Death and valor on a warship doomed by its own Navy.

[Onkel Neal]

It's the dead of night, and the USS Fitzgerald is on a secret mission to the South China Sea.

The sailors on the $1.8 billion destroyer are young, tired and poorly trained.

Disaster strikes at 1:30:34 a.m.

FULL ARTICLE

A little after 1:30 a.m. on June 17, 2017, Alexander Vaughan tumbled from his bunk onto the floor of his sleeping quarters on board the Navy destroyer USS Fitzgerald. The shock of cold, salty water snapped him awake. He struggled to his feet and felt a torrent rushing past his thighs.

Around him, sailors were screaming. "Water on deck. Water on deck!" Vaughan fumbled for his black plastic glasses and strained to see through the darkness of the windowless compartment.

Underneath the surface of the Pacific Ocean, 12 miles off the coast of Japan, the tidy world of Berthing 2 had come undone. Cramped bunk beds that sailors called coffin racks tilted at crazy angles. Beige metal footlockers bobbed through the water. Shoes, clothes, mattresses, even an exercise bicycle careered in the murk, blocking the narrow passageways of the sleeping compartment.

In the dim light of emergency lanterns, Vaughan glimpsed men leaping from their beds. Others fought through the flotsam to reach the exit ladder next to Vaughan's bunk on the port side of the ship. Tens of thousands of gallons of seawater were flooding into the compartment from a gash that had ripped through the Fitzgerald's steel hull like it was wrapping paper.

The collision of the vessels was the Navy's worst accident at sea in four decades. Seven sailors drowned. Scores were physically and psychologically wounded. Two months later, a second destroyer, the USS John S. McCain, broke that grim mark when it collided with another cargo vessel, leaving 10 more sailors dead.

The successive incidents raised an unavoidable question: How could two $1.8 billion Navy destroyers, protected by one of the most advanced defense systems on the planet, fail to detect oncoming cargo ships broadcasting their locations to a worldwide navigational network?

FULL ARTICLE

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[Rufus Shinra]

This makes, IMO, a pretty strong point for a rethinking of the USN's OOB, to switch from a full capital ship navy made mainly of AB and Ticos to a mixed fleet with capital ships and smaller frigates, that allow the execution of the still important flag showing and presence missions while reducing drastically the load in terms of crew mobilisation. Assuming similar numbers of sailors, the numerous missions that do not require WW3 level of combat - and even some of those that would - could be executed properly with smaller and less crew-intensive ships. Even BMD missions can be done seriously with frigates, these days.

We'll see if the USN's FFGX program will take this into consideration and whether they'll make the choice of deactivating enough Burke and Tico to man these new ships rather than pushing the pressure even harder on the human elements.

[PurpleCow]

Wouldn't there have been an officer and crew on watch with radar?

[Onkel Neal]

Read it, there was.

[UglyMowgli]

Well , apparently USN officer didn't have a lot of real naval training before being commissioned, they are thrown on ships and learn on the fly.



In France (and I think in many other countries, they spent a lot of time on ships before being Officer, from bridge simulator to rowing boat to LHP)



here an old paper from the USNI

https://www.realcleardefense.com/art...ps_112891.html

[Rufus Shinra]

Originally Posted by UglyMowgli

Well , apparently USN officer didn't have a lot of real naval training before being commissioned, they are thrown on ships and learn on the fly.



In France (and I think in many other countries, they spent a lot of time on ships before being Officer, from bridge simulator to rowing boat to LHP)



here an old paper from the USNI

https://www.realcleardefense.com/art...ps_112891.html

The big issue is one of personnel availability, from my understanding of things. The Pentagon gets more and more ships to do more and more missions given by the political leadership, but doesn't get enough crews and support to fill all of these. Thus my opinion that mothballing part of the AB/Tico (I'd go for mothballing all Ticonderoga and specializing some AB in the coordination/ABM roles), freeing a lot of people for the remaining ships and then getting the rest on smaller frigates that would show the flag, provide ASW support, do some ABM, etc.

The notion of overkill is a very real one, and the US isn't going to solve these issues by shoving more money at it. It's either this or cut down the missions of the USN.

[PL_Andrev]

Originally Posted by Onkel Neal

It's the dead of night, and the USS Fitzgerald is on a secret mission to the South China Sea.

The sailors on the $1.8 billion destroyer are young, tired and poorly trained.

"Poorly trained" crew on secret mission sound like a joke.


Lack of competences, rashness, selfconfidence.
But, of course, the true is inconvenient for the most powerful fleet in the world...

[Rufus Shinra]

Originally Posted by PL_Andrev

But, of course, the true is inconvenient for the most powerful fleet in the world...

I thought the article was about the US Navy, not Lichtenstein's historically undefeated navy.

[test0r]

Seem similar to the Norwegian frigate accident against a tanker, causing the frigate to sink.

Recap, translated (turn on captions):


Report:
https://www.naval-technology.com/fea...lision-report/

[Aktungbby]

test0r! after a decade's silent run!

[test0r]

Originally Posted by Aktungbby

test0r! after a decade's silent run!

Ran out of food supplies, had to surface.

[oversoul]

"Death and valor on a warship doomed by its own Navy."

While reading "Conquering Tide," by Ian Toll, this title could apply to USS ATLANTA during the 13 Nov 1942 action near Savo Island and Guadalcanal, who was fired upon by 'friendly' warships on that overcast, moonless night.


BT


Great post, test0r. "Do you know which boat is heading toward us, a little port side." Jesus Christ.
Popular Mechanics article: https://www.popularmechanics.com/mil...-crash-report/
and USNI report: https://news.usni.org/2018/11/30/nor...ccident-report