BANGKOK (AP) — One major U.S. Navy collision may be an accident. Twice in two months could be a coincidence. Or it could point to a bigger failing in how the U.S. navigates its warships around the world.
It is unclear how the collision occurred early Monday between the USS John S. McCain and a Liberian-flagged oil tanker in a crowded shipping lane off Singapore, leaving 10 American sailors missing and five injured.
The broken destroyer, now docked in Singapore while investigators look into the cause of the crash, is the fourth Navy vessel involved in an accident this year in the Pacific. No one was hurt in the first two incidents, but seven Navy sailors were killed in June in a collision between the USS Fitzgerald and a container ship off the coast of Japan.
“While each of these four incidents is unique, they cannot be viewed in isolation,” said Adm. Scott Swift, commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet.
Analysts said the two latest incidents are especially sobering, especially at a moment when U.S. warships occasionally patrol the disputed South China Sea to the consternation of Beijing, and President Donald Trump has swapped threats with North Korea’s leader, putting nations across Asia on edge.
“It is truly extraordinary, not only that it should happen, and not only that it should happen to the U.S. Navy, but that it should happen repeatedly within weeks in the same geographic area,” said John Blaxland, head of the Strategic and Defence Studies Center at the Australian National University in Sydney.
Long-standing protocols for avoiding collisions include having sailors watching the water on all sides, radar systems detecting obstructions and commanders carving clear paths ahead.
The Navy has ordered an “operational pause,” which Blaxland said makes sense “to explore what on Earth is happening.”
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