Defective steam valve blamed for delay on sub North Carolina

A vendor that supplies materials to Northrop Grumman’s Newport News shipyard shipped a defective steam valve that was installed on the attack submarine North Carolina, causing the latest delay in the vessel’s delivery, Navy and shipyard officials said today.

The valve was not made to proper specifications and had a pinhole-sized leak, according to statements from the company and the Navy.

“The defect was the result of the vendor’s manufacturing process, which has now been corrected,” shipyard spokeswoman Jerri Dickseski said in a statement. “The valve has been replaced and is pending final retest.”

Dickseski said the valve was not manufactured at Newport News. The shipyard declined to name the vendor.

The leak came to light during normal new-ship testing, said Alan Baribeau, a spokesman for Naval Sea Systems Command in Washington.

Part of the submarine’s non-nuclear propulsion system, the valve serves to control and isolate the steam flow to steam turbines for propulsion and electric-power generation, he said.

The Navy said Tuesday that the problem had pushed back the yard’s delivery of the submarine from January to mid-February.

The shipyard’s contract with the Navy first had called for delivery of the $2.6 billion sub in December. That deadline slipped after a Navy investigation uncovered some faulty piping welds on sections of several of the Virginia-class submarines assembled in Newport News.

Discovery of the bad valve was unrelated to the weld issue, Baribeau said.