DoJ Notified of Suspected Faulty Welds on Subs, Aircraft Carriers at Newport News Shipbuilding - Faulty welds that may have been made intentionally. Or may be just DEI

Shipuilder Newport News Shipbuilding, Va., informed the Department of Justice of faulty welds that may have been made intentionally on non-critical components on in-service Navy submarines and aircraft carriers, USNI News has learned.

HII reported to the Navy that welds on new construction and in-service submarines and Ford-class aircraft carriers were made not following welding procedure, according to a Tuesday memo from Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition Nickolas Guertin to Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro and Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti.

Guertin told SECNAV and CNO the workers did not follow proper techniques to weld the suspect joints with an early indication that some of the welding errors were intentional. Based on the Newport News assessment of the welds, the shipyard notified the Department of Justice over the issue.

Portions of Guertin’s memo were first circulated on social media sites on Thursday.

Newport News acknowledged their internal quality assurance systems discovered production problems in a Thursday 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,” reads the statement.
“HII’s 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.”

The Navy acknowledged the ongoing look into the scope of the welding problem in a Thursday statement to USNI News.

“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.

The Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for additional information from USNI News on Thursday on the probe into the welds.

Newport News is one of two nuclear shipyards in the U.S. The yard builds the Ford-class aircraft carriers and the bow and stern sections of the Virginia-class attack submarines and the Columbia-class nuclear ballistic missile submarines in cooperation with General Dynamics Electric Boat.

Shipbuilders across the country have been wrestling with ongoing workforce problems due in part to a green labor pool that was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

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An actual good boomer take in the comments. Greed and the US environmental bureaucracy did everything in its power to drive this type of industry to Asia.
Young quality individuals are not going to be interested in getting in to a career that there is basically only 1 employer you could ever work for. I know Electric Boat is also having a hard time with labor also. Doesn't help they forced a bunch of older workers out with vax bullshit. Now with commercial ship building killed off there is nothing to restock the skilled worker pool.

 

[Kari Kamiya]

DEI is no different than hiring because of corruption or due to political connections.

DEI was intentional, too. Ergo, the faulty welding was clearly intentional because that's exactly what TPTB were looking for, and the pandemic allowed this to accelerate.

They were clearly hoping for Naval casualties to destroy the evidence of such malicious incompetence and blame it on Russians or whoever.

 

[Kheapathic]

Not a welder, but have done technical work where accuracy is important; and the problem with a lot of these bad jobs is no one wants to do things "up to code" for lack of a better term. Whatever the code is for ships and submarine welds, it may be a competency, but it's more or less a lazy worker and lazy boss who isn't checking to ensure the work is up to quality; and I've known some people who argue otherwise, but they're fucking wrong, but you can't teach or train doing shit right the first time. If the people aren't interested in doing it right the first time, they'll keep taking shortcuts until they leave or get fired. Sure, there are gonna be workers on the lower end who will need their shit inspected more often as they learn, but if they don't the ethic or drive to do it right, they never will. I'm not gonna start screaming whites only, but this is a DIE/lowest bidder problem; you want perfect welds, you're gonna have to get the people and pay them for it.

Look at Boeing, and all the shit coming out about their maintenance centers and who they have working there. You may not like it, but you can't teach competency, especially not as an adult.

 

[WelperHelper99]

Not a welder, but have done technical work where accuracy is important; and the problem with a lot of these bad jobs is no one wants to do things "up to code" for lack of a better term. Whatever the code is for ships and submarine welds, it may be a competency, but it's more or less a lazy worker and lazy boss who isn't checking to ensure the work is up to quality; and I've known some people who argue otherwise, but they're fucking wrong, but you can't teach or train doing shit right the first time. If the people aren't interested in doing it right the first time, they'll keep taking shortcuts until they leave or get fired. Sure, there are gonna be workers on the lower end who will need their shit inspected more often as they learn, but if they don't the ethic or drive to do it right, they never will. I'm not gonna start screaming whites only, but this is a DIE/lowest bidder problem; you want perfect welds, you're gonna have to get the people and pay them for it.

