Faulty welds on new navy ships and submarines may have been made deliberately, prompting a Congressional investigation.
In a joint statement made on Friday, leaders of the House Armed Services Committee from both sides of the aisle called for “absolute transparency” with regard to the issue, which affects ships built at Newport News Shipbuilding, in Virginia.
“It is deeply concerning to learn that faulty welds may have been knowingly made to U.S. Navy submarines and aircraft carriers,” said the statement from Mike Rogers, Adam Smith ranking Trent Kelly and Joe Courtney.
“The House Armed Services Committee is investigating how this occurred. The safety of our sailors is our top concern, and we need to immediately understand any risks associated with the faulty work. The Department of Defense needs to immediately provide our committee with answers and a plan for how they will protect U.S. Navy vessels against tampering.”
The welding defects were confirmed by a Navy spokesperson in a written statement on Friday, but provided no further details. It’s unclear whether the defects pose a threat to sailors, whether they prevent the ships and submarines from being used or how they occurred.
“The safety of our sailors and our ships is of paramount importance,” the Navy statement said. “We are working closely with industry partners to address this situation and will provide additional information when available.”
An internal memo from the Navy’s acquisition chief clearly suggests that the defects were intentional and that the shipyard has referred the matter to the Justice Department.
Todd Corillo, a spokesperson for Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Newport News Shipbuilding division, said that some welders “knowingly circumvented certain welding procedures;” however, he emphasised that a preliminary investigation uncovered “no indication of malicious intent.”
Newport News Shipbuilding was in the news recently when a Chinese national was arrested for attempting to surveil the dockyard with a drone.
Shi Fengyun, 26, a student at the University of Minnesota, flew to Virginia and then rented a car and drove to Newport, where he used his drone to photograph the Newport News Shipbuilding shipyard, which is used to construct nuclear submarines and Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carriers.
Shi’s activities were discovered when he got the drone caught in a tree and sought assistance from a local resident. The resident quickly grew suspicious and took photos of Shi, his ID and the car he had rented, before contacting the Newport News Police Department.
Shi was questioned by the local police department at the scene. He was advised to contact the local fire department to help collect his drone, but instead he left the scene. The next day, the resident collected the drone himself and it was then seized by the FBI.
The FBI discovered photographs and videos of US naval vessels on the drone’s memory card. On the day of Shi’s visit, three submarines—the USS Boise, Columbus and Montana—were at the shipyard.
In recent months there has been growing alarm about repeated attempts by foreign nationals to gain entry to secure military installations in the US. Two Jordanian men were detained for attempting to ram their way into a Marine base in Quantico, Virginia, in what may have been a “dry run” for a terrorist attack.
Vehicles have attempted to breach gates at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek–Fort Story, in Virginia, Naval Base San Diego and the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center at Twentynine Palms, California. The attempted breach at the Air Ground Combat Center involved a Chinese national.
400 Children a Day Trafficked Across US Southern Border