Skip to main content

Advertisement

Advertisement

US Navy orders safety timeout to review fleet

OSAN (South Korea) — The United States military’s top officer in the Pacific said yesterday that the “operational pause” declared by the US Navy (USN) a day earlier following the USS John S McCain collision was important and would not have an adverse effect on naval operations.

OSAN (South Korea) — The United States military’s top officer in the Pacific said yesterday that the “operational pause” declared by the US Navy (USN) a day earlier following the USS John S McCain collision was important and would not have an adverse effect on naval operations.

“This is an opportunity for ship commanding officers to take a look at his or her procedures and look at the readiness of their crews to do the difficult job of sailing at sea,” Admiral Harry Harris, head of the Pacific Command, said.

“As for the operational pause and the effect on our ability to defend our nation and our allies, it will not have that effect,” added Adm Harris, who was in South Korea to inspect the Ulchi Freedom Guardian war games between Seoul and Washington.

US Chief of Naval Operations Admiral John Richardson said on Monday that American warships will suspend operations for a day or two this week to examine basic seamanship and teamwork in the wake of the USS McCain accident.

He said that he ordered an “operational pause” for fleet commanders to review teamwork, safety, seamanship and other “fundamentals” aboard all 277 USN vessels.

Commanders will space out the review to avoid hampering operations, like the war games in South Korea that started on Monday.

The admiral also said that he ordered a broader, months-long review to examine the specific problems with the USN’s Seventh Fleet, based in Japan.

“As you know, this is the second collision in three months and the last of a series of incidents in the Pacific theatre. That gives great cause for concern that there’s something out there that we’re not getting at,” Adm Richardson noted. He did 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. His broader remarks suggested a focus on “how we do business on the bridge”.

US Defence Secretary James Mattis, on a visit to Jordan, said Adm Richardson’s “broader inquiry will look at all related accidents, incidents at sea, that sort of thing. He is going to look at all factors, not just the immediate one”.

Ten US sailors are still missing after the collision on Monday between the McCain and the Alnic MC in the busy shipping lanes of the Singapore Strait, which left a gaping hole in the warship’s hull.

A major search involving ships and aircraft from Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and the US is under way for the missing sailors.

The damaged vessel is named after US Senator John McCain’s father and grandfather, who were both admirals in the US Navy.

Mr McCain himself welcomed the review. “I agree with Admiral Richardson that more forceful action is urgently needed to identify and correct the causes of the recent ship collisions,” he said.

“I expect full transparency and accountability from the navy leaders as they conduct the associated investigations and reviews.” AGENCIES

Read more of the latest in

Advertisement

Advertisement

Stay in the know. Anytime. Anywhere.

Subscribe to get daily news updates, insights and must reads delivered straight to your inbox.

By clicking subscribe, I agree for my personal data to be used to send me TODAY newsletters, promotional offers and for research and analysis.