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Another USN ship in collision

Not a good year for the USN.

https://www.dvidshub.net/news/245407/uss-john-s-mccain-collides-with-merchant-ship-near-strait-malacca

The guided-missile destroyer USS John S. McCain was involved in a collision with a merchant vessel east of Singapore and the Strait of Malacca, the 7th Fleet announced in a tweet.

No immediate word on any casualties. Search and rescue efforts are under way in coordination with local authorities, the Navy said.

Initial reports indicate the warship sustained damage to its port side aft.

#USSJohnSMcCain involved in collision with a merchant vessel while east of the Strait of Malacca. Updates to follow. https://t.co/6bHUovT8eI pic.twitter.com/EVcYjHwXah

— 7th Fleet (@US7thFleet) August 20, 2017
The warship is named after John S. McCain, Sr., and John S. McCain, Jr., both Admirals in the U.S. Navy, and the grandfather and father, respectively, of the Arizona senator.

The ship is based at the fleet's homeport of Yokosuka, Japan. It was commissioned in 1994 and has a crew of 23 officers, 24 chief petty officers and 291 enlisted sailors, according the Navy's website.

CHINA IRKED BY NAVY DESTROYER SAILING IN SOUTH CHINA SEA

This crash came days after the top three leaders aboard the USS Fitzgerald were relieved of command. That warship was damaged badly in a collision off the coast of Japan that killed seven sailors in June. One of its compartments flooded in about 90 seconds.

The USS John S. McCain sailed by contested man-made islands in the South China Sea earlier this month, drawing China's "strong dissatisfaction." Sen. McCain recently visited the warship in Vietnam.

This marked the fourth mishap for U.S. Navy ships in the Pacific since February.

Aside from the USS McCain and USS Fitgerald incidents, the Navy crusier USS Antietam ran aground dumping over 1,000 gallons of oil in Tokyo Bay in Februray. In May, another cruiser, USS Lake Champlain, hit a South Korean fishing vessel.

Fox News' Lucas Tomlinson and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Reports indicate search and rescue efforts are underway. That doesn't sound good.

Maybe there should be a stand down and have a Bridge Operation review.

I'm going to speculate that there's more to this story that we aren't being told, which is ok.

Either something's up or Gillian and the Skipper have taken over the USN.

I'm hoping it's the former.

Honestly, I think it's time to institute some kind of standards before one can captain a billion dollar piece of state property. Mastery of the 'Port is left (red), Starboard right (green)' would be a good starting point.

I'm sure the Russians, Chinese, NK, etc. are impressed with the competence on display. Probably just waiting for the U.S. Navy to destroy itself via multiple collisions. You always hear how their equipment doesn't functions as claimed. Maybe it's more wide spread than we know.

Seeing they got hit on the side by a 600' tanker they must have cut across the tankers path.

"The merchant vessel, Alnic MC, is a 30,000+ ton oil/chemical tanker built in 2007. It's 600 feet long and 105 feet wide and sails under the Liberian flag. Its owner according to searches is Energetic Tank Inc. and its operator is Stealth Maritime Corporation S.A."

How can you not see something that large on your radar?

What the heck is going on with our Navy?
5 sailors injured and 10 missing.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gogar (Post 9707958)

I'm going to speculate that there's more to this story that we aren't being told, which is ok.

Same speculation here.

Quote:

Originally Posted by GWN7 (Post 9708067)

Seeing they got hit on the side by a 600' tanker they must have cut across the tankers path.

"The merchant vessel, Alnic MC, is a 30,000+ ton oil/chemical tanker built in 2007. It's 600 feet long and 105 feet wide and sails under the Liberian flag. Its owner according to searches is Energetic Tank Inc. and its operator is Stealth Maritime Corporation S.A."

How can you not see something that large on your radar?

answer is right before your question.

If I have the correct, both the Fitzgerald and McCain are stationed out of Yokosuka Naval Base in Japan. Sounds like more heads than just the ship personnel are going to roll.

It was bound to happen. The McCain can only turn to port. Design flaw of some sort I hear.

Isn't this the same gubmint that is trying to force self-driving cars down our collective throats?

Yes, I believe it is.

perhaps if we took the CEO's of google and Amazon along with Musk and tied them at various points around the sides of our navy ships, in the fashion of a dock bumper, we would finally be getting positive use from their existence.

Depending on exactly where the collision took place, the Straights of Malacca are like driving ships in a river or small stream. Having been through there on the CVA(N)65, CGN25, CGN 35 and CGN 39 at all times we had special watches manned and also guns locked and loaded because of pirates! There are bouys that tell you where to go or there were? If a super tanker or super sized container ship is transiting at 5 to 7 knots then there is very little room for any thing else to get by as you can see land on both sides.

How rough this can be is illustrated by the war India and Pakistan had back in 1972 or so and I was on the Big E. We were on Yankee station and were ordered to get into the Indian Ocean at MAX KNOTS to provide air cover for the evacuation of civilians. We went past Singapore at 32 knots and entered the Straights at full bore! The ship broadcast on all their marine channels to move out of the way, now! We saw what looked like a huge tanker moving across our path about 5 or 6 miles ahead. When we got close to it the ship turned out to be the stern of a monster sized oil tanker that had moved over for us! In looking aft of the ship you could see small fishing boats getting swamped by our wake! Oh yeah, we made it on time!

Quote:

Originally Posted by John Rogers (Post 9708300)

Did you run into any other ships?

Lemme answer that for you. the answer was no. You did not run into any other ships.
Which is the expectation.
if it is unsafe to navigate a waterway, then the expectation is that the ship goes someplace else.

Running into another ship is unacceptable.
I believe if I were in charge of that ship I could make sure that it did not happen. In fact I am sure of it.

Why couldn't that captain do it? Because he was operating his ship negligently. Either he and his crew were incompetent, or he ordered them to do put the ship at risk.

Endangering a vessel Is what they call it IIRC.
They can shoot people for that.

EDIT sorry for the rant, but it really pisses me off that families are going to be getting phone calls that their sons or daughters are dead for no good ****ing reason.