Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Navy puts operations on hold
Safety review planned for entire fleet after collisions.
AMMAN, Jordan — The Navy said Monday that the world’s largest and most powerful armada will immediately pause operations for a fleetwide safety review following the pre-dawn collision of a guided-missile destroyer and an oil tanker that left 10 sailors missing near Singapore, the fourth naval accident in the Pacific this year.
Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson announced the rare “operational pause” in a video posted to social media Monday. He did not say how long it would last.
He also ordered a comprehensive review into causes of the recent collisions, saying “more forceful action” is needed to determine why trained crews on U.S. warships carrying radars and other high-tech sensors failed to avoid crashes while underway.
“I have directed fleet commanders to immediately conduct an operational pause with commands and leaders across the fleet, to ensure we are taking all appropriate immediate measures to enhance the Navy’s safe and effective operation around the world,” Richardson said.
The orders come as tensions with North Korea again notched upward. Thousands of U.S. and South Korean troops began 11 days of joint drills Monday and Pyongyang warned that it could lead to the “uncontrollable phase of a nuclear war.”
U.S. warships in the western Pacific are crucial to South Korea’s defense.
The fleetwide standdown was announced hours after the U.S. guided-missile destroyer John S. McCain collided with the Alnic MC, a Liberian-flagged oil and chemical tanker nearly three times its size. The collision occurred at 5:24 a.m. local time at the entrance to the Strait of Malacca. Ten sailors were missing and presumed dead, and five sailors were injured, after water poured into a huge gash in the McCain’s port hull, flooding crew berthing, machinery and communications rooms, the Navy said.
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told reporters traveling with him in Jordan on Monday that he has reached out to families of the missing sailors.
“My thoughts and prayers are with the sailors and families of the USS John McCain,” he said. “We obviously have an investigation underway, and that will determine what happened.”
Despite the extensive damage, the hobbled destroyer arrived at Changi Naval Base in Singapore under its own power. Search-and-rescue operations were underway using Navy Seahawk helicopters and Ospreys as well as Singaporean tugboats, Navy and coast guard vessels.
The Strait of Malacca is one of the world’s most congested shipping lanes. Much of Asia’s oil imports traverse the choke point on the way to the South China Sea, where China is building artificial islands in waters that its neighbors also claim.
With geopolitical tensions at play in the region, China’s Foreign Ministry earlier this month denounced the United States after the McCain passed close by a South China Sea island that China claims.
The state-run China Daily used the latest collision to note “the way U.S. warships tend to sail without observing maritime traffic rules and the sloppiness of their crews.”
The Alnic was damaged in front of its hull, but no crew members were injured, according to Singapore’s Maritime and Port Authority.
Richardson said the comprehensive review will include “operational tempo, performance, maintenance, equipment and personnel.” It will be on a “tight timeline” and also look into “tactical and navigational proficiency” of sailors, he said.
The latest collision comes three months after the McCain’s sister ship, the guided-missile destroyer Fitzgerald, collided with a much larger Philippine-flagged container ship, the ACX Crystal, on a calm, clear night about 50 nautical miles from the Japanese port of Yokosuka.
Seven sailors were killed in the June 17 collision, and the commander and his executive officer were relieved of command last week after a Navy investigation.
A guided-missile cruiser, Lake Champlain, collided with a South Korean fishing vessel on May 9 off the Korean Peninsula. Another guided-missile cruiser, Antietam, ran aground on Jan. 31 and gushed oil into Tokyo Bay.
All of the U.S. ships are part of the Navy’s 7th Fleet based in Yokosuka.
When asked by reporters about the collision late Sunday, President Donald Trump initially said, “That’s too bad.”
He later tweeted “thoughts & prayers” for the sailors aboard the ship.