WASHINGTON: A US defence contractor has pleaded guilty to secretly providing parts and drawings for nuclear submarines and fighter aircraft to India, the US media reported on Thursday.

Hannah Robert, 49, told a US district judge, Anne Thompson, in New Jersey that she exporting military technical drawings to India without prior approval from the US State Department.

The two companies she owned — One Source USA and Caldwell Components — secretly sent technical drawings of parts in the torpedo systems for nuclear submarines, military attack helicopters and F-15 fighter aircrafts.

They also falsified documents to sell substandard military hardware to the US Department of Defence. Ms Robert is charged with violating the Arms Export Control Act.

“She was also charged with manufacturing substandard parts that were not up to specification, in violation of the contracts she signed with the Department of Defence,” New Jersey US Attorney Paul Fishman said in a statement on Wednesday.

“Enforcement of the Arms Export Control Act is critical to the defence of our country.”

Ms Robert continued to provide confidential military data to India from June 2010 to December 2012 by falsifying documents.

She also owned and operated a third firm located in India that manufactured defence hardware and spare parts along with an Indian resident, identified in the complaint only as ‘PR’.

In a serious breach of trust, Ms Robert also sent export-controlled technical data to PR in India so that the two could submit bids to foreign actors.

Ms Robert transmitted military drawings to India by posting the technical data to the password-protected website of a New Jersey church where she was a volunteer web administrator.

She uploaded thousands of technical drawings to the church website for PR to download in India through the course of the scheme.

Ms Robert’s two companies, One Source USA and Caldwell Components, also signed deal with the US Defence Department to provide parts that were domestic — that is, more than 50 percent of the cost of the parts’ components are mined, produced and manufactured in the United States.

Federal prosecutors said that the companies had no manufacturing facilities in the United States and outsourced its contracts overseas.

Ms Robert also used her church’s website to send aircraft information to her subcontractors.

Some of the materials Ms Robert’s companies provided were faulty and the material certifications were misleading, media reports said.

As a result of failed wing pins she provided, the Defense Department had to ground 47 F-15 fighter aircraft for inspection and repair.

The conspiracy charge carries up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Robert faces up to five years in prison when she is sentenced in June. Under terms of a plea agreement, she must pay more than $181,000 to the Defence Department and forfeit nearly $78,000.

Published in Dawn, April 3rd, 2015

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