Aucoin removed from command of Seventh Fleet

The U.S. Navy on Thursday suspended wider search and rescue operations for sailors missing after the warship USS John S. McCain collided with a merchant vessel in waters near Singapore and Malaysia earlier this week. The Navy is not in the habit of announcing how vulnerable it is to cyber-warfare.

The series of accidents shows similarities and has left Navy leadership with “great cause for concern that there is something out there that we are not getting at”, Richardson told reporters at the Pentagon on Monday. The latest collision of a guided missile destroyer USS McCain with an oil tanker in the Strait of Malacca with a loss of 10 sailors is the catalyst for this swift move.

Ten sailors from the warship are missing and five others were injured in that accident. Swift said four had been immediately flown by Singapore navy helicopters to a Singapore hospital, and the fifth was hospitalized when the ship reached Singapore.

The McCain had been heading to Singapore on a routine port visit after conducting a sensitive freedom-of-navigation operation last week by sailing near one of China’s man-made islands in the South China Sea.

The Singapore Government said the search area more than doubled Wednesday to about 5500sq km with aircraft and vessels deployed by the US, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Australia.

Monday’s crash left a large hole in the destroyer’s port side and flooded compartments including crew berths. “It is clear their damage control efforts saved the ship and saved lives”.

A statement from Stealth Maritime Corporation, which manages the Alnic MC, said the tanker is now discharging its cargo of 12,000 metric tons of fuel oil after being cleared to do so by the Singapore authorities. Seven sailors died in June after the USS Fitzgerald collided with a ship off Japan.

Moran’s two-page memo lays out in detail every aspect of Navy operations and training the review will encompass, a daunting list given the two-month timeframe.

Remains of some American sailors were recovered by the Malaysian Navy Tuesday, Adm. Scott Swift of the U.S. Pacific Command said.

As the review is launched, Navy fleets around the world are in the process of observing one-to-two-day “operational pauses” to do an immediate assessment of safety and procedures.

It was the second major collision in the past two months involving the Navy’s 7th Fleet.

Richardson said the decision was made after careful consideration, but that the Navy is a “business of stark and harsh accountability”.

The Ingram family home in Poughkeepsie is filled with family, neighbors and representatives from the military, consoling each other as the close community clings to hope while also bracing for what they know may be the inevitable.