Employees at a Russian-owned steel plant in Oregon falsified critical quality control tests on armored plating used in military vehicles, including the U.S. Army’s Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV), according to a new report by Bloomberg.
An internal investigation, cited in the report, revealed that between 2017 and 2019, workers at Evraz North America’s Portland facility skipped required hardness tests and recorded false results for approximately 12,800 armor plates, some of which showed “signs of cracking.”
Evraz initiated the investigation in late 2019 after allegations emerged that quality control requirements had been bypassed, raising concerns about the integrity of the manufacturing process for vehicles critical to troop safety.
The falsified tests reportedly involved plates supplied to Oshkosh Defense, a primary manufacturer of the Joint Light Tactical Vehicles (JLTV). The JLTV, used by the United Kingdom, Israel, Romania, and other allied nations, serves as the U.S. military’s successor to the High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle also known as Humvee.
Since 2024, Oshkosh has produced over 22,000 JLTVs, each expected to have a service life of 20 years.
In January, 50 JLTV 🇺🇸 armored combat multi-role vehicles were delivered to Lithuania 🇱🇹. With the delivery of the remaining JLTVs later this year, the Lithuanian Armed Forces will have a total of 500. pic.twitter.com/pdoajw6qTS
— Justinas 🇱🇹 (@justinas_lt) January 20, 2025
Night
JLTV configured to carry and launch NMESIS missiles remotely during testing at Pacific Missile Range Facility Barking Sands in Kekaha, Hawaii pic.twitter.com/ahMnzMFZ0V— Fire, Fire Sabot (@IndexSabot) December 31, 2024
The Bloomberg report notes that it is still unclear how many of the untested plates were used on JLTVs or other vehicles.
Following the internal report, the FBI has visited several Evraz facilities over the past year, and authorities have issued a subpoena requiring Evraz to preserve information related to the production line incidents, the report added.
In a written response to Bloomberg’s inquiries, the company said that the internal report “examines quality control protocols and underscores Evraz North America’s commitment to continual process enhancements to produce high-quality, reliable plate,” further emphasizing that the company adheres to “strict compliance with all industry standards.”
Evraz also noted that its plates passed “independent testing by a government-approved facility” and reported no client complaints.
The report surfaced two years after the U.S. Army awarded Oshkosh Defense a $6.7 billion contract to procure nearly 17,000 JLTVs for the Army and the Marines. Both the U.S. Army and Oshkosh Defense have not yet commented on the report.
