Inspections of critical vendors for the Columbia-class submarine program, born out of welding problems discovered last summer, will continue "in perpetuity," according to the program manager. "Those [inspections] are ongoing. We do about two a month and we've so far completed 16 of them since last fall. We started with the missile tube vendors," Capt. Jonathan Rucker, Columbia program manager, told attendees at the Sea Air Space symposium yesterday. Those inspections began last year after BWX Technologies informed the Navy...