Look at Boeing, and all the shit coming out about their maintenance centers and who they have working there. You may not like it, but you can't teach competency, especially not as an adult.

Submarine welds are borderline God tier. They have to meet SUBSAFE standards. These standards were due to the Scorpion and Thresher losses. The Navy said never again, and it hasn't happened since. As such the people capable of actually doing these welds are... rare to say the least. And charge quite a bit.

 

[CoffeeCup]

The bad welds were made were reportedly "intentional", hence the justice department getting involved. Could it be someone who hates the US / sabotage, or just hates their job / life in general? Not everyone who knows how to weld likes to do it.

 

[Betonhaus]

No excuse, this isn't some basic bitch tailings drainage line or industrial structure, this is strategic weaponry designed for force projection and nuclear triad. You don't hire the inexperienced or incompetent because a critical failure is likely to mean far more than a simple pipeline or reaction vessel throwing a leak. It shows more about about hiring practices and bureaucratic, DEI-fuelled red tape than anything.

Except admitting that DEI hiring practices are bad gets you fired, so you shut up and hire Shaniqua and pass them the torch

 

[John Badman]

Mmmhmm das rite. We be made uh soldering dust n shit.

 

[northstar747]

This is my industry, i know what the issue is. DEI is a fucking meme in welding, i have met more white supremacists IRL than you ever have because of my job

why arent there more black women in welding?

Is it because they are stupid and lazy?

 

[Gar For Archer]

I can confirm that the whole company is a massive shitshow. Also 100% guarantee that the welders are not being paid enough to give a shit.

Fun fact, during COVID they tried to mandate the vaxx but were forced to walk it back after something like 20-30% of the welders threatened to walk.

 

[Damocles_Sword]

Did they hire that lady who faked temperature tests on every active submarine in the water as a manager?

 

[AN/ALR56]

>for the past 40 years you transfered the technology, factories and expertise to China for basically every industry, from shoes to aerospace
>be surprised they are now a peer adversary
>try to get a workforce with no manpower or expertise because the boomers you fired when you mothballed your industries and shipyards in the 2000s are either retired or dead because now you saw the chinks have a gigantic leap in output and you need to catch up
>people seem surprised it goes awry

I don't get it, every other week there's a thread here lamenting the sad state of either the military or the US industry, with people mostly agreeing and blaming DEI and niggers fucking shit up, but when it's about the chinks coming close or being sometimes superior in some areas, people are quick to dismiss them as either tofu-dreg or Potemkin villages or just basic propaganda.

You don't need to sun tzu to realize that being complacent, lazy and thinking your adversary is not catching up or even if he is ready, that he is no match because of your past glories is a very dumb thing.

In 1941, US naval intelligence believed the japanese carriers still flew biplanes, the US officers in china warned about the Zero but they dismissed the reports as fantastical or optimistic.

 

[Sneed's Feed n Seed]

Funny how never taking on apprentices turns into no quality workpool to draw from.

Blue collar shit is extremely retarded about that. They're actively hostile to young and new workers, afraid of terkin er jerbs, and then get replaced by shitty browns anyway.

That industry is especially retarded, and I blame management the most, but I don't give passes to boomers who won't even train young Americans.

 

[Dagobert]

I don't get it, every other week there's a thread here lamenting the sad state of either the military or the US industry, with people mostly agreeing and blaming DEI and niggers fucking shit up, but when it's about the chinks coming close or being sometimes superior in some areas, people are quick to dismiss them as either tofu-dreg or Potemkin villages or just basic propaganda.

You don't need to sun tzu to realize that being complacent, lazy and thinking your adversary is not catching up or even if he is ready, that he is no match because of your past glories is a very dumb thing.

In 1941, US naval intelligence believed the japanese carriers still flew biplanes, the US officers in china warned about the Zero but they dismissed the reports as fantastical or optimistic.

No, you stupid fucking chink shill, you don't get it. America can just do what we did to Saddam all over China. Beijing will be ours in three days, or the Three Gorges Dam will explode.

