U.S. Navy vessels have had four accidents in the western Pacific this year. U.S. Navy officials are rightly concerned. While the investigation into the latest incident continues, the U.S. Navy last week ordered a 24-hour operational pause for all its ships to review procedures and assess capabilities and practices. It has also commenced a comprehensive stock-taking to uncover "root causes" of the incidents and ensure that it is ready for all the challenges that it will face in the Pacific theater. Nothing is more important to Japan.
On Aug. 21, the guided-missile destroyer USS John McCain collided with an oil tanker in the Strait of Malacca just before dawn as it was proceeding into the port of Singapore after a freedom of navigation operation in the South China Sea. The collision killed 10 U.S. sailors and injured five others. A preliminary review has revealed that the McCain suffered a steering failure as it entered the strait, one of the world's busiest waterways.
The accident on the McCain followed by two months an accident in which the USS Fitzgerald, another guided-missile destroyer, collided with a container ship off Japan's coast on June 17, killing seven U.S. sailors. That investigation is ongoing but the ship's commanding officer, executive officer and senior noncommissioned officers have already been removed from their duties.