The commander of U.S. naval operations has ordered a comprehensive review to get to root causes after the collision this week between a Navy destroyer and an oil tanker near Singapore.

Monday's early-morning crash is the latest "in a series of incidents in the Pacific ," Adm. John Richardson said in a video statement. "This trend demands more forceful action."

Navy ships have been in at least four accidents in the Pacific this year:

The commander of the USS Antietam was relieved of duty after the guided-missile cruiser ran aground while it was anchoring near Yokosuka base, the home port of the U.S. Navy's Japan-based 7th Fleet.

The ship's propellers were damaged, and it returned to Yokosuka with the help of tugboats, the Navy said. About 1,100 gallons (4,000 ) of hydraulic fuel leaked into Tokyo Bay, according to media reports.

Stars and Stripes newspaper said an investigation report it obtained under the Freedom of Information Act describes a series of errors and incorrect judgments leading to the grounding.

No one was injured, and both ships were able to sail away under their own power, the Navy said.

The Champlain sounded its horn and tried to contact the fishing boat, but the latter did not have a radio, the U.S. Naval Institute News said, citing an unnamed official.

The San Diego-based Champlain was operating in the western Pacific for the first half of the year as part of the 3rd Fleet's USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier strike group.

The collision tore a gash into the side of the Yokosuka-based ship, flooding sleeping quarters and other areas.

The cause remains under investigation, but the Navy relieved the ship's commanding officer and two other senior officers on Friday, just three days before the latest collision.</s>SINGAPORE (AP) - The U.S. Navy ordered a broad investigation Monday into the performance and readiness of the Pacific-based 7th Fleet as vessels from several nations searched Southeast Asian waters for 10 missing U.S. sailors after an early morning collision between the USS John S. McCain and an oil tanker.

It was the second major collision in the last two months involving the Navy's 7th Fleet. Seven sailors died in June when the USS Fitzgerald and a container ship collided in waters off Japan.

Navy Adm. John Richardson, the chief of naval operations, will call for a pause in operations and seek a deeper look at how the Navy trains and certifies its forces that are operating around Japan, according to a Naval official.

"He has put together a broader inquiry to look into these incidents," said Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, referring to the two recent collisions and other accidents at sea. Mattis spoke to reporters in Amman, Jordan, where he is traveling.

Vessels and aircraft from the U.S., Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia are searching for the missing sailors in Monday's collision. Four other sailors were evacuated by a Singaporean navy helicopter to a hospital in the city-state for treatment of non-life threatening injuries, the Navy said. A fifth was taken to the hospital by ambulance after the destroyer arrived in Singapore under its own power, the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore said.

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 collision east of Singapore between the guided missile destroyer and the 183-meter (600-foot) Alnic MC ripped a gaping hole in the destroyer's hull.

There have been four ship crashes in the last two years.

The Navy review will look at the fleet's performance including personnel, navigation capabilities, maintenance, equipment, surface warfare training, munitions, certifications and how sailors move through their careers, according to a Navy official. Richardson wants to ensure there aren't bigger problems in the fleet that may be masked by the high pace of operations there and budget uncertainties within the Defense Department, said the Navy official, who was not authorized to discuss the investigation publically before the announcement, so spoke on condition of anonymity

The Navy official said that beyond the tragedy of the lost lives and the hundreds of millions of dollars being spent on repairs, Richardson wants to be sure that the Navy is able to meet the maritime demands, particularly in the Pacific region.

Richardson has directed Adm. Phil Davidson, head of the Navy's Fleet Forces, to lead the investigation. Davidson will assemble a panel of officers to help with the investigation and will have the full use of the Navy's office of the inspector general as well as the safety center, according to Richardson.</s>By LOLITA C. BALDOR, ANNABELLE LIANG and STEPHEN WRIGHT

SINGAPORE (AP) — The U.S. Navy ordered a broad investigation Monday into the performance and readiness of the Pacific-based 7th Fleet as vessels from several nations searched Southeast Asian waters for 10 missing U.S. sailors after an early morning collision between the USS John S. McCain and an oil tanker.

It was the second major collision in the last two months involving the Navy’s 7th Fleet. Seven sailors died in June when the USS Fitzgerald and a container ship collided in waters off Japan.

Navy Adm. John Richardson, the chief of naval operations, will call for a pause in operations and seek a deeper look at how the Navy trains and certifies its forces that are operating around Japan, according to a Naval official.

“He has put together a broader inquiry to look into these incidents,” said Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, referring to the two recent collisions and other accidents at sea. Mattis spoke to reporters in Amman, Jordan, where he is traveling.

