According to the U.S. Fifth Fleet, on Thursday 9 January a Russian Navy ship said to “aggressively” approach a US Navy destroyer vessel, while it was doing its daily operations in the Arabian Sea. As CNN reported, the Russian vessel kept ignoring the warnings from the US destroyer, increasing the risk of collision.
Specifically, defense officials identified that the “USS Farragut” was approached by the Russian spy ship “Ivan Khurs”, which came close to 180 feet before changing its direction.
Farragut sounded five short blasts, the international maritime signal for danger of a collision, and requested the Russian ship alter course in accordance with international rules of the road. The Russian ship initially refused but ultimately altered course and the two ships opened distance from one another. While the Russian ship took action, the initial delay in complying with international rules while it was making an aggressive approach increased the risk of collision.
…as the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet noted.
However, after a bridge-to-bridge radio communication between the two vessels, the Russian ship eventually turned away and the two vessels opened distance from one another.
On the other hand, Russia from its side denied the incident and claimed that the USS Farragut conducted dangerous maneuvers and acted “unprofessionally”.
It was the US Navy destroyer, being on the left of the Russian warship that was moving forward, grossly violated international rules for preventing collisions of ships at sea on January 9, 2020, having made a maneuver to cross [the Russian ship’s] course. The crew of the Russian warship acted professionally, taking a maneuver that prevented a collision with the intruder vessel.
…said the Russian Defense Ministry.
In response to the accusations, the U.S. navy noted that continues to remain vigilant and is trained to act in a professional manner, while encouraged vessels from all nations to follow the internationally recognized maritime laws, standards and norms when operating.
Overall, back in June 2019, Russia and US blamed each other for almost colliding. Namely, the US Navy had published two videos showing that while operating in the Philippine Sean a Russian destroyer made an unsafe maneuver against USS Chancellorsville, closing to ~50-100 feet.
