(SAE: Warrendale, PA) -- In a nondescript village, somewhere in the world, the residents take old, discarded circuit assemblies, strip and clean the components, then remark and repackage them for sale as new.

In many cases, the entire economy of the village is based on creating these counterfeit electronic parts—parts that have infiltrated every sector of the aerospace electronics industry.

The increasing volume of counterfeit parts entering the aerospace supply chain poses significant performance, reliability, and safety risks.

SAE International recently responded to the problem, completing a new standard designed to mitigate the risks of receiving and installing counterfeit electronic parts.

The SAE standard, “AS5553—Counterfeit Electronic Parts; Avoidance, Detection, Mitigation, and Disposition,” standardizes the requirements, practices, and methods related to parts management, supplier management, procurement, inspection, test/evaluation, and response strategies when suspected or confirmed counterfeit parts are discovered.

The standard was recently adopted by the U.S. Department of Defense.

According to a study by the U.S. Department of Commerce Bureau of Industry & Security, the number of counterfeit incidents reported by 387 participants climbed from 3,868 in 2005 to 9,356 in 2008, an increase of more than 140 percent. About 9 percent of the companies documented cases related to government applications.

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