LAST year, during a naval exercise off California, a dummy missile fired at an American warship roared through the cruiser’s defences and slammed into its superstructure, starting a fire and injuring two sailors.The dummy missile, with no warhead fitted, punched a hole half a metre wide in the port side of the guided missile cruiser USS Chancellorville, which returned to port for repairs.
A little disconcerting, to say the least. Anyone have a link to more about this incident? Were all the usual defenses in place? Isn't it a bit unusual to fire a missile, dummy or not, at a operational warship?
One would think so
Did $30 million in damage.
But the good folks at the Navy screw up from time to time, don’t we all?
Here’s my favorite story about Naval screw-ups. The destroyer William D. Porter fired a live torpedo at the Iowa, which was carrying FDR and Sec of State Hull across the Atlantic to attend the Tehran conference.
http://bernews.com/2012/02/torpedo-shot-which-almost-changed-history/