The following is the text of a report from the U.S. Naval Institute (USNI):
(WASHINGTON) — The Navy will use a heavy-lift ship to transport the damaged guided-missile destroyer USS John S. McCain (DDG 56) to Japan for further assessment, Naval Sea Systems Command announced on Wednesday.
“The ship is being heavy-lifted to Yokosuka so that further damage assessments may be conducted,” read the statement. “Completion of the damage assessment is required to fully determine repair plans to include cost, schedule and location for the ship’s repairs.”
McCain, which was struck by a chemical tanker on Aug. 21 during a transit near the Strait of Malacca, resulting in the death of 10 sailors, is currently pier-side at the Changi Naval Base, Singapore.
The effort will be a modification of a contract between the Navy and SMIT Salvage, a NAVSEA spokeswoman told USNI News.
The McCain move follows a late August contract award to a Texas company to transport guided-missile destroyer USS Fitzgerald (DDG 62) to the Gulf Coast for repairs for $3.1 million.
“Patriot Shipping, based out of Houston, Texas, has been awarded the contract to move Fitzgerald from Yokosuka, Japan, to Pascagoula, Miss., where the ship will be repaired by Huntington Ingalls Industries,” read a statement from the service at the time.
Prior to the need to move Fitzgerald and McCain, the Navy last needed to move a destroyer across an ocean in 2000 following the terrorist attack on USS Cole (DDG 67) in Yemen.
At the time the service paid $4.5 million to hire a heavy-lift ship to transport Cole to the U.S.
The following is the complete statement on the move of McCain:
The Navy intends to issue a task order on an existing contract, for the salvage patching and transport via heavy lift of USS John S. McCain from Changi Naval Base in Singapore to the U.S. Navy’s Ship Repair Facility-Japan Regional Maintenance Center in Yokosuka, Japan. The lift is notionally planned for late September.
The ship is being heavy lifted to Yokosuka so that further damage assessments may be conducted. Completion of the damage assessment is required to fully determine repair plans to include cost, schedule and location for the ship’s repairs.
The guided-missile destroyer USS John S. McCain was involved in a collision with the merchant vessel Alnic MC while underway east of the Strait of Malacca and Singapore on Aug. 21. The ship suffered significant damage to its port side aft, resulting in flooding to nearby compartments, including berthing, machinery, and communications rooms.
