Another U.S. guided-missiles destroyer collided with a commercial vessel in Japanese waters on Saturday, but this time U.S. damage was “minimal,” the Navy said.
The Navy said in a statement that a Japanese commercial tug boat lost propulsion and drifted into the Arleigh Burke-class USS Benfold (DDG-65) while the U.S. vessel was participating in a scheduled towing exercise in Sagami Bay, southwest of Tokyo Bay.
DDG-65 is forward deployed to the 7th Fleet area of operations, like previous ships involved in mishaps this year. This collision comes the same year as four major 7th Fleet mishaps.
Nobody was injured on either ship this time and the Benfold’s damage appeared limited to scrapes on its side, pending a full damage assessment, the Navy said. The service highlighted DDG-65 remains at sea under its own power.
However, the tug boat was towed by another vessel to a port on Yokosuka.
The Navy said this incident will be investigated.
The collision comes when the Navy is reckoning with several mishaps in the Pacific area of operations.
In June, the USS Fitzgerald (DDG-62) collided with a merchant vessel in waters off Japan and then, in August, the USS John S. McCain (DDG-56) collided with a commercial vessel near the Straits of Malacca and Singapore. Both collisions caused major damage to the U.S. vessels and the deaths of 17 U.S. sailors.
Previously, the USS Lake Champlain (CG-57) had a non-deadly collision with a South Korea fishing vessel in May and before that the USS Antietam (CG-54) was grounded in January.
Earlier this month, the Navy released individual incident reports on the deadly collisions and then an over 170-page Comprehensive Review of all four surface force incidents (Defense Daily, Nov. 2).
The Benfold’s collision with the commercial tug appears to be closest to the Lake Champlain’s collision with the fishing vessel. In that case, the Navy found several deficiencies in sailor conduct, lookout conduct, communications, and maneuvering requirements. However, since the fishing vessel was so small compared to CG-57, the Navy noted in the Comprehensive Review that “damage to both ships was relatively minor.”