The guided-missile destroyer USS Benfold was hit by a Japanese tug in the Sagami Bay, on Saturday, according to USNI news, citing US 7th Fleet.
As informed, the forward-deployed destroyer was in the midst of a towing exercise when the tug lost power and “drifted into the ship.”
No one was injured on either vessel and ‘Benfold’ sustained minimal damage, including scrapes on its side, pending a full damage assessment. The warship remains at sea under her own power, while the Japanese commercial tug is being towed by another vessel to a port in Yokosuka.
The incident comes at a time of major concern for the US Navy over the two fatal collisions that occurred within three months in the last summer, involving the two US Navy warships, ‘USS Fitzgerald’ and ‘USS John S. McCain’, claiming the lives of 17 sailors.
A recently published report from US Navy found that human element and lack of compliance with procedures was a cause related to both casualties. As a result, a strategic review of US surface forces, led by the Secretary of the Navy Richard V. Spencer, is due out early next month.
The latest incident will also be investigated.
