Posted on 09/14/2017 6:53:41 PM PDT by oxcart
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Probing potential cyber tampering and cyber intrusion will now be a standard part of U.S. Navy accident investigation following the Aug. 21 collision of guided missile destroyer USS John S. McCain (DDG-56) with a chemical tanker, Vice Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Bill Moran told Congress last week.
As part of the investigation into McCain’s collision, a team from the Navy’s U.S. 10th Fleet cyber arm traveled to Singapore to see if a reported steering failure of the destroyer was a result of cyber tampering, USNI News reported last month.
Vice Adm. Jan Tighe elaborated on the effort during a U.S. Naval Institute and CSIS maritime security dialogue on Thursday.
“We will look for a couple of things. One, try to confirm cyber did not have anything to do with the collision and then how do we move forward in making sure these are a normal part of these investigations,” she said. “It is something that we think about a lot and we have to have both the authorities and the human capital ready to respond.”
(Excerpt) Read more at news.usni.org ...
Lookouts at night were reduced from 3 ( forward port,starboard) to one at the bridge to reduce manpower requirements. The Navy has a problem. You can get too lean.
Still the Captain is supposed to think. If you are in some of the busiest waters in the world, post an extra lookout or two. And maybe have your best OOD and Engineer on duty until you clear the waterway. Or better yet time your transit for daylight hours so you can see the moving islands.
AIS plot video animation at https://youtu.be/XzMuY7Xj6SQ...
“Probing potential cyber tampering and cyber intrusion will now be a standard part of U.S. Navy accident investigation ...”
Assuming that there is time between social justice, alternate lifestyle, alternate sex, and sensitivity training, and assuming there is money remaining in the Navy budget to do actual military training ...
Thanks, CVA66snipe, that was the kind of input I was hoping for...thanks for educating the rest of us on that. I knew that there were alternate mechanisms for steering (as in battle damage) that were played out in training scenarios, but had no idea how that was implemented in a modern Navy, that is, did they practice once a year, a month...a week...no idea of any kind on my part.
Well, I am harsh on the Navy. I am even harsher on the civilian control of the Navy, from which they take their marching orders.
I am sympathetic that they have been given less equipment and funding than needed to do the job, but I fault the Navy for not standing up to be counted, and just going ahead with cutting back on training, etc.
And no matter how I try to be sympathetic, I cannot find it in me to excuse what has to be sub-standard watch standing, and that does boil down to training.
What a mess.
Look squirrel!
I don't.
I think that the potential exists and they must investigate that aspect, and include it in all future investigations.
It doesn't mean that is what occurred in the McCain incident, but it means they know it IS possible.
It is one thing to hack into computers, we do it, they do it.
To plant something in software to cause an accident (even if one thinks there can be monitoring and full knowledge of ship movements, etc to make the casualty occur in the correct proximity of another vessel and cause an accident) is a fantasy, especially in light of it causing actual fatalities.
And furthermore, to think a potential adversary would do this to actually cause an accident in a busy sea lane with the express purpose of causing an accident, rather than doing it on the open ocean just to see if it works (in order to avoid a full-blown investigation which would uncover a vulnerability, sure to happen in the event of fatalities) doesn't make sense in any way. If a muslim group did it, they would claim credit. If the Chinese, North Koreans, or Russians did it, why would they do it to cause a collision, create a full investigation and forensic evaluation of equipment and logs, and lose a potential vulnerability to exploit in the event of a real shooting war.
It doesn't add up.
In addition, look at the statement by the US Navy: "...“We will look for a couple of things. One, try to confirm cyber did not have anything to do with the collision and then how do we move forward in making sure these are a normal part of these investigations,” she said. “It is something that we think about a lot and we have to have both the authorities and the human capital ready to respond...”
That is total, complete, and absolute ass-covering to show the entire world watching, that they are investigating this fully, and will work this into their standard investigative processes going forward.
I do root cause analysis, and have to present to people on failures. And what they want to hear is: what happened, why did it happen in this case, and what is your process going to be for preventing this from happening in the future?
That's is all this is. But the conspiracy theorists out there are grabbing onto this tidbit of news as if it were a life preserver being thrown to a drowning person, which is what they are.
The US Navy didn't need to issue a public proclamation to ensure they included this in their future evaluations. This is just, as I said, kabuki theater.
And by the way, if my response seems intemperate, it is not directed at you. Ass covering for the sake of ass covering makes me angry, and reading this just smelled like that to me.
I despise and detest it.
I believe that is EXACTLY what they MUST do.
USS Rino
“Steering Gear Machinery Room Watch manned by a Machinist Mate”
Well, you and I are certainly in complete agreement on that.
The Bridge would know immediately if headings were off and could order "All Stop" to the Engine Rooms.The Engineering Officer Of The Watch if there was suspected improper watch dispatch a senior NCO to check. Oh and many critical spaces now also have video cameras going. The Watch is Watched. As for the Smart Phone? The Steering Gear Rooms are below water line IIRC.
Ships can loose steering from such common issues as a generator tripping offline causing loss of power and the time it takes to get the emergency generator up and the electrical switchboards involved transferred.
Thanks.
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