US Naval incidents in 2017

News today Monday August 21, 2017 brought a story about a collision at sea between the USS John S. McCain DDG-56 and the Alnic MC east of the Strait of Malacca. The Alnic is a 30,000 ton tanker, 600 feet long and probably has a top speed of 16 knots. Passing through a crowded sea lane would probably slow it down. The scene of the accident is one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world. The McCain was hit on the port side aft, indicating the ship may have been crossing the path of the tanker.

I have to wonder what was going on aboard the McCain. There should have been a CIC radar watch, especially in an area where they need to be watching for distance to shorelines and of course oncoming ships. There was a watch crew on the bridge, what were they doing? One of the officers aboard the ship said junior officers and enlisted watch standers are not receiving proper training that they should have. If this was a single incident, I would think okay, but there have been 4 incidents this year and 3 have been since May of this year.

June 17 the USS Fitzgerald DDG-62 was hit by a tanker in the open sea of Japan and apparently crossing in front of that tanker too. The Fitzgerald was hit amidships on its starboard side.

The USS Lake Champlain CG-57 a guided missile cruiser was in a collision with a south Korean fishing boat at 11:50 AM on May 9 2017. This collision was in broad daylight and in the middle of an ocean during exercises.

January 21, 2017 the USS Antietam another guided missile cruiser ran aground in Tokyo bay. The ship had been at anchor. I do not know how that happened, but it should not have happened.

The McCain and the Fitzgerald are both apparently the same type ship, probably same equipment and somewhat same crew complement.

All I can find out is the actual events, not much about before or what was going on. The commanding officers are all relieved of command. That is/was always navy policy. I suspect 3 possibilities here. 1 poor training and experience on complex equipment. 2 flaws in the various equipments, possibly design, installation, software. The ships involved are similar class and design while obviously the guided missile cruisers are larger ships than the guided missile destroyers, much of the equipment would I believe would be similar if not same. 3 the scariest of all is morale problems. I have no idea of what goes on aboard ships these days, but bad morale can destroy crews and bring about incidents like these.