As a retired Navy guy, this is disturbing. I spent my first 2 ship tours on Aircraft Carriers, so I did not have to learn the navigation but my last shipboard tour was on a Cruiser and everybody, even the Nukes, had to learn and stand watches on the bridge. Now I retired in 2001 and things have changes since I left. Manning is down, the number of ships has been fairly constant but the number of areas covered and operation tempo has increased. I have read numerous reports on the manning and training issues and it does not look good, more demand for coverage but fewer ships and sailors. Sailors should get trained on their equipment, the state of CIC was horrible and that is a failure on the Officers and Chiefs who should be over it. Yes, I ping the Chiefs, they are supposed to be the people who train the junior people in how to do things, they are also the more experienced technical guys who should know better. I have been there, I know, both as a junior Sailor and as the more experienced First Class and Chief, The political machine has devastated the military and it is not a quick fix to get it right. It will take time and there will be mistakes made.

Unless an electronic or mechanical malfunction occurs, there is no excuse for a collision and usually both ship captains are accountable, that is the rule of the road on the sea.

It's clear we have incompetent bridge personnel in our navy, but I didn't see anything of malicious intent from the cargo ships discussed...I wouldn't doubt that either, but still, there is no excuse unless they were hacked or had other physical malfunctions.

Note that in spite of all these errors made by US Navy personnel, the company that owns the ship the Fitzgerald collided with, is paying the US gov $27 million in damages to close any claims against them by the US gov.
That amounts to about 5% of the cost of repairing (and upgrade) the Fitzgerald - $535 million. Another half a billion of taxpayers' earnings flushed down the toilet.

Back when Curt Lemay was in charge of SAC, there were no such things a accidents! Every one from the pilot to the base commander was fired when some one broke an airplane in his command!

Not related at all but, I wonder how good morale, discipline, competance and effectiveness are today in the Chinese navy.

news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/wtf/f...

I just dont understand how you crash big ships like that. These people get paid too much, dont take their jobs seriously, and arent paying attention.

During the tenure of Hussein there were many reports on the deteriorating dismal shape of the Navy. In addition he cut and cut resources, to be replaced by "intelligence" as a deterrent.

There has to be consequences of that reckless policy and this was probably one of them.