An American guided-missile destroyer was gashed and dented on one side in a collision with an oil tanker early Sunday just outside the strategic Strait of Hormuz.
The collision tore a hole about 10 feet by 10 feet in the right side of the destroyer, the Porter, above the water line. No one on the Porter or the other vessel, a Japanese-owned bulk oil carrier called the Otowasan, was hurt, the Navy said in a statement.
The Navy said that the collision, which happened about 1 a.m., was not “combat related”…
The extent of damage to the Otowasan was not known, but Reuters, citing an Omani coast guard official, reported that the ship was able to go on its way. Its scheduled destination was Fujairah, in the United Arab Emirates just outside the strait, Reuters said, citing ship tracking Web sites. The Navy said there were no reported spills or leaks from either vessel.
One-fifth of the world’s crude oil is shipped through the Strait of Hormuz, a crowded and tense waterway at the entrance to the Persian Gulf between Iran and Oman. Iran has often threatened to block tanker traffic in retaliation for Western sanctions over its nuclear program, and the United States maintains a strong naval presence in the region in part to ensure that the strait remains open.
Understand that “crowded” means that at its narrowest, the Strait is 42 kilometers wide. About 14 tankers of this size pass through daily – and they move at about half the speed of an American destroyer. Because of their mass – even unladen – they are much less maneuverable than a warship like the Porter.
You could make a ship like the Porter dance circles around the Otowasan.
Whenever I’d go to some computer trade show. Invariably some Asian (probably Korean) would stand in front of me, to keep me from seeing or buying some low cost item. They’re very pushy and rude. So reading that a Japanese tank crashed into a warship. Makes me wonder if this isn’t just more of the same tactic? Crash now, apologize later. But they get what they wanted, in the end.
Generally Asians consider the South Koreans more rude relative Japanese, Vietnamese, Philippines, Chinese or … . I guess, because South Koreans have intermixed longer in American ruthless business cultural values with their native cultural values over the decades since the Korean War then the other Asian countries.
With China new found westernized business culture and rising standards of living and recent Chinese saber rattling over competing claims in the South China Sea; it will be intrusting to see how Asians relative self-views pans out over time.
Put your little dingy in front a large barge and find out if it actually can stop in time. In fact the tanker probably hit the reverse long before already or they would have totally run over and sunk the destroyer.
Japanese run their trains, plains, vessels and whatever almost like military operations and very disciplined. Unlinke some stupid american sailors who put their ‘dingy’ destroyer in front of a ‘barge’ oiltanker.
Use an expensive oiltanker to sink a destroyer? Get real please. Also racist comments based on nothing factual are easy, but also rather stupid. But that is exactly what your government expects you to do instead of paying attention to the real problems. (Like why the f are those destroyers and lots of other expensive war ‘toys’ overthere in the first place?)
If they already manage to not notice a giant oiltanker, it makes you wonder if they can actually see any missiles at all. Or are the oiltankers the actual missiles they try to destroy? There must be a better way for that.
While the taxpayer is already wasting lots of money on these destroyers in places where they should not be in the first place, they will now also pay for the costly repairs. Anyone getting fired for these stupid mistakes? I think not …!
Anyone getting fired for these stupid mistakes? I think not …!
I don’t think you understand the Navy, it’s not a civilian game for them!
Not fired exactly but relieve; not the same but darn close.
Very likely the Navy will relieve the commanding officer of his position, due to lost confidence in his abilities after his ship collided with a tanker at sea.
Almost without exception, Captains are relieved after a collision.
They are probably moved into some job they can’t do much harm anymore. But they still get paid nicely with your taxdollars. If a commercial captain causes a major crash, they are simply fired (and probably never find a job as captain again). So because this is “the Navy”, it’s suddenly good to keep paying them? You just proved these very strange believes by sort of ‘defending’ it.
Simply put, you don’t know your ass from a “dingy”. You are simply ignorant!
It’s your kind of ignorance that has our country where it is, all answers and no clue!
http://marinetraffic.com/ais/default.aspx?zoom=9&oldmmsi=371687000&olddate=8/11/2012%201:00:00%20PM
the path of the oil tanker.