Will More Navy Ships Meet the Fitzgerald’s Fate?

One of the U.S. Navy’s most advanced warships collided early Saturday morning with a huge container ship in the waters off Tokyo Bay, puncturing a large hole below the destroyer’s waterline. Seven American seamen perished.  Others, including the ship’s captain, were hurt. And, but for the heroics of the crew, the USS Fitzgerald might have been lost.

There is much that remains to be explained about what happened that night.  The track of the Philippine-flagged cargo vessel, the ACX Crystal, suggests that it turned dramatically off course to bring it onto the path of the Fitzgerald.  Was that an accident or a deliberate attack?

Either way, an extremely important part of the Navy’s defense of the fleet in the increasingly volatile Western Pacific has now been taken out – for perhaps a year in the shipyard.  America’s enemies are pleased, and perhaps inspired.