Vessels and aircraft from the U.S., Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia are searching for the missing sailors in Monday’s collision. Four other sailors were evacuated by a Singaporean navy helicopter to a hospital in the city-state for treatment of non-life threatening injuries, the Navy said. A fifth was taken to the hospital by ambulance after the destroyer arrived in Singapore under its own power, the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore said.

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 collision east of Singapore between the guided missile destroyer and the 183-meter (600-foot) Alnic MC ripped a gaping hole in the destroyer’s hull.

There have been four ship crashes in the last two years.

The Navy review will look at the fleet’s performance including personnel, navigation capabilities, maintenance, equipment, surface warfare training, munitions, certifications and how sailors move through their careers, according to a Navy official. Richardson wants to ensure there aren’t bigger problems in the fleet that may be masked by the high pace of operations there and budget uncertainties within the Defense Department, said the Navy official, who was not authorized to discuss the investigation publically before the announcement, so spoke on condition of anonymity

The Navy official said that beyond the tragedy of the lost lives and the hundreds of millions of dollars being spent on repairs, Richardson wants to be sure that the Navy is able to meet the maritime demands, particularly in the Pacific region.

Richardson has directed Adm. Phil Davidson, head of the Navy’s Fleet Forces, to lead the investigation. Davidson will assemble a panel of officers to help with the investigation and will have the full use of the Navy’s office of the inspector general as well as the safety center, according to Richardson.</s>SINGAPORE (AP) - The U.S. Navy ordered a broad investigation Monday into the performance and readiness of the Pacific-based 7th Fleet as vessels from several nations searched Southeast Asian waters for 10 missing U.S. sailors after an early morning collision between the USS John S. McCain and an oil tanker.

It was the second major collision in the last two months involving the Navy's 7th Fleet. Seven sailors died in June when the USS Fitzgerald and a container ship collided in waters off Japan.

Navy Adm. John Richardson, the chief of naval operations, will call for a pause in operations and seek a deeper look at how the Navy trains and certifies its forces that are operating around Japan, according to a Naval official.

"He has put together a broader inquiry to look into these incidents," said Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, referring to the two recent collisions and other accidents at sea. Mattis spoke to reporters in Amman, Jordan, where he is traveling.

Vessels and aircraft from the U.S., Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia are searching for the missing sailors in Monday's collision. Four other sailors were evacuated by a Singaporean navy helicopter to a hospital in the city-state for treatment of non-life threatening injuries, the Navy said. A fifth was taken to the hospital by ambulance after the destroyer arrived in Singapore under its own power, the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore said.

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 collision east of Singapore between the guided missile destroyer and the 183-meter (600-foot) Alnic MC ripped a gaping hole in the destroyer's hull.

There have been four ship crashes in the last two years.

The Navy review will look at the fleet's performance including personnel, navigation capabilities, maintenance, equipment, surface warfare training, munitions, certifications and how sailors move through their careers, according to a Navy official. Richardson wants to ensure there aren't bigger problems in the fleet that may be masked by the high pace of operations there and budget uncertainties within the Defense Department, said the Navy official, who was not authorized to discuss the investigation publically before the announcement, so spoke on condition of anonymity

The Navy official said that beyond the tragedy of the lost lives and the hundreds of millions of dollars being spent on repairs, Richardson wants to be sure that the Navy is able to meet the maritime demands, particularly in the Pacific region.

Richardson has directed Adm. Phil Davidson, head of the Navy's Fleet Forces, to lead the investigation. Davidson will assemble a panel of officers to help with the investigation and will have the full use of the Navy's office of the inspector general as well as the safety center, according to Richardson.</s>× US Navy 7th Fleet Commander to Be Dismissed After Second US Destroyer Collision in 2 Months

The US Navy intends to remove Vice Adm. Joseph Aucoin as the commander of the US 7th Fleet, based in Yokosuka, Japan, according to a US official. This follows an incident Monday in which the guided-missile destroyer USS John S. McCain collided with a merchant ship.

Ten sailors assigned to the ship were missing following the accident, and the Navy has reported that “some” remains have been since recovered, Adm. Scott Swift, commander of the US Pacific Fleet, said Tuesday.

The McCain and the tanker ship collided Monday east of the Malacca Strait, the fourth time a US warship has been involved in an accident in Asian waters this year.

The collision prompted the Navy to order a rare, one-day operational pause.

“This trend demands more forceful action,” Adm. John Richardson, chief of naval operations, said. Swift said the Pacific Fleet will complete the operational pause, in which units rotate in standing down for a 24-hour period, by next Monday.

