Navy Approves Northrop Welding Action Plan

[USS ALASKA]

Newport News Daily Press
September 11, 2009

Navy Approves Northrop Welding Action Plan; Says Subs, Sailors 'Not At Risk'

By Peter Frost

Improper welding procedures at Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Newport News shipyard discovered in late 2007 pose no risk to sailors or submarines, the Navy said Thursday.

Following what it described as a 16-month "in-depth review," the Navy approved a report submitted by Northrop and sub-building partner General Dynamics Electric Boat that deals with welding errors found on Virginia class submarines in 2007.

In announcing its completion of the review and acceptance of the partners' report, the Navy said it "is satisfied that our people and platforms are not at risk due to this issue."

Northrop and Groton, Conn.-based Electric Boat were required to submit the report after Navy inspectors found that Newport News welders and pipe fitters used incorrect metals to weld together piping and joints on submarines and surface ships. The use of the wrong material could lead to cracking, and eventually, leaks.

The shipbuilders issued the report in April 2008, and the Navy approved it in August. The service didn't announce its acceptance until Thursday.

Northrop and Electric Boat "conducted exhaustive analysis and testing that demonstrates: the low probability of improper welds occurring aboard submarines; that improper welds are unlikely to fail during the ship's operational life; and that should a weld fail it would leak but not break, thereby alerting the crew in time to address the issue before the weld degraded further," the Navy said.

Navy spokeswoman Katie Roberts said Thursday that weld inspections are still ongoing, "which (raises) the possibility of finding additional welds that need to be replaced." Therefore, she said, the total cost of additional testing and analysis and replacement of welds is still under review.

Who pays those costs will be determined by the terms and conditions of the effective contracts, she said.

Shortly after the weld problems were made public, the Navy and Northrop expanded their probe to include all vessels built or serviced by the Newport News yard between January 2000 and January 2008. As many as 17 vessels were included, including seven carriers, nine submarines and a cruiser.

Faulty welds were found on at least two Newport News-built submarines, the USS Virginia and the USS Texas, a Navy official said in 2008. The most critical error that investigators found was on a pipe joint on a sub's emergency main ballast-tank blowout system, a fail-safe device that allows a sub to surface and submerge if its primary systems fail.

Overall, the Navy said, inspectors found "a low number" of faulty welds located within ship-critical systems, and each of those welds was replaced.

While the service didn't rule out the existence of additional improper welds, "the shipbuilders and the Navy have concluded that contaminated welds would likely not show any signs of failure during the submarine's operational life," the Navy said. If welds do fail, the Navy said those pipes would leak instead of failing completely.

As a result of the weld mishap, Northrop enacted sweeping changes at the local shipyard.

It held mandatory retraining sessions for more than 3,000 welders and fitters and implemented new processes those workers must follow.

Northrop also was required to submit a separate action plan for surface ships that may have been affected, but the Navy has not yet completed its review of that plan, Roberts said.

The weld-filler issue was the first of three quality-control incidents for the Newport News shipyard, the nation's only builder of aircraft carriers and one of two to build submarines for the Navy.

Earlier this year, a yard weld inspector admitted to signing off on the quality of welds that he did not inspect. The inspector, Robert Ruks, was fired. The issue is still under investigation by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.

Then last month, the Navy found that weapons-handling systems on at least four submarines were installed incorrectly by Newport News workers. Those errors could restrict the ability of sailors to move torpedoes into launch tubes, essentially disabling the sub's ability to launch attacks or defend itself, a Northrop executive said.

Northrop, which insists the three problems are unrelated, has submitted a plan to the Navy to address the weapons systems problems, the Navy said. A Northrop spokeswoman said the company is still investigating the issue and will provide findings to the Navy once complete.

"The quality of our work is something we take very seriously. We have a rigorous program in place that includes inspecting and evaluating our work to ensure it adheres to the Navy's strict requirements," Northrop spokeswoman Jennifer Dellapenta said in a statement. "When issues arise, it's something we address in an immediate and methodical way, in full communication with the U.S. Navy and our industrial partners."

