The John McCain had a steering failure right at the critical moment:
The USS John S. McCain suffered a steering failure as she was beginning her approach into the Strait of Malacca, a U.S. Navy official has told news agency CNN. The destroyer collided with a tanker on Monday.
“The official said it was unclear why the crew couldn’t utilize the ship’s backup steering systems to maintain control,” reports CNN. Steering control was apparently regained after the collision.
The destroyer arrived at Changi Naval Base on Monday afternoon with significant hull damage. The damage resulted in flooding to nearby compartments, including crew berthing, machinery and communications rooms. Divers have started searching the flooded areas of destroyer for 10 sailors reported missing after a collision…
There have been four incidents involving U.S. Navy vessels in the region this year: the USS Fitzgerald collided with a container ship off the coast of Japan in June, killing seven sailors, USS Lake Champlain hit a South Korean fishing boat in May and the USS Antietam ran aground off the coast of Japan in January.
An opinion piece in China Daily stated that the U.S. Navy was becoming “a hazard in Asian waters” and “a growing risk to commercial shipping.”
On Free Republic a Navy guy who served on Destroyers said they have an immediate back-up steering system, and if that fails they can call down to the engine room and actually do it manually down there, and they practice to do all, just in case of a steering failure at a critical moment. That the system didn’t work has to make you wonder if there was some malicious action going on, beyond just an accident.
The Navy has not ruled out an intentional action behind the latest deadly collision between a Navy destroyer and a merchant ship, the chief of naval operations told reporters Monday.
“That’s is certainly something we are giving full consideration to but we have no indication that that’s the case—yet,” Adm. John Richardson, the CNO, said at the Pentagon.
“But we’re looking at every possibility, so we’re not leaving anything to chance,” he said.
Strangely Russia has been caught using GPS spoofing elsewhere
Reports of satellite navigation problems in the Black Sea suggest that Russia may be testing a new system for spoofing GPS .
On 22 June, the US Maritime Administration filed a seemingly bland incident report. The master of a ship off the Russian port of Novorossiysk had discovered his GPS put him in the wrong spot – more than 32 kilometres inland, at Gelendzhik Airport.
After checking the navigation equipment was working properly, the captain contacted other nearby ships. Their AIS traces – signals from the automatic identification system used to track vessels – placed them all at the same airport. At least 20 ships were affected.
While the incident is not yet confirmed, experts think this is the first documented use of GPS misdirection – a spoofing attack that has long been warned of but never been seen in the wild.
We just lost two Predators suspiciously in Turkey, which could have been GPS related:
A US Air Force MQ-1 Predator drone crashed in a field after departing Incirlik Air Base in southern Turkey on Monday, just three days after another Predator crashed after taking off from the same airfield.
And then there is the story of the Cuban diplomats, who appear to have lost more than their hearing:
A doctor who evaluated American and Canadian diplomats working in Cuba diagnosed them with conditions as serious as mild traumatic brain injury and damage to the central nervous system, CBS News said on Wednesday, citing medical records it reviewed.
The diplomats had complained of symptoms including hearing loss, nausea, headaches and balance disorders after what were described as “incidents” that began affecting them in Havana beginning in late 2016.
Officials are investigating whether the diplomats were targets of some form of sonic attack directed at their homes.
Incidents had continued to occur on the island and some US diplomats had cut short their assignments.
The state department did not immediately respond to requests for a comment on the CBS News report.
It is possible nations are seeing a period of turmoil ahead, and they are testing their technology before it arrives in preparation for it.
All it would take is one instance of a test like that being uncovered, and being found to have killed a US Service Person or diplomat, and we could touch off a major war. If China killed ten US sailors testing a hack of US Warship computer systems, we would have no choice but to respond militarily, and the Chinese would not merely accept that blow. We would have war, and a sudden shift to K.
Even more disturbing, is the scarcity of evidence such a test would leave behind should a foreign power have performed it – and how easily the elites could spoof such a test, and precipitate such a war, just as their hold on power is weakening.
I hate to say it, but a hallmark of the coming K-shift may end up being mass mortality of K-strategists, no matter how the collapse plays out. Clearly such a K-mortality will be a primary desire of the elites.
Like it or not, rabbits make better serfs, and the elites know it.
Tell everyone about r/K Theory, because the elites and the rabbits want to kill us
The timing of the steering loss is suspicious; there’s a pretty small window where the loss is critical, and much larger periods where the crew has time to react, or the loss is inconsequential (e.g., in blue water with no nearby ships).
Another factor to consider is fatigue. The Crew Endurance Team at the Naval Postgraduate School has been researching using Circadian Watches (https://my.nps.edu/web/crewendurance/choosing-the-right-rotation), where a complete watch cycle is 24 hours. Some of the current systems like five and dime (5 on, 10 off), produce health threatening sleep deprivation.
The USS Songbird incident sounds like either a hack, or sabotage.
As for the Cuban incident, I’m starting to lean back towards poison rather than a sonic.
I don’t think they need many rabbits either, since most pay no or very little in taxes. They want a good clean culling, preferably leaving infrastructure intact. Rabbit elites love it when the hawk causes die offs.
”I hate to say it, but a hallmark of the coming K-shift may end up being mass mortality of K-strategists, no matter how the collapse plays out. Clearly such a K-mortality will be a primary desire of the elites.”
K-strategists being baited to fight amongst each other? If so that highlights the importance of being able to distinguish between bait and true threat. Fighting effectively and with use of minimum resources.
We must stop allowing ourselves from being manipulated by mastering ourselves and knowing our enemies and ourselves.
Very true. It is tough though. Suppose they lied and said one of those Destroyers crashed because China hacked it. We’d support a counter-strike, because there would be no other choice if they did kill ten of our own. Then China strikes back and it is war. We could lose ten million young K’s from the next generation, but what other option would there be?
And all it would take is a few rabbits at the top lying.
”We’d support a counter-strike, because there would be no other choice if they did kill ten of our own. Then China strikes back and it is war. We could lose ten million young K’s from the next generation, but what other option would there be?
And all it would take is a few rabbits at the top lying.”
Keeping a cool head even when angry is one of the keys I think. This is why self-control and being turned on to reality with thorough training in critical thinking is so important. Why being slow to anger is so promoted in biblical literature and that even righteous anger never loses its head. A relentless commitment to truth no matter the cost.
Other than that I have no other options I can only counsel the proper character traits and state of mind that allows discovery of lies and manipulation.
Rabbits will continue to deceive and lie until it no longer works. This fatal flaw of K-strategists will continue their decimation over and over again until the ability to see through manipulation is gained.
Alternate theory: Affirmative Action in action.
Puerto Ricans Sanchez and Sanchez are the CO and XO of the USS Songbird.
http://www.public.navy.mil/surfor/ddg56/Pages/Bio1.aspx