SINGAPORE — A recent spate of accidents involving American warships in Asian waters has cast the spotlight on the world’s most advanced navy, with experts saying that advanced radar systems count for little should operators come up short in basic seamanship and navigation. 

“My guess is that it was human error at work, as it was with the previous accidents,” Associate Professor Bernard Loo, a military expert at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), told TODAY, referring to the collision between USS John S McCain and a commercial vessel on Monday (Aug 21).

He said an over-reliance on technology — a concern that has been raised in the United States defence community recently — has led to a concomitant decline in basic seamanship and other competencies essential for accident-free maritime operations. 

Mr Ridzwan Rahmat, a senior analyst at defence consultancy Jane’s by IHS Markit, told TODAY that advanced radars are “only effective to a certain extent”, especially in busy waters. 

The McCain collision on Monday is the fourth accident in the US Pacific Fleet this year. In January, the cruiser Antietam ran aground in Tokyo Bay near its home port of Yokosuka, Japan. In May, another cruiser, the Lake Champlain, collided with a small fishing boat off the Korean peninsula. 

A month later, seven sailors drowned when the destroyer Fitzgerald collided with the cargo ship ACX Crystal off Japan’s coast. 

The two top officers aboard Fitzgerald were relieved of their duties last Friday, and the Navy’s Seventh Fleet said “flawed watch stander teamwork and inadequate leadership contributed to the collision”. All four

American ships are equipped with the highly sophisticated Aegis sensor suite that can supposedly track over 100 targets simultaneously, according to the US Navy website.

The US Navy on Monday ordered a broad investigation into the performance and readiness of the Pacific-based 7th Fleet.

Navy Admiral 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, Defence Secretary James Mattis said.

“He has put together a broader inquiry to look into these incidents,’’ Mr Mattis said.

Mr Ridzwan said initial indications suggested that the McCain may not have been obeying rules designed to separate maritime traffic passing through the Singapore Strait, adding that vessels approaching the high-traffic route are governed by a regime known as the Traffic Separation Scheme (TSS). “Initial analysis by Jane’s suggest that the tanker was in compliance with the TSS.”

Mr Ridzwan also told AFP that the accident has raised questions “whether there is crew fatigue setting in, whether or not the tempo of operations by the US Navy in this region is getting too fast”. “Are they doing too much within this region with North Korea, and Japan and then now in the South China Sea?”

A senior US Navy officer told The New York Times that night-time duty on American warships like the McCain is often in the hands of relatively young officers aged between 22 and 24. They are backed up by officers working the radar and looking out from the command centre below the bridge. For the McCain to have hit the Alnic MC oil tanker, a handful of separate functions in the safety chain must have failed, the officer said.

The blame should, however, not be apportioned entirely to the US warships involved in the recent accidents, said former naval officer Chang Jun Yan. “In such collisions, both parties are responsible, and this is a point often overlooked in previous commentaries regarding the USS Fitzgerald,” he said. “Much has been made of the Fitzgerald being the vessel that should give way to the ACX Crystal, but the latter also needs to take appropriate action to avoid collision,” added Mr Chang, who is an associate research fellow at RSIS. 

Mr Bonji Ohara, a research fellow at the Sasakawa Peace Foundation in Tokyo, said that one recurring problem is that while naval ships tend to have live crews on watch, most commercial ships work on autopilot mode to reduce costs, which can lead to problems in busy sea lanes. 

Commercial tankers might be reluctant to shift their course because manoeuvring requires turning off the autopilot, and this costs time and money, added the senior US Navy officer. WITH AGENCIES