[USS ALASKA]

Norfolk Virginian-Pilot
September 29, 2009

Don't Worry Over Quality Of Subs, Secretary Says

By Robert McCabe, Associated Press

NEWPORT NEWS -- Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, on a visit to Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding Newport News on Monday, affirmed the quality of its submarine-construction program, expressed comfort with an 11-carrier fleet and voiced confidence that a suitable outlying landing field for pilot training eventually would be found.

Accompanied by U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott, Mabus spent the morning touring the carrier George H.W. Bush, the shipyard's Apprentice School and its submarine-building facility, where they saw three vessels - the California, the Mississippi and the Minnesota - under construction.

"I'm absolutely comfortable with the quality of the submarines that are being produced here," Mabus said in a brief news conference after his visit.

"I'm comfortable with what Northrop Grumman has done in terms of making sure that we do go to sea with zero defects," he added. "Once we head out to sea, there's no room for error."

The shipyard has been dealing with a series of problems relating to submarine construction in recent months.

Noting that Northrop Grumman's Newport News operation is the nation's only builder of nuclear-powered carriers and one of just two companies that can build nuclear-powered subs, Mabus said the importance of maintaining a highly skilled work force is critical.

"One of the things I keep talking about is the need to protect and preserve the industrial base of this country," he said. "If you lose the skilled work force, for example, that you have here, it is virtually impossible to get it back."

Mabus said that under plans announced by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, the number of carriers in the fleet would drop to 10 starting in 2040. Before then, the carrier fleet would drop to 10 for a roughly three-year period between the Enterprise's retirement and the arrival of the Gerald R. Ford, now under construction. That interval is roughly five years away.

Mabus said he was confident in the size of the fleet now and in the adequacy of a 10-carrier fleet in the time gap before the Ford comes online.

The process of finding a new outlying landing field for carrier-pilot training has been delayed by the need to wait for an environmental impact statement that covers a new joint strike fighter as well as current aircraft, Mabus said.

"I'm confident that we can come up with an appropriate outlying landing field that'll meet the Navy's needs and also meet the community's needs and be a good facility for wherever it ends up," he said.

Also Monday, Mabus visited Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth and BAE Systems in Norfolk, according to a Navy public affairs officer.

Today, he is scheduled to visit Naval Surface Warfare Center Dam Neck and Oceana Naval Air Station.

[Bgile]

One unspoken thing here is that the USN also has a fighter gap. The F/A-18 is wearing out fast because of the high op tempo, and the F-35C won't arrive fast enough to fill the gap.

[USS ALASKA]

Newport News Daily Press
September 30, 2009

Northrop Moving Forward On Submarine Investigation

By Peter Frost

NEWPORT NEWS — Northrop Grumman Corp. is making progress on its investigation into how Newport News workers incorrectly installed bolts and fasteners in weapons-handling systems on four Navy submarines, yard general manager Matt Mulherin said this week in an interview with the Daily Press.

While the yard has made some preliminary conclusions, it is not ready to release its findings and instead is focused on fixing the problems on the submarine New Mexico to expedite its delivery to the Navy, Mulherin said.

That boat, a Virginia-class submarine under construction in Newport News, was on track to be completed this month and commissioned in November. But after problems were found in its weapons-handling systems, commissioning was pushed back to early 2010.

"We've got a schedule, and we're working our way through that," Mulherin said. "It is certainly challenging, but that's really going to be our critical path to get to sea trials. We're pushing it, but it's got to be done right."

The yard, working with sub-building partner General Dynamics Electric Boat, also must expedite repairs on the submarine North Carolina, which is commissioned but undergoing maintenance in Groton, Conn.

Two other subs, the Missouri and California, also had problems, but both are still under construction.

On each of the subs, Northrop improperly installed bolts and fasteners that hold together tracks on which weapons are moved in the torpedo room. Improper installation of these pieces could result in a misalignment of the equipment, preventing the movement of weapon cradles within the torpedo room.

Meanwhile, Mulherin said, Newport News is going through the same kind of soul-searching it experienced in 2007, when local yard welders and pipe fitters used an incorrect metal to fuse together pipes and joints on submarines. Those welding errors could eventually lead to cracking and leaks.

