Reports are now surfacing that a metallurgist has admitted to faking steel-test results for US Navy submarines.
A metallurgist in Washington state pleaded guilty to fraud Monday after she spent decades faking the results of strength tests on steel that was being used to make U.S. Navy submarines.Elaine Marie Thomas, 67, of Auburn, Washington, was the director of metallurgy at a foundry in Tacoma that supplied steel castings used by Navy contractors Electric Boat and Newport News Shipbuilding to make submarine hulls.From 1985 through 2017, Thomas falsified the results of strength and toughness tests for at least 240 productions of steel — about half the steel the foundry produced for the Navy, according to her plea agreement, filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Tacoma. The tests were intended to show that the steel would not fail in a collision or in certain “wartime scenarios,” the Justice Department said.
Fortunately for our brave servicemen and women, there are no allegations that any submarine hulls failed. However, authorities said the Navy had incurred increased costs and maintenance to ensure they remain seaworthy.
The reason for the faked data? Thomas thought the required tests were “stupid.”
When confronted with the falsified results, Ms Thomas suggested that in some cases she gave metal positive results because she thought it was “stupid” that the Navy required the tests to be conducted at -100F (-70C), the Associated Press reports.John Carpenter, a lawyer for Ms Thomas, said in a statement filed in federal court on Monday that she “took shortcuts and made material misrepresentations.””Ms Thomas never intended to compromise the integrity of any material and is gratified that the government’s testing does not suggest that the structural integrity of any submarine was in fact compromised,” he said.
Thomas, who will be sentenced in February, faces up to 10 years in prison and a $1 million fine.
Since I am on the subject of subs, Legal Insurrection readers may recall that France recalled its ambassador to the US because the Biden Administration torpedoed a French submarine deal with Australia.
Brace yourselves for more tensions with that nation: Kamala Harris is on the way to Paris, on a “charm offensive” to cool French anger.
‘It is good to be in France and I am looking forward to many many days of productive discussions reinforcing the strength of our relationship,’ she dodged, remaining unresponsive with a question on how she will ‘ease tensions’ with the French president.Harris’ four-day trip to Paris is a charm offensive aimed at Macron after President Joe Biden ‘s ‘clumsy’ handling of the row over the new US-British submarine deal with Australia.
Many on social media share my concerns about Harris.
I worry that there will be less charm and more offensive.
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