US Navy and Marine Corps divers found the remains in the sealed compartments aboard the McCain after it docked at a naval base in Singapore, said Swift. The Royal Malaysian Navy has located one body at sea, and officials are working to determine whether it is one of the missing sailors, he said.

Aucoin’s role has come under scrutiny since a spate of incidents in the Pacific theater, including another at-sea collision between a US Navy destroyer, the USS Fitzgerald, and a cargo ship off Japan’s Izu Peninsula.

That accident, on June 17, caused the deaths of seven US sailors.

Speaking shortly after that incident, Aucoin told reporters, alongside the ship at Yokosuka Naval Base in Japan, that the loss of sailors under his command “is something we all feel.”

“We have found a number of the remains … of our missing shipmates, and our deepest sympathies go out to the families of those shipmates,” he said.</s>SINGAPORE (AP) - The U.S. Navy ordered a broad investigation Monday into the performance and readiness of the Pacific-based 7th Fleet as vessels from several nations searched Southeast Asian waters for 10 missing U.S. sailors after an early morning collision between the USS John S. McCain and an oil tanker.

It was the second major collision in the last two months involving the Navy's 7th Fleet. Seven sailors died in June when the USS Fitzgerald and a container ship collided in waters off Japan.

Navy Adm. John Richardson, the chief of naval operations, will call for a pause in operations and seek a deeper look at how the Navy trains and certifies its forces that are operating around Japan, according to a Naval official.

"He has put together a broader inquiry to look into these incidents," said Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, referring to the two recent collisions and other accidents at sea. Mattis spoke to reporters in Amman, Jordan, where he is traveling.

Vessels and aircraft from the U.S., Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia are searching for the missing sailors in Monday's collision. Four other sailors were evacuated by a Singaporean navy helicopter to a hospital in the city-state for treatment of non-life threatening injuries, the Navy said. A fifth was taken to the hospital by ambulance after the destroyer arrived in Singapore under its own power, the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore said.

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 collision east of Singapore between the guided missile destroyer and the 183-meter (600-foot) Alnic MC ripped a gaping hole in the destroyer's hull.

There have been four ship crashes in the last two years.

The Navy review will look at the fleet's performance including personnel, navigation capabilities, maintenance, equipment, surface warfare training, munitions, certifications and how sailors move through their careers, according to a Navy official. Richardson wants to ensure there aren't bigger problems in the fleet that may be masked by the high pace of operations there and budget uncertainties within the Defense Department, said the Navy official, who was not authorized to discuss the investigation publically before the announcement, so spoke on condition of anonymity

The Navy official said that beyond the tragedy of the lost lives and the hundreds of millions of dollars being spent on repairs, Richardson wants to be sure that the Navy is able to meet the maritime demands, particularly in the Pacific region.

Richardson has directed Adm. Phil Davidson, head of the Navy's Fleet Forces, to lead the investigation. Davidson will assemble a panel of officers to help with the investigation and will have the full use of the Navy's office of the inspector general as well as the safety center, according to Richardson.</s>The déjà vu collision yesterday of the guided missile destroyer USS John S McCain with an oil tanker near Singapore was the Navy's fourth serious incident in the western Pacific this year, and mirrored a similar disaster in June that claimed the lives of seven sailors off the coast of Japan.

[DALLAS] The déjà vu collision yesterday of the guided missile destroyer USS John S McCain with an oil tanker near Singapore was the Navy's fourth serious incident in the western Pacific this year, and mirrored a similar disaster in June that claimed the lives of seven sailors off the coast of Japan.

In January, the USS Antietam ran aground near Yokosuka, Japan, where the US Seventh Fleet is based. In May, the USS Lake Champlain ran into a South Korean fishing vessel. And just last week, the Navy relieved the commander of the USS Fitzgerald, a guided missile destroyer that on June 17 was hit by a container ship, with deadly consequences.

Now, with 10 sailors missing near the Strait of Malacca following the McCain's mishap, the question of what, if anything, these accidents have in common has become front-of-mind.

One distinct possibility is a fleet that's stretched too thin, forced to combine training with deployments over a vast area teeming with US strategic interests, according to two retired Navy officers. In a Facebook video, the chief of naval operations, Admiral John Richardson, said he has directed "a more comprehensive review to ensure that we get at the contributing factors, the root causes of these incidents."

"This trend demands more forceful action," said Adm Richardson, who ordered a short "operational pause" for the Navy to assess how the fleet operates. He said there is no indication of foul play, such as hacking or sabotage, but that all possibilities are being considered.

