Early Monday morning, a U.S. Navy vessel collided with the merchant ship Alnic MC, as the destroyer was passing through the Straits of Malacca near Singapore.
It might have been passed off as a tragic accident, but concerns were raised once everyone realised it was the fourth accident of its kind this year.
Yes, the US Navy has been involved in four collisions in the past 12 months alone.
Surely it’s a bit unnerving that the most powerful navy fleet in the world – which includes hundreds of warships, thousands of aircraft and nearly 700 000 active and reserve sailors and civilian employees, reports The Daily Beast – seems to be falling apart?
Indeed – and the collision wasn’t minor, either:
“Significant damage to the hull resulted in flooding,” the Navy reported.
Five sailors were hurt. Another 10 crew were still missing when the warship limped back to Singapore later on Aug. 21.
Well, according to experts, the multiple accidents are symptoms of “an overworked fleet with tired and under-trained sailors and poorly maintained equipment”, and more accidents could occur if the country doesn’t devote more resources:
Automatic “sequestration” budget cuts have sliced billions of dollars from Navy accounts in recent years, while at the same time the fleet has gotten busier bombing Islamic State and the Taliban and deterring North Korea and China.
Bryan McGrath, a naval consultant with the Maryland-based Ferry Bridge Group, was blunt:
“The force is fraying.”
These are the previous incidents:
In May, the cruiser USS Lake Champlain struck a South Korean fishing boat but no one was injured.
The destroyer USS Fitzgerald [below] collided with the merchant ship ACX Crystal off of Japan on the night of June 17, killing seven sailors. The Navy said it would discipline around a dozen members of Fitzgerald’s crew, including the captain and second-in-command.
In August 2016, the submarine USS Louisiana hit the Navy support vessel Eagleview off the coast of Washington State.
It’s pretty obvious that these accidents should not be happening at all, and the frequency is also concerning.
William Moran, the vice chief of naval operations, told a USA congressional committee in February that:
“It has become clear to me that the Navy’s overall readiness has reached its lowest level in many years.”
However, the warnings have been overlooked as the Trump administration deploys more ships to more conflict zones without additional budget.
Others had a say, too. Here’s Eric Wertheim, an independent naval analyst and author of Combat Fleets of the World:
“Things have been very tense in the Pacific region as of late and the U.S. Navy has been at the pointy end of the spear, day in and day out ready to meet any threats head-on.”
McGrath put it down to gaps in “basic training proficiency”:
“I have a feeling what we are seeing is a witch’s brew,” he said. “Any single element, or more likely a mix of them could be to blame. But we’ll just have to wait and see what the investigation and review uncovers.
“In any event, the Navy simply needs more money. I realize that won’t be satisfying, but that’s the way it goes.”
Although the Trump administration has proposed “adding billions of dollars to the Navy’s budget for the 2018 fiscal year that begins in September”, Moran’s warning about time running out came in February, just months before the seven sailors were killed near Japan.
But Congress has yet to approve the budget, so until then there might be a lot more unintentional self-harm by the US Navy.
[source:thedailybeast]
