By Samuel Short September 27, 2024 at 10:31am
Is someone trying to sabotage the Navy?
Evidence suggests so as a memo released Tuesday by Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition Nickolas Guertin to Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro and Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchett says welds on in-service and in-construction Navy submarines and aircraft carriers were intentionally faulty.
USNI News reported Thursday that Newport News Shipbuilding — a Virginia based company and division of Huntington Ingalls Industries — told the Department of Justice that welds could have been made wrong intentionally.
Newport News Shipbuilding provided a statement to USNI saying they discovered welds that “did not meet our high-quality standards.”
The company, “took immediate action to communicate with our customers and regulators, investigate, determine root cause, bound these matters and insert immediate corrective actions to prevent any recurrence of these issues.”
USNI also confirmed with the Navy they are looking into the problem saying a “thorough evaluation is underway.”
According to USNI, Newport News is only one of two nuclear shipyards in the United States.
How concerning should this information be?
Guertin’s memo characterizes intent rather than sheer negligence as the problem.
Should the impacted ships and submarines be taken out of service?
If that is the case, its unnerving that some person or persons working closely with one of only two nuclear shipyards is trying to sabotage naval vessels.
In their report, BizPac Review brought another possible explanation to light: DEI.
While we can only speculate, DEI hiring policies in places like the aircraft industry have bred dangerous results in recent months.
As previously stated, Newport News Shipbuilding is a division of Hunting Ingalls Industries.
As the trend goes with companies in 2024, HII’s website has its own DEI page laden with the usual left-wing jargon.
One statement from HII stands out as particularly concerning in light in recent news.
In pursuing, “company sponsored and employee-led opportunities that ensure the many voices are heard and our people thrive,” HII has created, “Executive-led Diversity & Inclusion Councils that guide our diversity and inclusion efforts.”
While this is purely speculation, DEI efforts — that is, the shunning of merit-based hiring in favor of race, ethnicity, and gender-based hiring — don’t lead to top quality work.
Whatever the cause of the Navy’s latest problems, it remains that — a problem that needs fixing.
Sam Short is an Instructor of History with Motlow State Community College in Smyrna, Tennessee. He holds a BA in History from Middle Tennessee State University and an MA in History from University College London.
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