From 1998 to 2015, the Navy shrank by 20 per cent, to 271 ships, while the number of vessels deployed overseas remained at about 100 ships, Bryan Clark, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessment, wrote in a 2015 article for The National Interest. Mr Clark concluded that each ship has to work 20 per cent more to meet demand.

The current fleet size doesn't properly support the demand for 85 ships to 105 ships deployed to sea at any given moment-the average for the past 50 years-said retired Navy captain Jerry Hendrix, who also served as director of naval history and is now a senior director at the Center for a New American Security.

"When you're trying to keep that many out to sea … something's got to give," he said. "The bucket that gets taken away from is training. I think the training has begun to break down in the fleet."

Bryan McGrath, a retired Navy captain who commanded a destroyer similar to the McCain, the USS Bulkeley, said that what "we're seeing is a fraying Navy, especially over in the western Pacific."

The Cold War's end led to a Navy-wide diminution of "basic war-fighting skills," he said. "We won the war and as a result, we took a big deep breath, and now we are are recovering from that breath," said Mr McGrath, an analyst with defense consultancy FerryBridge Group LLC.

"Having these two ships taken out of action has a real tactical impact."

The Seventh Fleet has from 40 to 60 ships operating in the region at any given time. Both the McCain and Fitzgerald collisions occurred in darkness, with much larger commercial vessels, in seas with heavy traffic. The ships are two of the Navy's most-advanced, most-maneuverable Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, which were first commissioned in 1991 and constitute the core of the service's surface warfare capability.

With cruise missiles for striking land-based targets and a complement of undersea weapons to combat submarines, they are also used as part of aircraft carrier strike groups. "Our ships are well maintained, and our sailors are well trained," a Navy spokeswoman, Captain Elizabeth Zimmermann, said on Monday.

The operational loss of the Fitzgerald and McCain, nicknamed "Big Bad John," will have "real implications" for air defense in the Pacific arena, said Hendrix. In the western Pacific, the US is determining how best to address missile threats from North Korea while containing Chinese military expansion in the South China Sea.

"These incidents are not without problems and strategic implications," said Hendrix. "Having these two ships taken out of action has a real tactical impact."

The Navy's overall fleet size, currently at 276 ships, is inadequate, given the size of its workload, Hendrix and McGrath said. In December, the Navy laid out an aspirational benchmark, seeking a 355-ship fleet as part of its "Force Structure Assessment." That number of vessels is "the level that balanced an acceptable level of war-fighting risk to our equipment and personnel against available resources and achieves a force size that can reasonably achieve success," the Navy said in the report.

But critics say the focus on bulking up to that many ships risks spending too much on relatively cheaper but less capable vessels such as the troubled Littoral Combat Ship, which is vulnerable to attack. The Navy "has overemphasised resources used to incrementally increase total ship numbers at the expense of critically needed investments in areas where our adversaries are not standing still, such as strike, ship survivability, electronic warfare and other capabilities," Obama administration Defense Secretary Ash Carter wrote in a memo to the Navy in 2015.

But for now, the temporary loss of the McCain and the Fitzgerald has made a complex playing field more difficult to manage.

"This nation has global responsibilities and global interests," Mr McGrath said. "And when you have two emerging competitors in China and Russia, and then two other threats in Iran and North Korea, that makes for a very, very busy Navy." One, he added, that is "thinly stretched."</s>WASHINGTON
• The Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral John Richardson, has ordered an operational pause across the entire US Navy following the collision between the USS John S. McCain and an oil tanker three times its size east of Singapore early yesterday morning.

Noting it was "the latest in a series of major incidents, particularly in the Pacific theatre", Adm Richardson said that the "trend demands more forceful action". He promised a swift investigation.

The pause is a one-day safety stand-down that would be done over the course of a few weeks and at the discretion of individual commands, a source told CNN.

Yesterday's collision left a large hole in the naval ship's side, with five sailors hurt and 10 others still missing. It caused significant damage to the hull, flooding of nearby compartments, including crew berthing, machinery and communications rooms, the Seventh Fleet said in a statement.

This was the second time since June that a navy destroyer based at the Seventh Fleet's home port of Yokosuka, Japan, has been involved in a sea collision.

It came just days after the US Navy issued a damning report listing errors that led to a collision in June between the USS Fitzgerald and a container ship south of Japan, which flooded berthing compartments and killed seven sailors.

The navy said it would discipline a dozen sailors, including the top two officers.

President Donald Trump, returning to the White House on Sunday night, responded to reporters' questions about the collision by saying: "That is too bad." He later posted a tweet: "Thoughts & prayers are w/ our @USNavy sailors aboard the #USSJohnSMcCain where search & rescue efforts are underway."

