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.

 

[SirCliveSinclairdabbing]

It said wrong type of wire. By intentionally it probably means caught doing that again after an official warning for doing it

 

[Nate Higgers]

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.

There’s some boomers on jobsites who won’t even let greenhorn apprentices learn how to read the prints, much less even see the prints. Combine that with apprenticeship/trade schools who focus more on “theory” than skills actually used in the field, and you end up turning out green journeymen who don’t even know how to read a set of prints or find the answers to the questions they’re looking for in the submittals.

On the job training is worth 10x what you learn in class (for some trades), but you only get to that point if you don’t have an old flea who is so insecure about his position in the company that he’s genuinely concerned a green apprentice would supplant him.

 

[The Punished Mitch]

Shaniquea probably thought the welds she asked to perform were too neat and clean, both symbols of huwhite supremacy. Besides, wypipo don't even season dey welds OR submarines

 

[Snekposter]

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.

A lot of these standards are ridiculous. Before he retired the shop my old man oversaw was dealing with a Raytheon contract where the welds had to show up as pretty much picture perfect on goddamn X-ray. Any welder who could do that wouldn't be working at a small job shop. Thankfully they managed to talk Raytheon down into something they could actually do after a lot of wrangling, and managed to deliver the parts, albeit with some difficulty since they were still some extremely exacting ones. And these guys used to make parts for Shelby, so its not like they're incapable of meeting high standards!

 

[WelperHelper99]

A lot of these standards are ridiculous. Before he retired the shop my old man oversaw was dealing with a Raytheon contract where the welds had to show up as pretty much picture perfect on goddamn X-ray. Any welder who could do that wouldn't be working at a small job shop. Thankfully they managed to talk Raytheon down into something they could actually do after a lot of wrangling, and managed to deliver the parts, albeit with some difficulty since they were still some extremely exacting ones. And these guys used to make parts for Shelby, so its not like they're incapable of meeting high standards!

As I said, some of the stuff they are asking for is difficult and asks for masters. Masters that are retiring at this point. It's not that it can't be done, it's that the pool of people able to meet those x-ray level standards practically have to be born ready.

 

[Snekposter]

As I said, some of the stuff they are asking for is difficult and asks for masters. Masters that are retiring at this point. It's not that it can't be done, it's that the pool of people able to meet those x-ray level standards practically have to be born ready.

And you aren't finding them in SoCal, period. John the Welder got forced out by Jose the Welder a long, long time ago. Sucks because John could have showed up and demanded anything short of a blank check and they would have hired him on the spot, but he just wasn't there.

 

[WelperHelper99]

And you aren't finding them in SoCal, period. John the Welder got forced out by Jose the Welder a long, long time ago. Sucks because John could have showed up and demanded anything short of a blank check and they would have hired him on the spot, but he just wasn't there.

The Mexicans are more a issue than women in welding tbh. They are able to produce functional welds but little more. The Mexican is lazy and not well trained. He only works hard when mucho deniro is on the line.