Piang! Again! US Navy 7th Fleet Accident Again alike SMRT, HUAT!

http://time.com/5030829/uss-benfold-tug-boat-collision/

A U.S. Warship Just Collided With a Tugboat in Japanese Waters





U.S. Navy guided missile destroyer USS Benfold in Qingdao, China in 2016.
VCG—VCG via Getty Images
By Jamie Ducharme
November 18, 2017
In the latest of a string of marine mishaps, a U.S. warship crashed into a Japanese tugboat in Japan’s Sagami Bay on Saturday.

The tugboat lost propulsion and drifted into the USS Benfold during a routine towing exercise, according to a press release from the U.S. Navy’s 7th Fleet. No injuries or fatalities resulted from the incident, and damage to the Benfold, a guided-missile destroyer ship, was minimal, according to the release.

While the crash was relatively harmless, it adds to a troubling trend for the 7th Fleet: Saturday’s collision in the Pacific was the fleet’s fifth this year. Most recently, in August, the USS John S. McCain collided with a commercial boat off the coast of Singapore, killing 10 U.S. sailors, taking the warship out of commission and prompting a fleet-wide operational pause.




The Benfold, on the other hand, sustained only minor scrapes on its sides. It remains on the water and autonomously powered, though the Navy news release says the incident will be fully investigated.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-new...or-damage-collision-japanese-tug-boat-n822101

USS Benfold sustains minor damage in collision with Japanese tugboat
by Courtney Kube


A U.S. Navy destroyer was involved in a minor collision with a Japanese tugboat Saturday during a scheduled exercise, according to the U.S. Navy's 7th Fleet.

The USS Benfold, a guided-missile destroyer, sustained minor damage when a tugboat lost propulsion and drifted into the ship, the Navy said. No one was injured on either vessel and an initial assessment of the damage showed that the destroyer only sustained minimal damage including scrapes.


The guided missile destroyer USS Benfold arrives in port in Qingdao in eastern China's Shandong Province, on Aug. 8, 2016. Borg Wong / AP
But the accident comes at a time when the Navy's 7th Fleet and the U.S. Pacific Command have come under increased scrutiny after several deadly collisions in the region earlier this year.

In June, seven sailors died when the USS Fitzgerald collided with a Philippine container ship. Then, in August, the USS McCain collided with a tanker off the coast of Singapore, killing 10 sailors. After the collision, the Navy ordered the entire fleet to take a one-day “operational pause” to ensure that the ships were meeting safety standards.

Related: Pacific fleet Commander to retire in wake of deadly crashes

In the wake of the accidents, several of the 7th fleet’s leaders were ousted and Admiral Scott Swift, the commander of the U.S. Navy’s Pacific fleet, announced that he would retire from his position after he learned there was no chance for him to be promoted.

In September, Swift said in a statement to NBC News he was retiring "with great appreciation and gratitude for the honor of having served so many Sailors and their families for what will be 40 years in January."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...e-tugboat-drifted-into-a-7th-fleet-destroyer/

U.S. Navy says a Japanese tugboat ‘drifted into’ a 7th Fleet destroyer


By Mark Berman November 18 at 4:11 PM
3:23
What’s wrong with the U.S. Navy's 7th Fleet?
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What's wrong with the U.S. 7th Fleet? (Video: Jason Aldag, Dan Lamothe/Photo: HANDOUT/The Washington Post)

The U.S. Navy said a Japanese tugboat “drifted into” a destroyer during a scheduled exercise Saturday, causing “minimal damage” to the warship and no reported injuries.

The USS Benfold, a guided-missile destroyer, appears to have sustained scrapes on its side and remains at sea, according to the Navy’s 7th Fleet, which is based in Japan. The tugboat lost propulsion before drifting into the warship, the Navy said in a statement.

The tugboat was towed to a port in Yokosuka, a city south of Tokyo, where the 7th Fleet has its headquarters. The Navy said the collision will be investigated.

This incident occurred amid heightened scrutiny of the 7th Fleet in the wake of numerous embarrassing accidents, including two fatal collisions involving guided-missile destroyers. In June, the USS Fitzgerald collided with a container ship in Tokyo Bay, flooding the destroyer and killing seven sailors. Two months later, the USS John S. McCain collided with an oil tanker near Singapore, leaving 10 sailors dead.

[Deadly Navy accidents in the Pacific raise questions over a force stretched too thin]

These prior collisions prompted questions about the strains faced by the Navy, and the Navy’s leaders have acknowledged the grueling deployment pace and exhausting workweeks faced by sailors.

After the McCain collision, the Navy announced a fleet-wide investigation and fired several officers. In August, the Navy relieved the admiral in charge of the 7th Fleet due to a “loss of confidence,” and two senior officers who oversaw warships involved in accidents were fired weeks later for the same reason. Last month, the Navy fired the McCain’s top two officers due to what officials called poor judgment and leadership on their part.

were preventable” and caused by “multiple failures” by service members.

“We are a Navy that learns from mistakes, and the Navy is firmly committed to doing everything possible to prevent an accident like this from happening again,” Adm. John Richardson, the chief of naval operations, said in a statement when the investigations into those collisions were released. “We must never allow an accident like this to take the lives of such magnificent young Sailors and inflict such painful grief on their families and the nation.”

Further reading:

The Navy has now fired at least six amid the fallout over deadly accidents

When Navy ships collide, there is virtually always human error involved

See. Angmoh jiak sia. Can allow a small boat knocked on their gunboats and call their gunboats high tech and need billions of dollars to build.