Investigation into pipe welds from Newport News yard widened

NEWPORT NEWS

An investigation of faulty pipe welds on Virginia-class submarines assembled at Northrop Grumman Newport News has been broadened to include aircraft carriers and another class of submarines.

The assessment will cover non-nuclear piping systems on carriers and subs repaired and built by shipyard workers in recent years, shipyard and Navy officials said Monday.

A shipyard spokeswoman described it as a precautionary move after the discovery in recent weeks of contaminated welds on some of the Virginia-class submarines the yard has assembled. It's possible that welders made the same mistake on other vessels - using the wrong type of metal weld filler to join non-nuclear piping systems.

Last week, sea trials for the submarine North Carolina were delayed several days while the Navy and the shipyard scoured its high-energy systems for faulty welds. None were found, the Navy said.

"We are looking at the other ships just to ensure there are no issues with those welds," said shipyard spokeswoman Jennifer Dellapenta. "Because it was a welding-process

issue, they are checking the same types of piping systems on those ships."

The internal piping systems under review carry such things as oil, air and water.

So far, seven ships beyond the Virginia-class subs have been targeted for an assessment, Dellapenta said. Four are carriers - the George H.W. Bush, the Carl Vinson, the Enterprise and the George Washington. The other three are Los Angeles-class attack submarines - the Toledo, the Newport News and the Oklahoma City.

The carrier Bush is under construction and slated for delivery to the Navy next year, while the Carl Vinson is in the yard for a refueling and maintenance overhaul. The George Washington, now in port, and the Enterprise, scheduled to return Wednesday from a Middle East deployment, have been worked on by shipyard employees in the past three years.

The subs Toledo and Newport News are in the shipyard now for scheduled maintenance, Dellapenta said.

A Navy spokesman said the vessels will undergo an assessment similar to that on the Virginia-class subs, including a technical analysis of the piping systems and inspections as needed.

The technical analysis already is under way, and the review is expected to extend into the first half of next year, said Lt. Cmdr. John Schofield, a spokesman for the assistant Navy secretary for research, development and acquisition.

Dellapenta said Monday that she was unsure whether more ships will fall under the review.

A Navy investigation of the Virginia-class submarines traced the problem to shipyard welders who had mistakenly used a copper alloy filler on corrosion-resistant steel pipe joints. The error can cause the joints to crack and leak. Until that discovery, shipyard workers had been allowed to carry two types of weld filler - each for a different kind of piping. But now they can carry only one filler per job, the shipyard said last week.

Alton Glass, president of the United Steelworkers Local 8888, a union that represents about 9,000 hourly shipyard workers, said he thinks the welding problem is "an isolated thing."

"Even though you put in controls, every now and again you get a glitch," said Glass, a 30-year shipyard veteran and a welder himself. Glass said he takes the issue "very seriously. We've got the best welders in the world, and we don't want to lose that reputation."

Before clearing the sub North Carolina last week for sea trials, the shipyard and the Navy evaluated about 15,000 welds.

Navy officials said last week that the problem does not appear to be as serious as initially thought, but they are unsure if it will create long-term maintenance issues.

On Monday, Schofield said in an e-mail that the Navy's recent assessment of the Virginia-class submarines "provides confidence in the short-term adequacy of the welds on any ship."

The first indication of a problem came in August, when a piping weld failed during routine testing of the New Hampshire, now under construction in Groton, Conn., at General Dynamics Electric Boat, which is teamed with Northrop Grumman to assemble the subs. When a second weld failed in October, Navy officials launched an investigation.

Since then, the Navy has found at least one faulty or suspect weld on three additional Virginia-class submarines - the Virginia, the Texas and the New Mexico. No welds have failed on the three subs now in service, including the first-in-class Virginia.

Jon W. Glass, (757) 446-2318, jon.glass@pilotonline.com