Widespread problems found on LPDs, other ships

Navy engineers are tackling a raft of problems discovered aboard warships built at the Gulf Coast yards of defense giant Northrop Grumman — including faulty welds, lube-oil problems and a defective engine — in the latest installment of the ongoing saga between the Navy and its largest shipbuilder.

Inspectors are rechecking every pipe weld aboard every ship built in the last several years at Avondale, La., or Pascagoula, Miss., including destroyers and small- and big-deck amphibs, after discovering so many problems that all pipe welders and Navy inspectors at both yards had to be decertified and then recertified to work on ships.

Navy officials didn’t have information Thursday morning about how many people had to requalify to work in the yards, or how many people couldn’t requalify and were dismissed. The disbarring and reapplication took place last summer, when some of the problems were first discovered.

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