Faulty military supplies: Cheating taxpayers, endangering soldiers

The New York Times staffers are looking into a whistleblower lawsuit, filed by Phillips & Cohen last year and joined by the government, that alleges a subsidiary of Alliant Techsystems cheated taxpayers by selling military flares that hadn't been properly tested and are so fragile that the flares could endanger U.S. soldiers.

"At a time when the country is fighting two wars and has more than 180,000 troops deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, [the whistleblower's] contentions may raise anew questions about the reliability of military contractors and the safety of their products," reported the The New York Times story: "Lighting up the night, and a legal battle," by Jonathan D. Glater, published in the Nov. 2 edition.

The story examines a "qui tam" lawsuit filed on behalf of a whistleblower by Phillips & Cohen LLP against ATK Thiokol, now known as ATK Launch Systems, in federal district court in Salt Lake City, Utah. Phillips & Cohen, which specializes in qui tam lawsuits, represents Kendall Dye, a former engineer employed for 21 years by ATK and its predecessor companies. The U.S. government investigated the allegations and joined the lawsuit last year.

As The New York Times story notes: the flares are "3-foot-long, 36-pound aluminum tubes packed with propellant that burn at more than 3,600 degrees Fahrenheit, hot enough to melt steel." The flares are attached to parachutes and used by the U.S. military to light large areas at night.

The whistleblower found that the ATK flares might accidentally ignite if dropped from a height of less than 11 inches, the story says. The lawsuit alleges ATK didn't test the flares after they had been redesigned to make sure they met the safety requirements stipulated in the government's contract with ATK. The flares must be able to withstand a drop of at least 10 feet without igniting, in case they are dropped while being transported.

"They are so powerful that if one were to ignite accidentally -- which, according to Mr. Dye, was possible -- it could set off nearby ordnance, burn a hole in the hull of a warship or melt through the skin of an airplane high in the sky, according to his lawyers," The New York Times reports. The newspaper reported that court documents show the Justice Department's "subsequent examinations of ATK's flare program turned up more unsettling information."

Phillips & Cohen represents whistleblowers nationwide. It is the largest and most successful law firm that specializes exclusively in representing whistleblowers in qui tam and tax fraud cases. Qui tam cases brought by the firm's attorneys have returned nearly $3 billion to the government.