Posted on 08/20/2017 6:35:30 PM PDT by Enchante
A Navy guided-missile destroyer, the USS John S. McCain, collided with a commercial vessel east of Singapore early Monday morning local time, the Navy said.
There were 10 sailors missing and five injured, the Navy said.
The collision with the merchant ship Alnic MC occurred east of the Straits of Malacca and Singapore at 6:24 a.m. Japan Standard Time, as the McCain was on its way for a routine port visit in Singapore, the Navy said.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
Commanding a destroyer requires a lot of experience. But it is the normally the first “Command” that an surface officer gets. With the new LCS class of ships black shoes can now get a command as a lieutenant commander (03), then progress.
Prayers.
Ridiculous. Another collision. Makes you wonder.
Well things have changed, because when I was in there were minesweepers, frigates, supply ships, and more that you could command before a destroyer before the LCS.
LCS counts as a command, when I say Captain, I mean Captain of the ship not rank.
And they used to move up to a new class they would always have 2-3 stints as XO before they became CO.
‘Turning around the culture of a 250,000 person organization is impossible in 7 months.’
We have more admirals than ships. And you are telling me that these admirals WANT collisions?
I agree that Obama is to blame for both.
But having some managerial experience myself I can tell you — only a loser allows lightning to strike twice in the same place.
Trump needs to crack skulls, threaten dismissal and demotion. He needs to keep a list of what admirals drafted an effective plan to prevent a second collison and who are the chowderheads.
I don't see how a hypothetical GPS spoofing could have anything to do with a collision in this strait as GPS is for position not collision avoidance. Collision avoidance (electronic tools) uses radar and AIS and the ole eyeball using visual bearings and plotting. Navel vessels in general commonly turn off their AIS broadcast (receiver is left on though) so other vessels cannot as easily determine their course, speed and position.
Fearless prediction is that this collision will be justifiably determined to be due to human error by the on duty bridge officers and nav crew. Think of the Straits of Malacca as a divided highway with the east-west lanes separated by a narrow grass median strip. Think of a car wandering around its lanes or even crossing the median and the unpredictable hazard it is to causing a collision. And... One cannot dismiss arrogance. See link below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VHXRYXzEVU
Too bad the senator destroyed that family name.
The British navy was also overworked during the Napoleonic Wars, but they took collisions like this as seriously as a heart attack. Of course they happened more often, but I smell ...
APATHY.
BIGTIME.
What the heck did the admirals do after the first collision? Do they need consultants now?
And why is this happening in the Far East? Electronic warfare perhaps? Spoofing our radar? Are we too radar-dependent?
I should hope there was at least fog to partly blame for failed visual sighting.
Heck, don’t they also have thermal vision aboard?
We know from the last one they were distracted.
“Start firing admirals. Something is “sinking” in our naval preparedness training and even just basic operations.”
This is the correct answer.
ComSeventhFlt should be relieved over this one. And the Fitz CO/XO MUST be Courts Martialed.
Anything less assures more incidents in the future.
Time to get rid of incompetent USN captains. The USS John McCain has the best radar and navigation equipment the taxpayer can buy. It is faster and more maneuverable than any oil tanker. There is no reason to be hit by such a ship even if it tried to hit the McCain.
Maybe drugs are involved. We need more facts.
I should also hope that no one commands any vessel until he commands a recrational sailing boat for four weeks.
They should at least have enough common sense before they command.
It is interesting that both collisions were in Far East Waters.
This is intolerable, even if they spoofed us electronically.
You don’t have a clue what you are talking about.
“is something I have no answer for”
I’m surprised. Previously you had no objection to spouting off on subjects you know little about.
Frigates, destroyers, smaller supply ships, LSTs were all available as “05” first commands. Successful command of one of these ships put in line for a “deep draft command” for a frigate, that meant a cruiser, not destroyer. For a small supply ship, that meant an AOE or one of the large oilers. or ammunitions ships. for an LST, that meant LPD or LSD. Back in the 60s & 70s, each general ship type had a command path from smaller to larger. It was a very rare event for a black shoe Officer that had commanded say an LST, to get command of a cruiser. My CO on a frigate went to Command a 16 class cruiser. The O5 commander of the oiler I was on went to command an AOE.
“”Richardson wants to ensure there aren’t bigger problems in the fleet that may be masked by the high pace of operations there and budget uncertainties, according to a Navy official””
I hope the inquiry is not going to focus on ‘if only the Navy had more money that will fix the problem’.
We already have an earful of ‘we need more money’ coming from the failed government run schools.
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