Jokes aside, while I'm not exactly about to sing the praises of Red China, America is clearly in a bad position for any war. Somehow, people seem to have both forgotten the lessons of history and yet cannot escape pretending we're in the same boat as those old days. I'm not going to say it means we're guaranteed to lose, but I do think any hypothetical war will see us hurt far more than ever should be acceptable.

 

[LurkTrawl]

The odd thing is that welding is a kinesthetic skill. You can't be 'too stupid to weld properly' in a direct sense.

Work ethic or improper settings sure but that shit isn't hard either.

 

[Betonhaus]

The odd thing is that welding is a kinesthetic skill. You can't be 'too stupid to weld properly' in a direct sense.

Work ethic or improper settings sure but that shit isn't hard either.

It is possible to be too "smart" to weld. Welding is a bit of an art and if you are unable to get a feel for when conditions are perfect and how to correct then you're going to do a shit job no matter how many tests you pass.

 

[jertzog]

its not malicious, they just aren't experienced

Incompetence in every military used to be punishable by death.

 

[Betonhaus]

its not malicious, they just aren't experienced

There should still be a chain of responsibility that holds consequences for fuckups. If the grunts are morons then it's up to their supervisor to ensure they fix or avoid fuckups, otherwise he is held responsible for the fuckups and gets punished. But now there's no consequences for fuckups so fuckups keep happening with nobody trying to improve.

 

[LurkTrawl]

It is possible to be too "smart" to weld. Welding is a bit of an art and if you are unable to get a feel for when conditions are perfect and how to correct then you're going to do a shit job no matter how many tests you pass.

I know, I'm a welder. But people being too smart isn't what I think most people's concerns are wrt DEI.

 

[WelperHelper99]

why arent there more black women in welding?

Is it because they are stupid and lazy?

There aren't many women in welding in general. DEI in welding is a fucking meme.

Incompetence in every military used to be punishable by death.

They're civilian contractors, that's not a option

There should still be a chain of responsibility that holds consequences for fuckups. If the grunts are morons then it's up to their supervisor to ensure they fix or avoid fuckups, otherwise he is held responsible for the fuckups and gets punished. But now there's no consequences for fuckups so fuckups keep happening with nobody trying to improve.

You aren't wrong. It still doesn't change the fact we are in the middle of a generational switch over from Boomers/Gen X to Zoomers. Fuck ups are going to happen, unfortunately. Welding is a art that takes constant practice. Unless you are born gifted, you start at the bottom and work from there.

 

[Curzon Dax-sama]

I wonder how fast everything, literally EVERYTHING, will go to shit when the inertia runs out. We're already living in Mad Max.

 

[Rei is Shit.]

But McKinsey told me that you can just ship all the lower margin industry overseas and focus on the high profit tippy top and that makes stock line go up. Are you now going to tell me that the low/mid level manufacturing is needed to have the expertise/skill base for the high end? This sounds commie...

Not a welder, but have done technical work where accuracy is important; and the problem with a lot of these bad jobs is no one wants to do things "up to code" for lack of a better term. Whatever the code is for ships and submarine welds, it may be a competency, but it's more or less a lazy worker and lazy boss who isn't checking to ensure the work is up to quality; and I've known some people who argue otherwise, but they're fucking wrong, but you can't teach or train doing shit right the first time. If the people aren't interested in doing it right the first time, they'll keep taking shortcuts until they leave or get fired. Sure, there are gonna be workers on the lower end who will need their shit inspected more often as they learn, but if they don't the ethic or drive to do it right, they never will. I'm not gonna start screaming whites only, but this is a DIE/lowest bidder problem; you want perfect welds, you're gonna have to get the people and pay them for it.

Look at Boeing, and all the shit coming out about their maintenance centers and who they have working there. You may not like it, but you can't teach competency, especially not as an adult.

I'd bet money that its management telling the welders to do it in the fastest way possible. This is the same issue with Boeing where the only thing management cares about is getting more planes out the door since everyone gets paid based on 'rate'.