An ensuing investigation stretched for nearly two years and resulted in sweeping changes on the waterfront. The company also had to produce two several-hundred-page reports for the Navy, detailing how to deal with ships that might have faulty welds, a time-consuming and costly detour.

With the latest issue, Mulherin said: "It's really looking at how do we plan, implement engineering, training — it's all the same kinds of things that we worked through on the (2007 welding issue). We're asking ourselves, 'What do we have to do to keep from repeating these things?'"

While the Navy and Pentagon have been generally supportive of Northrop as it works through the problems, Mulherin has described the yard's shortcomings as embarrassing, and he's invested much of his time searching for solutions.

Changes could be in store for Northrop's quality assurance and testing programs, both of which are in charge of detecting problems during construction. Neither the 2007 welding issue nor the latest problem with weapons-handling systems were caught in Newport News, casting some of the blame on those inspectors.

But those problems also escaped the scrutiny of the Navy's local Supervisor of Shipbuilding, Conversion and Repair office, whose inspectors work at the yard every day supervising and inspecting ship construction.

"Listen, they're down there every day, and they find things and report to us on a daily basis," Mulherin said. That office "has a responsibility, and I think they're paying attention to it. But I'm solely focused on my goal, and that should be that they never find anything wrong because there's nothing to be found."

[USS ALASKA]

One unspoken thing here is that the USN also has a fighter gap. The F/A-18 is wearing out fast because of the high op tempo, and the F-35C won't arrive fast enough to fill the gap.

Given the current ops tempo, everything is wearing out faster than projected. There is going to be a huge bill coming due…

[USS ALASKA]

Reuters.com
October 6, 2009

Navy Vows Focus On Quality Ships, Affordability

By Andrea Shalal-Esa, Reuters

WASHINGTON -- The Navy, buffeted by years of cost overruns and delays in shipbuilding, on Tuesday said it was implementing a host of measures to address past problems and deliver quality ships at affordable prices going forward.

"Our job is to drive the cost of these ships down as much as possible," Rear Admiral William Landay, the Navy's program executive officer for ships, told reporters.

Navy Secretary Ray Mabus and Chief of Naval Operations Gary Roughead had been "very adamant" about the need to make ships and everything else the Navy does more affordable, he said.

Landay outlined a series of measures aimed at getting a grip on costs, including keeping tighter control of military requirements, and evaluating early on whether moves to scale back requirements slightly could lead to big cost benefits.

Landay is managing construction of 20 major surface ships and more than 190 small boats and other watercraft for U.S. agencies and allied nations, and projects for work on 25 to 30 additional major ships over the next five years.

The bulk of the work is done at a few large shipyards, but about 25 shipyards work with the Navy in total. The biggest Navy partners are General Dynamics Corp, Northrop Grumman Corp and Lockheed Martin Corp.

Landay said the changes had emerged over the past year, and were less the result of one key trigger than the growing realization of many officials that management of Navy shipbuilding programs needed better oversight.

In addition to boosting his staff by 25 percent or 67 people, the Navy was also using more fixed price deals which shifted responsibility for any cost overruns to contractors.

The Navy was also putting more emphasis on reducing technological risk in programs and ensuring that its ship designs were more mature before construction began, he said.

"We have drawn a line in the sand with ourselves and said we are not going to start ship construction until the designs are very mature," Landay told reporters.

The Navy was also getting more active in its management of contractors, focusing more on the efficiency of production, work flows at the shipyards, increased automation, reduced manning, efficient energy usage and other factors.

"In the past, we've often times been too passive. Now we're trying to be far more aggressive," he said, noting that the emphasis was shifting to managing and evaluating the performance of the companies, not their individual programs.

Landay said the Navy revamped its acquisition plans for Littoral Combat Ships built by Lockheed and General Dynamics after realizing that proceeding with two different designs would not allow the Navy to meet a congressional cost cap of $460 million in fiscal 2010, as required.

He said the first Lockheed LCS ship cost about $637 million and the first General Dynamics ship would likely come in around $704 million when it was delivered by the end of the year.

Landay said the Navy expected to release the cost of the third and fourth ships, which are on fixed-rate contracts, within two to three weeks, now that it had switched plans on how to proceed with the next ships in the class.