Indal Technologies, a division of Charlotte-based Curtiss-Wright Corp., has agreed to pay $3.5 million to resolve allegations that it knowingly sold defective helicopter landing systems designed for U.S. Navy destroyers, the U.S. Department of Justice announced.

Indal allegedly knowingly substituted a different, less-expensive type of steel in multiple Recovery, Assist, Secure and Traverse (RAST) system track plates delivered to the Navy without informing the Navy.

“When government contractors supply our armed forces with equipment that fails to meet performance standards, they not only cheat taxpayers, but they put at risk the safety of our service members,” said Assistant Attorney General Joseph H. Hunt of the Department of Justice’s Civil Division in a statement.

“Today’s settlement demonstrates our commitment to ensuring that the military receives products that meet its requirements and for which it has paid.”

The RAST system includes a device that locks a hovering helicopter onto a trolley, and once locked into place the helicopter moves along steel track plates into a shipboard hangar. The Navy’s contracts for RAST systems required track plates made of HY100 steel because of the strength and protection it provides from corrosion.

Indal Technologies is based in Ontario, Canada, and engineers and designs highly manufactured technologies for defense solutions.