So this is definitely fraud at the very least. Metallurgist Elaine Thomas confessed that she has been doctoring the numbers when it comes to the tests the Navy wanted for their metal.
“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 AP noted. “The tests were intended to show that the steel would not fail in a collision or in certain ‘wartime scenarios,’ the Justice Department said,” according to the outlet.
“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.”
“She suggested that in some cases she changed the tests to passing grades because she thought it was “stupid” that the Navy required the tests to be conducted at negative-100 degrees Fahrenheit ”
“Thomas faces up to 10 years in prison and a $1 million fine when she is sentenced in February. However, the Justice Department said it would recommend a prison term at the low end of whatever the court determines is the standard sentencing range in her case.”
So Ms. Thomas admits that she was wrong about lying for decades. She felt that one of the tests required was ludicrous and unnecessary. But that was not up to her to judge. Luckily it seems the metal strength is fine it’s just that the subs may not be about to withstand temperatures below zero, which shouldn’t be a problem