Shipbuilding welding procedures issues were limited, HII officials say

HII has confirmed rework issues associated the building of SSN 798. (Janes/Michael Fabey)

The welding issues that HII had reported to the US Navy (USN) at the company's Newport News Shipbuilding yard in Virginia were limited in scope, according to HII officials.

“Some welder issues were reported publicly that we had previously disclosed to our customer,” Tom Stiehle, HII executive vice-president and chief financial officer, told investment analysts during a quarterly earnings call.

“An initial assessment at Newport News Shipbuilding determined that fewer than two dozen welders did not consistently follow procedures in their weld process,” Stiehle said. “We continue to work alongside with the navy through a comprehensive investigation and analysis to determine the extent of any financial impact.”

Chris Kastner, HII president and CEO, told investors, “This is a process issue. This is a small fraction of some welders in the yard and a small fraction of welds that were impacted. We're working very closely with the customer to bound the issue and come through the issue. And we think we'll march through that very smartly.”

Kastner also noted some issues with Virginia-class Block IV attack submarines (SSNs). “You have [SSNs] 798 and 800 nearing some critical milestones where you're going through the test programme and you're buttoning some systems up. We just encountered rework on systems that we didn't expect, that impacts schedule and we're having to roll through that.”

He added, “That's really illustrative of what we're finding on these pre-Covid ships is there's unpredictability as you move into buttoning them up and entering into these major milestones, which creates this unpredictability going forward.”