapidly.

What Norm said.

[b]A 1,000-pound smart bomb went off target and hit a senior
citizens' center near Herat. In Kabul, 500-pound guided bombs
went astray and slammed into a residential area, reportedly
killing 25 civilians.[/b]

hmm acverage life expectancy in afgansitan is about forty-five, so senior citizens are about forty....

What would the Energizer-Bunny say about all this? [:D]

These are Afghans, you are allowed to switch sides at any time, break your surrender promises,  and let yesterday's enemy steal away into the countryside to come back and fight again.

These requirements were not in the MIL-SPEC for our smart bombs [whacko] [whacko]