CNBC reports another U.S. Navy destroyer has collided with a merchant ship in the Pacific. The USS John S. McCain, a guided missile destroyer, is reported to have collided with a Liberian-flagged tanker - the Alnic MC - in the congested waters near Singapore.
Apparently 10 sailors have gone missing as a result of the collision. Search and rescue efforts are underway. The whole affair is reminiscent of the collision suffered by the USS Fitzgerald.
One collision can be happenstance, two suggest the existence of a pattern of bad seamanship. You cannot blame the merchant ships which plod along on predictable courses at modest speeds.
I find inconceivable the skipper of the McCain, aware of what happened to his colleague on the Fitz, wasn't moving heaven and earth to ensure the same thing didn't happen to his command. Evidently he did no such thing.
The Navy needs to explore whether some malignant power has developed a way to "spoof" Navy navigation systems, foxing the radar and GPS, hacking the nav computers. While the strong temptation is to blame 'pilot error,' there could be something more sinister going on.
Later ... RealClearDefense explores this latter cyber-war possibility in a brief article.
Later yet ... Or just maybe U.S. Navy ships running into things is SOP and routine? See a New York Times article with a list of 10 Navy ship crashes dating back to 1989.
