The Military Records That Expose the Pentagon’s Gun Problem

This is the first in a series of document drops as Motherboard further explores what happens when the military ships faulty weapons to soldiers at war. Investigative journalist Damien Spleeters acquired hundreds of pages of previously unreleased government records through Freedom of Information Act queries while researching and reporting a story about the US military shipping thousands of defective gun parts to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, and knowing about it for years. We're making available select documents from this cache of materials to chart the labyrinthine world of military contracts, quality deficiency reports, and bad gun parts kicking around the supply chain. Spot something we didn't? Drop us a line at letters@motherboard.tv.

-Brian Anderson, Features editor

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A set of emails exchanged between DLA and DCMA personnel trying to locate deficient M2 machine gun parts. The two parent DoD agencies are scrambling to find the parts in the supply chain and assess the risk. DLA was reluctant to put the parts aside and some of them reached units in Iraq.

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A 2010 Department of Defense Inspector General audit of contracts for M2 machine guns parts. The IG found major flaws in DLA quality control.

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A March 2007 contact between Northside Machine Co. (NMC) and the government for 482 M2 machine gun parts.

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A Product Quality Deficiency Report from 2008 flagging M2 machine gun parts produced by NMC.

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Another Product Quality Deficiency Report from 2007 describing the lack of hand assets to screen stocks for deficient parts.

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A Product Quality Deficiency Report from 2013 flagging a problematic part that, if put on a weapon and fired, "may cause internal damage to weapon leading to shrapnel discharge." The deficiency was first flagged in 2009 but at the time was considered an isolated case and not investigated further. "All defective stock was supposed to be removed at the time of the previous investigation, but the part referenced in this current report must have inadvertently made it into the supply system," noted one investigator.

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A 2006 Ground Precautionary Message from the US Army about deficient gun parts warning that "death, serious injury, or damage to Army equipment will occur if actions specified in this message are not implemented."

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An article from PS (an Army magazine) from December 2006 about bad M2 machine gun parts present in the supply system.

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An article from PS Magazine from August 2009 about bad M249 machine gun parts present in the supply system.

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An April 2008 contract between NMC and the government for the supply of 500 M2 machine gun parts.

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A US Army Malfunction/Accident/Incident Report (MAIR) on McMahon's incident from July 2010. The report states the accident took place on 6 July 2010, not on 4 July 2010. The investigator concluded that the malfunction was due to improper headspace procedure.

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