Secretary of the Navy Richard Spencer revealed four private industry players and one national lab as participants in a second Navy review on recent ship collisions.  

Spencer said the Navy has reached out to companies “who have gone through various different meaningful events and come out the other side” for their perspective. The industry participants will include BP North America [BP], Crowley Maritime, A.P. Moller-Maersk Group, and Boeing [BA]. Sandia National Laboratories is also joining the review panel.

Richard V. Spencer, Secretary of the Navy. Photo: U.S. Navy.
Richard V. Spencer, Secretary of the Navy. Photo: U.S. Navy.

Since May, Sandia has been managed by National Technology and Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International, Inc. [HON].

The secretary noted the experiences the companies have had in turning around and creating better safety structures: BP with the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill; Crowley Marine “has created a very admirable safety program called the road to zero, turning around their safety program;” and Maersk offered people to help with the operational and safety standards they have created.

Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) John Richardson ordered a comprehensive review of the collisions, through Vice CNO Adm. Bill Moran, to commander of U.S. Fleet Forces Command Adm. Philip Davidson. That will be a 60-day examination of surface fleet operations and incidents at sea that occurred in the past decade, focusing on Seventh Fleet operational deployment (Defense Daily, Aug. 25).

Spencer formed his independent subject matter expert strategic review on Sept. 1. It will be led by a civilian of his choice and also include uniformed Defense Department personnel (Defense Daily, Sept. 5).

Spencer argued these reviews are not redundant. Davidson’s review will be tactical, focusing on operations and safety and how the Navy operates the fleet while the strategic review will look at larger organizational issues

“We’re going to approach this as best practices for people who come out the other side and we really do expect this to be a learning experience going forward,” he said.