A one-day operational pause will be completed by all U.S. Navy Pacific fleets and ships by Aug. 28, and will be followed by individual ship reviews in a second phase, Pacific Fleet commander Adm. Scott H. Swift said on Tuesday.

The pause and individual reviews follow the deadly collision of the USS John S. McCain and an oil tanker in the straits of Malacca, the second such incident in a month, which left 10 U.S. sailors missing and five injured.

Initial reports indicate that the McCain suffered a steering failure leading up to the collision, though the cause is not yet known.

"We will implement the operational pause that CNO announced across all fleets, and that will include all units in the pacific and will be complete by August 28," Swift said in a statement.

"In addition, I have directed a second phase that will be focused on all surface ships deployed in the Pacific, including those forward deployed naval force in Yokosuka and Sasebo."

The operational pause will be for ships to review recent incidents and safety regulations, while the second phase involves analysis of individual ships' functions and training to be used for follow-up action.

"This second phase will be a deliberate re-set for our ships, focused on a number of areas, such as navigation, ship's mechanical systems and bridge resource management," Swift said.

"It will involve training and assessment by a team of experts with each ship and their watchstanders, and it will be phased in order to cover ships in port and on station at sea."

Swift gave no time frame for when the second phase is to be implemented or how long the review would take.

The Pacific Fleet has seen a rash of collisions, groundings, and aviation incidents over the last eight months. The collision of the USS Fitzgerald with a cargo ship in June left seven sailors dead and its senior officers being relieved of command.

Two other ships have also crashed this year -- the USS Antietam ran aground in Japan in January and the USS Lake Champlain collided with a Korean fishing boat in May.

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Nicholson said yesterday the issue is of extreme concern and requires a comprehensive review of all ships procedures and training.

"This will be a broader effort, looking at a number of things, one being, OK, what is the situation out in Japan with our forward-deployed Naval forces out there," Davidson told reporters.

He said the review would take time but would be completed as soon as possible.

"And then what I also would like is that while this won't be done in the next week -- there's just not enough time to get at the depth that I want to -- neither will this go on for too long," Davidson said.

Remains found on US warship that collided off Singapore: US Navy
Singapore (AFP) Aug 22, 2017 - Divers searching for 10 missing sailors on a US destroyer that collided with a tanker off Singapore have found human remains, a US admiral said Tuesday.

The accident off Singapore, which left a gaping gash in the destroyer's hull, was the second deadly collision in two months involving an American warship.

The US Navy has announced a fleet-wide global investigation after the incident Monday involving the USS John S. McCain and the merchant vessel.

But Admiral Scott Swift, commander of the US Pacific Fleet, praised the surviving crew for saving the ship and saving lives.

The accident -- which also left five sailors injured -- happened before dawn in busy shipping lanes around the Strait of Singapore, and sent water flooding into the ship.

A massive search involving planes and aircraft was launched and US Navy divers joined the hunt Tuesday, searching the ship's flooded compartments

Speaking in Singapore, Swift said that "the divers were able to locate some remains in those sealed compartments during their search today".

He said bodies were found during "the diving on McCain today but it's premature to say how many and what the status of recovery those bodies are".

Swift said Malaysian authorities had also found a body and were sending it to the US Navy for identification. The Malaysian navy said one of its ships had found a body eight nautical miles northwest of the accident site.

The admiral said the search and rescue effort, involving hundreds of personnel and several countries, would continue, adding: "We're always hopeful that there are survivors."

The McCain's crew were "tough, and they are resilient," Swift said. "It is clear that their damage control efforts saved their ship and saved lives."

It was the second fatal collision in two months -- after the USS Fitzgerald collided with a Philippine-flagged cargo ship off Japan in June and left seven sailors dead -- and the fourth accident in the Pacific this year involving an American warship.

- US Navy under pressure -

The incidents have sparked concern that the US Navy could be overstretched in East Asia -- both ships were from the Japan-based Seventh Fleet -- as they tackle China's rising assertiveness and North Korea's nuclear ambitions.

The McCain had been heading for a routine stop in Singapore after carrying out a "freedom of navigation operation" in the disputed South China Sea earlier in August, sparking a furious response from Beijing.

On Monday the Chief of US Naval Operations Admiral John Richardson ordered commanders within a week to set aside time, perhaps "one or two days", for crews to sit down together for discussions.

A "comprehensive review" of practices would also begin.

"As you know, this is the second collision in three months and the last of a series of incidents in the Pacific theatre," Richardson said.

"This trend demands more forceful action. As such, I have directed an operational pause be taken in all of our fleets around the world."

The admiral did not rule out some kind of outside interference or a cyber-attack being behind the latest collision, but said he did not want to prejudge the inquiry. His broader remarks suggested a focus on "how we do business on the bridge."

The damaged vessel is named after US Senator John McCain's father and grandfather, who were both admirals in the US navy.

The tanker involved in the collision, which was used for transporting oil and chemicals and weighed over 30,000 gross tonnes, sustained some damage but no crew were injured, and Singapore said there was no oil pollution.

In the June incident, the Fitzgerald collided with a Philippine-flagged cargo ship in a busy channel not far from Yokosuka, a gateway to container ports in Tokyo and nearby Yokohama.

The dead sailors, aged 19 to 37, were found by divers in flooded sleeping berths a day after the collision tore a huge gash in the ship's side.

A senior admiral announced last week that the commander of the destroyer and several other officers had been relieved of their duties aboard their ship over the incident.

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BAE Systems Australia has entered its bid to build nine anti-submarine warfare frigates for the Royal Australian Navy, the company announced on Thursday. The frigates for the country's SEA 5000 Future Frigate program are part of a company effort to partner with the government to develop a long-term ship building strategy. BAE Systems' offering is for a variant of the Type 26 Glob ... read more

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