A Virginia shipbuilder has informed the Department of Justice that faulty welds may have been intentionally made on noncritical parts of in-service U.S. Navy submarines and aircraft carriers.
Huntington Ingalls Industries' Newport News Shipbuilding this week reported that the welds that were made on in-service submarines and Ford-class aircraft carriers were not made by following welding procedure, reports USNI News Friday.
The information was contained in a memo from Nickolas Guertin, assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition to Carlos Del Toro, secretary of the Navy, and Adm. Lisa Franchetti, chief of naval operations.
According to Guertin, the workers had not followed proper techniques while welding joints, indicating that some of the errors had been intentional.
After the Newport News shipyard assessed the welds, it notified the Department of Justice.
A U.S. Navy spokesperson, in a statement to Newsmax on Friday, commented that the Navy is "aware of the issue and a thorough evaluation is underway to determine the scope" of the reports.
"The safety of our Sailors and our ships is of paramount importance," the statement added. "We are working closely with industry partners to address this situation and will provide additional information when available."
Huntington Ingalls Industries told USNI News on Thursday that it took "immediate action" after discovering through internal reporting "that the quality of some welds did not meet our high-quality standards."
The shipbuilders informed customers and regulators and worked to investigate the matter, to determine the root cause, and "insert immediate corrective actions to prevent any recurrence of these issues," read the statement.
"HII's Newport News Shipbuilding is committed to building the highest-quality aircraft carriers and submarines for the U.S. Navy," the company said. "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 DOJ did not immediately respond to USNI with comments about the reports.
Newport News, one of two nuclear shipyards in the United States, builds Ford-class aircraft carriers, as well as the Columbia-class nuclear ballistic missile submarines in cooperation with General Dynamics Electric Boat. It also builds bow and stern sections for the Virginia-class submarines.