The US warship USS John S. McCain was successfully launched from dry dock and moored pierside at Commander, Fleet Activities Yokosuka, on 27 November. The ship entered dry dock at the Navy’s Ship Repair Facility and Japan Regional Maintenance Center in Yokosuka in February, to undergo repairs from the damage it sustained in a major collision with a merchant ship in August 2017.
Since USS John S. McCain is afloat, the US navy will continue the preparations concerning her return. The vessel will begin sea trials, the year following, as expected. As stated by a spokeswoman for Ship Repair Facility-Japan, McCain’s enhancement costed approximately $220 million and it is one of the biggest projects that has ever been achieved be the 7th Fleet’s yard.
Today, McCain has a fully restored hull, a new port thrust shaft, and newly constructed berthing spaces.
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The collision between the two vessels, USS McCain and merchant tanker Alnic MC, occurred near the Strait of Singapore on August 21, 2017. The collision resulted to the bridge-team having the wrong impression that the destroyer lost its steering, then changed its direction to a traffic lane besides it and crossed the bow of the Alnic MC. The team didn’t see the tanker that was approaching until the collision happened. This cause ten seafarers to loose their lives because of the flooding that followed.
After the incident, USS John S. McCain was transferred to Changi Naval Base, Singapore to be repaired, loaded onto a heavy lift ship. It was more convenient for the navy to repair the vessel in Singapore and not waste time and expense to ship it back in the US. However, to begin the repair and restoration effort, the Navy immediately reached out to personnel at Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine, since they originally constructed the ship.
In addition to this incident, the destroyer USS Fitzgerald, which also had extensive damage because of a collision in the Western Pacific, was shipped to Ingalls Shipbuilding in Mississippi for a more complex set of repairs.
Cmdr. Micah Murphy, commanding officer, USS John S. McCain, stated that
I’m proud of and thankful for every person who has worked together to move USS John S. McCain another step closer to both normalcy and sailing again with U.S. 7th Fleet. There is still a lot of work to be done … by this crew as well as the SRF Project Team to return a better, more lethal warship to the fleet.
Finally, because of these two deadly collisions, the US Navy went under several reviews of readiness at 7th Fleet and throughout the service. The results addressed that high operational tempos and little down time enabled major deficiencies to develop, specifically in forward-deployed units.
