‘Cyberattack could be behind accidents’

SINGAPORE: A spate of incidents involving US warships in Asia, has forced the navy to consider whether cyberattackers might be to blame.

While some experts believe that being able to engineer such a collision would be unlikely, given the security systems of the US Navy and the logistics of having two ships converge, others say putting the recent incidents down to human error and coincidence is an equally unsatisfactory explanation.

The chief of US naval operations Admiral John Richardson said on Monday he could not rule out some kind of outside interference or a cyber attack being behind the latest collision, but said he did not want to prejudge the inquiry.

SEVENTH FLEET CHIEF REMOVED FROM POST

The US Navy on Wednesday said it had removed Seventh Fleet commander Vice Admiral Joseph Aucoin after a series of collisions involving its warships in Asia.

Aucoin’s removal comes days after a pre-dawn collision between a guided-missile destroyer and a merchant vessel east of Singapore and Malaysia on Monday, the fourth major incident this year.