Opinion

US Navy suffers further Asian embarrassment

August 23, 2017

US warships are supposed to be the last word in ultra-high technological sophistication with automated guns that could shoot a sparrow out of the sky, state-of-the-art communications systems and targeting-linked radar that, thanks to Global Positioning Systems, can see far over the horizon.

It is thus extremely surprising when a US naval vessel is in collision with a civilian ship. And it becomes downright incredible when in the space of just 12 months, this happens no less than four times to warships of the US Seventh Fleet.

This week’s collision of the destroyer USS John S. McCain with an oil tanker in the Malacca Straits is utterly baffling. This is one of the world’s busiest areas of water, always crowded with merchant vessels. Even without all the highly-advanced military gadgetry on board the US warship, it would be expected that the already high standard level of alert would have been increased yet further as the John S. McCain sailed into the high risk channel.

And there is something else. These destroyers are extremely fast and agile. In the event of an imminent collision the commander could call upon the 75MW of power produced by the warships’ four gas turbines which can move it at 56 kilometers an hour. Instead, in clear dawn weather in a moderate sea, one of the world’s most advanced warships was rammed amidships by a lumbering supertanker.

A full investigation into this incident that appears to have cost the lives of 10 American sailors is underway. Only two months ago, another seven sailors died when the USS Fitzgerald collided with a container ship off the Japanese port of Yokosuka. That warship’s captain has since been relieved of his command and 11other sailors are being disciplined.

But the US Navy has gone further than another investigation. It has ordered a rolling suspension of operations for all vessels in the Seventh Fleet while it tries to figure out what is going wrong with the command of these well-equipped vessels. There is the suggestion that onboard computer and navigation systems might have been hacked. If this is true, then it says little for the cyber defenses of the most advanced and powerful navy on the globe. It is also being said that with the rising challenge from China, America’s Asian fleet has too few vessels that are being asked to do too much. This also says little for naval forces that, whatever their defensive posture, are still only operating in peacetime. With how much greater strain would they be able to cope if ever they had to fight a shooting war?

Beijing of course has been quick to capitalize on the US Navy’s failings suggesting that the increased activity of American warships poses a threat to commercial shipping. The temptation to mock Washington’s failings is the greater because of the direct challenge America is mounting to Chinese claims to reefs in the China Sea. US warships have sailed closed to the artificial islands the Chinese military are creating on the basis that they are actually in international waters, not in Chinese territory as Beijing claims.

Today, as the USS John S. McCain is laid up in Singapore awaiting repairs, its crew may be reflecting ruefully on their warship’s motto, “Fortune favors the brave”, since clearly misfortune favors the careless.


August 23, 2017
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