Analysts were incredulous that a second destroyer could be involved in another collision so soon after the USS Fitzgerald incident.

"Clearly this is an annus horribilis for the US Navy," Dr Euan Graham, director of the International Security Programme at the Lowy Institute in Sydney, told the New York Times. He also told the Washington Post the incident could affect the Seventh Fleet and its readiness.

"They were already stretched after the Fitzgerald collision, and now they have lost a second front- line destroyer... with the tensions around North Korea and in the South China Sea," he said.

For a destroyer to be hit by an oil tanker would be like that between "an F1 sports car and a garbage truck", said Dr Kirk Patterson, a former dean of the Japan campus of Temple University. "Which one is going to be able to avoid the collision? An F1 racing car equipped with state-of-the-art missiles."

In Japan, both Defence Ministry and Self-Defence Forces officials expressed concern about the impact on the Japan-US security system amid anxiety over a possible new missile launch by North Korea. The USS John S. McCain is equipped with a defence system that detects and intercepts ballistic missiles.

Meanwhile, families of the ship's crew members in the US waited for news of their loved ones.

"No word yet, but some sailors have called on cell to families," Mrs Marla Meriano, the mother of 24- year-old Meghan Meriano, an electrical officer, wrote on Facebook. "Thank you for all the prayers and remarks," she said two hours later.</s>Ten U.S. Navy sailors are unaccounted for after the guided-missile destroyer USS John S. McCain collided with a merchant ship in southeast Asia.

A U.S. military official says in addition to the missing crew members five others were injured.

The collision happened in waters east of Singapore and the straits of Malacca.

The navy says the ship sustained damage on its port side and the extent of the damage was being assessed.

The navy's seventh fleet identified the merchant ship as the Alnic MC and says the collision occurred early Monday morning, local time.

The Japan-based fleet said the McCain was heading to Singapore for a routine port visit at the time of the collision and the ship was heading to port under its own power.

It is the second collision involving a ship from the seventh fleet in the Asia-Pacific region in two months.

Seven sailors died in June when the USS Fitzgerald and a container ship hit each other in waters off Japan.</s>SINGAPORE (AP) - The U.S. Navy ordered a broad investigation Monday into the performance and readiness of the Pacific-based 7th Fleet as vessels from several nations searched Southeast Asian waters for 10 missing U.S. sailors after an early morning collision between the USS John S. McCain and an oil tanker.

It was the second major collision in the last two months involving the Navy's 7th Fleet. Seven sailors died in June when the USS Fitzgerald and a container ship collided in waters off Japan.

Navy Adm. John Richardson, the chief of naval operations, will call for a pause in operations and seek a deeper look at how the Navy trains and certifies its forces that are operating around Japan, according to a Naval official.

"He has put together a broader inquiry to look into these incidents," said Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, referring to the two recent collisions and other accidents at sea. Mattis spoke to reporters in Amman, Jordan, where he is traveling.

Vessels and aircraft from the U.S., Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia are searching for the missing sailors in Monday's collision. Four other sailors were evacuated by a Singaporean navy helicopter to a hospital in the city-state for treatment of non-life threatening injuries, the Navy said. A fifth was taken to the hospital by ambulance after the destroyer arrived in Singapore under its own power, the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore said.

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 collision east of Singapore between the guided missile destroyer and the 183-meter (600-foot) Alnic MC ripped a gaping hole in the destroyer's hull.

There have been four ship crashes in the last two years.

The Navy review will look at the fleet's performance including personnel, navigation capabilities, maintenance, equipment, surface warfare training, munitions, certifications and how sailors move through their careers, according to a Navy official. Richardson wants to ensure there aren't bigger problems in the fleet that may be masked by the high pace of operations there and budget uncertainties within the Defense Department, said the Navy official, who was not authorized to discuss the investigation publically before the announcement, so spoke on condition of anonymity

The Navy official said that beyond the tragedy of the lost lives and the hundreds of millions of dollars being spent on repairs, Richardson wants to be sure that the Navy is able to meet the maritime demands, particularly in the Pacific region.

Richardson has directed Adm. Phil Davidson, head of the Navy's Fleet Forces, to lead the investigation. Davidson will assemble a panel of officers to help with the investigation and will have the full use of the Navy's office of the inspector general as well as the safety center, according to Richardson.
The U.S. Navy orders an investigation into its Pacific Fleet following the collision, which is the fourth crash involving a U.S. Navy ship in the past two years and the second in the past two months.