USS Harry S. Truman collision

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abcnews.go.com

US aircraft carrier collides with ship in Mediterranean Sea

The aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman collided with a large merchant vessel Wednesday night in the vicinity of Port Said, Egypt, in the Mediterranean Sea.
abcnews.go.com abcnews.go.com

WTF??? Is the USN literally asleep at the wheel??? I well remember USN woes from a few years back, but it looks like the rot has resisted any cleaning ship efforts - what gives??? In this day and age to have this utter lack of situational awareness on a mayor strategic vessel is just both plain incomprehensible and utterly inexcusable.
 
Given the situation over the last few years, I would be more circumspect until more information comes along. Ships dragging anchors through coms cables, carrying weapons and oil on behalf of proscribed actors etc.

I would be very interested to see any motivation the bridge crew of the other ship may have. Conspiracy theory? Perhaps but more going on than meets the eye.
 
Foo Fighter said:
Given the situation over the last few years, I would be more circumspect until more information comes along. Ships dragging anchors through coms cables, carrying weapons and oil on behalf of proscribed actors etc.

I would be very interested to see any motivation the bridge crew of the other ship may have. Conspiracy theory? Perhaps but more going on than meets the eye.
Click to expand...

Before we go off half-cocked, maybe take a minute to understand the data we have. Sal Mercogliano [Spelling fixed] has done a video (which I can't link for some reason) that gives a look at the AIS data around the incident.

If you look at that data, it very much looks like Besiktas-M had just finished transiting the canal north bound and was threading her way through the Port Said Anchorage heading West toward Romania via the Dardanelles. Nothing unusual seen at all.

For me, the big issue is that Truman, apparently en route to transit the canal southbound has turned off her AIS just before trying to transit one of the densest traffic areas in the region, if not the world. I'm sure this was conceived as an ATFP OPSEC measure, but all it has done is ensure that other ships have no idea what she's doing. And what she is doing appears to be cutting through a dense stream of ships exiting the canal AND an anchorage full of ships waiting to go south. You can see ships scattering out of her likely path in AIS, even though you can't see Truman at all (though you can see her escort, Dunham).

Now, it's likely that Truman is technically the stand-on vessel here, since she is coming from Besiktas-M's starboard side in a crossing scenario. My hunch is that Besiktas-M saw Truman, underestimated the carriers speed, and thought they were crossing ahead of the carrier. That would fit with the damage to the starboard bow of Besiktas-M as seen in photos. But Truman running AIS would have given Besiktas-M much more clarity about the geometry of their encounter.
 
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A new photo is out showing the damage to Truman. Looks like the Besiktas-M clipped Truman's sponson aft of the island on the starboard side. Which makes it feel more like this was a slightly offset head-to-head pass with Truman turning to port just a bit too late. I think the ships almost cleared each other and hit at a fairly shallow angle.
 

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You would think with every carrier having a Starbucks, everyone would be alert. I think they better institute some Starbucks Navigation Shots for the bridge crews. However, when on CVN-65 and we ran aground in the SF Bay after our 82-83 WestPac, our CO Robert "Barney" Kelly (great CO by the way) did not get relieved from duty and got selected for Commodore (one-star). The harbor master took us around the wrong set of buoys where the channel had not been dredged, hence on a sandbar for 5 hours. Kelly retired as a 4-star admiral and was CINCPACFLT. Got to chat with him again during the CVN-65 deactivation ceremony in Dec 2012.
 
As expected, Capt. Dave Snowden has been relieved from command of USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75) on Thursday.
Capt. Christopher “Chowdah” Hill, the commanding officer of USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69), will command Truman in the interim.
My humble opinion:
Given the career-ending nature of the collision, it is improbable that Captain Snowden will be promoted to admiral. Consequently, one can reasonably expect him to submit a request for retirement in the near future.
Source:
Ward Carroll first take:
View: https://youtube.com/shorts/K2eq_XggPSY?si=4ZY9UCZ0hNAuERLW
 
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