My question is why are Navy ships allowing non-Navy ships to get close to them out in the ocean?
I don’t understand this.
Same here.
Thought they always had to remain a good distance for safety concerns?
Crowded waters; the areas where the collisions involving the Fitzgerald and McCain are among the most-heavily traveled on earth; tremendous volume of traffic through the Malacca Straits, just west of the site where the McCain collided with that tanker. Likewise, there are dozens of ships (at any given time) in the waters southeast of Tokyo, scene of the Fitzgerald incident.
One of the most troubling aspects of the latest disaster is the complete loss of steering aboard the McCain three minutes before the accident. As an ex-Air Force guy, my knowledge of ship steering is minimal, but I’m told there are multiple ways to steer a warship, and crews routinely train on how to respond to steering casualties.
When the investigation is complete, I believe we’ll discover that ops tempo was at least a contributing factor. Both DDGs are forward-deployed BMD ships, the most heavily tasked in the Navy. Given their operational requirements, they have less time for work-ups and training than their state-side counterparts. Couple that with the toll of extended deployments (with most sailors working 14-18 hours a day, for months on end), and you’ve got an increased potential for accidents.
I read a post by one former sailor who said his watch schedule was 5 hours on/10 hours off, but during the “off” time, he was doing his normal job. There are a fair number of sailors who average only four hours of sleep a day during deployments that last seven months (or longer) among the BMD ships.
Yeah, try it on your own boat sometime. Even cruise ships get twitchy when we get too close.
I understand that they were in crowded shipping channels.
This view shows commercial traffic but not military, but just look at the traffic (What is impressive is that each ship is identified):
USS John S. McCain Collision: AIS Animation Shows Tanker’s Track During Collision