buglerbilly
06-05-10, 03:42 AM
By PHILIP EWING
Published: 5 May 2010 14:13
A shortage of U.S. Navy inspectors helped contribute to systemic quality problems with ships built at the Gulf Coast yards of defense giant Northrop Grumman, a top Navy shipbuilding official said May 5.
Brian Persons, the executive director of Naval Sea Systems Command, said that after the Navy looked into the cause of weld problems aboard destroyers and amphibious ships built as far back as 2002 in Avondale, La., and Pascagoula, Miss., officials concluded there were just too few inspectors from the Supervisor of Shipbuilding to ensure the vendors' work was up to snuff.
In response, NavSea has been steadily adding inspectors to SupShip over the past several months, he said, taking spots that had been cut in the 1990s and early 2000s.
"We've been on a very robust hiring curve to get people back into the Supervisor of Shipbuilding," Persons said. NavSea so far has hired about 300 inspectors and engineers for its SupShip offices around the country, including its offices on the Gulf Coast and on the East and West Coasts.
Persons described the SupShip additions in response to questions about the revelation in January that the Navy had discovered faulty welds aboard Gulf Coast-built ships and Navy inspectors had apparently signed off on them. Since then NavSea has gone back and looked at Louisiana- and Mississippi-built ships, starting with the destroyer Truxtun.
Every welder and inspector, both from Northrop Grumman and the Navy, was decertified and then recertified after the problems were discovered.
There was never a safety issue aboard the ships; the question was whether they would be able to last their entire designed service lives. NavSea has concluded that the welds on some of the vessels in the affected group are fine, Persons said.
He discussed the weld-quality problems in response to reporters' questions in a presentation at the Navy League's Sea Air Space trade show outside Washington, D.C. NavSea commander Vice Adm. Kevin McCoy was originally scheduled to give the brief, but Persons stepped in for him the morning of his speech.
They will always have a problem retaining people as Qualified Inspectors are a PREMIUM asset that Industry ALWAYS needs. As soon as your Naval Inspector gains a few years experience he/she becomes a target for Industry. They need to address retention and pay levels............
Published: 5 May 2010 14:13
A shortage of U.S. Navy inspectors helped contribute to systemic quality problems with ships built at the Gulf Coast yards of defense giant Northrop Grumman, a top Navy shipbuilding official said May 5.
Brian Persons, the executive director of Naval Sea Systems Command, said that after the Navy looked into the cause of weld problems aboard destroyers and amphibious ships built as far back as 2002 in Avondale, La., and Pascagoula, Miss., officials concluded there were just too few inspectors from the Supervisor of Shipbuilding to ensure the vendors' work was up to snuff.
In response, NavSea has been steadily adding inspectors to SupShip over the past several months, he said, taking spots that had been cut in the 1990s and early 2000s.
"We've been on a very robust hiring curve to get people back into the Supervisor of Shipbuilding," Persons said. NavSea so far has hired about 300 inspectors and engineers for its SupShip offices around the country, including its offices on the Gulf Coast and on the East and West Coasts.
Persons described the SupShip additions in response to questions about the revelation in January that the Navy had discovered faulty welds aboard Gulf Coast-built ships and Navy inspectors had apparently signed off on them. Since then NavSea has gone back and looked at Louisiana- and Mississippi-built ships, starting with the destroyer Truxtun.
Every welder and inspector, both from Northrop Grumman and the Navy, was decertified and then recertified after the problems were discovered.
There was never a safety issue aboard the ships; the question was whether they would be able to last their entire designed service lives. NavSea has concluded that the welds on some of the vessels in the affected group are fine, Persons said.
He discussed the weld-quality problems in response to reporters' questions in a presentation at the Navy League's Sea Air Space trade show outside Washington, D.C. NavSea commander Vice Adm. Kevin McCoy was originally scheduled to give the brief, but Persons stepped in for him the morning of his speech.
They will always have a problem retaining people as Qualified Inspectors are a PREMIUM asset that Industry ALWAYS needs. As soon as your Naval Inspector gains a few years experience he/she becomes a target for Industry. They need to address retention and pay levels............