US Navy grounds some of its planes after finding faulty parts in aircraft ejection seats

• The Navy has grounded a number of aircraft after finding faulty parts in their ejection seats.
• The Navy said the defect did not affect all the aircraft in the Navy and Marine Corps inventory.

The US Navy and Marine Corps are working to replace ejection seat parts in some aircraft after the manufacturer alerted them to a defect, and some planes have been grounded, according to a report from Breaking Defense.

The Navy announced Tuesday that they had discovered an issue with the cartridge actuated devices (CAD), which are involved in the deployment of the parachute when pilots pull the ejection handle, in some F/A-18B/C/D Hornets and F/A-18E/F Super Hornets, E/A-18G Growlers, T-45 Goshawks, and F-5 Tiger II training aircrafts.

The sea service grounded an undisclosed number of the affected aircraft, a Navy spokesperson told Breaking Defense while withholding the specific number for operational security reasons.

The defect discovered did not affect all of the aircraft in the Navy and Marines inventory. Instead, the problem was contained to those planes within "a limited range of lot numbers," according to Naval Air Systems Command.

—flynavy (@flynavy) July 26, 2022

The Navy said no injuries or deaths have been reported due to the issue.

The defect was first discovered by the manufacturer, Martin Baker, who the Navy says then used "validated radiography procedures to scan on-hand inventory to verify each item was properly manufactured" before sending out replacement parts.

Naval Surface Warfare Center Indian Head Division began sending part replacements to maintenance centers on Sunday, and all of the aircraft will be inspected before their next flights, the Navy said in a statement.