Newport News Shipbuilding informed the Department of Justice that there may be intentionally faulty welds on non-critical components located on in-service submarines and aircraft carriers, according to a report by USNI News Thursday.
The faulty work was discovered by internal quality assurance systems and early indications show that some of the welding errors were intentional, according to a statement to USNI News.
“We recently discovered through internal reporting that the quality of some welds did not meet our high-quality standards. Upon this discovery, we took immediate action to communicate with our customers and regulators, investigate, determine root cause, bound these matters and insert immediate corrective actions to prevent any recurrence of these issues,” the statement reads.
It continues: “Newport News Shipbuilding is committed to building the highest-quality aircraft carriers and submarines for the U.S. Navy. We do not tolerate any conduct that compromises our company’s values and our mission of delivering ships that safeguard our nation and its sailors.”
Aerial view of HII’s Newport News Shipbuilding division, taken in October 2018. Newport News is one of two U.S. shipyards capable of designing and building nuclear-powered submarines, and is the design agent and hull planning yard for the Los Angeles-class and Seawolf-class attack submarines. (Photo by Ashley Cowan/HII)
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The Navy is now investigating the allegations and are attempting to measure how much has been affected by the faulty work.
The nation’s newest and most advanced nuclear-powered attack submarine PCU Virginia (SSN 774) travels along the morning sunrise skyline on its way from Norfolk Naval Shipyard to complete Bravo sea trials. Virginia is the Navy’s only major combatant ready to join the fleet that was designed with the post-Cold War security environment in mind and embodies the war fighting and operational capabilities required to dominate the littorals while maintaining undersea dominance in the open ocean. ( U.S. Navy photo by Journalist 2nd Class Christina M. Shaw )
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“The Navy is aware of the issue and a thorough evaluation is underway to determine the scope. The safety of our Sailors and our ships is of paramount importance. We are working closely with industry partners to address this situation and will provide additional information when available,” reads the statement.
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Newport News Shipbuilding, a division of Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII), is one of two nuclear shipyards in the U.S. and is currently working on building the Ford-class aircraft carrier and parts of the Virginia-class attack submarine.
