U.S. Navy vessels collide near Iran

[Lex]

De schade a/b USS Hartford. Let ook op de aanhechting van het sail aan de romp.



Photo USNAVY/AP

[Lex]

Doet me terug denken aan een eerder topic .

[Lex]

[U.S. Navy Sub, Amphib Collide Off Bahrain

An attack submarine and an amphib are out of action following a collision March 20 during a nighttime transit through the narrow Strait of Hormuz.
The attack submarine Hartford and the amphibious transport dock New Orleans collided at 1 a.m. local time while moving into the Persian Gulf through the narrow passage between Iran and Oman.
Fifteen Hartford sailors were injured in the collision but were able to return to duty. No injuries were reported aboard New Orleans.
Details of the incident remain unclear. Hartford was "submerged but near the surface" at the time of the collision, according to Navy officials.
Both made their way to a local undisclosed port in the aftermath, said Cmdr. Jane Campbell, spokeswoman at 5th Fleet in Bahrain.
"They're both underway on their own power and both are in the [Persian] Gulf at this point," she said. "Hartford is on the surface and will remain on the surface until she's in port."
Damage to the wounded ships was evaluated at sea and will be more thoroughly examined in port.
Campbell said initial assessments showed two ballast tanks on New Orleans were ruptured, resulting in seawater flooding that required the ship to be stabilized. A fuel tank was also ruptured, causing an estimated 25,000 gallons of marine diesel fuel to spill into the gulf.
"She had flooding in three distinct compartments," Campbell said. "The flooding is secure, and the ship is making way on her own power."
P-3 Orion aircraft flew over the area looking for a sheen of spilled oil, but "there's no indication of that," she said.
Hartford suffered "visible" damage to the sail and to a bow plane. Campbell could not say if components of the sail such as masts and periscopes are damaged.
"It's important to point out that Hartford's [nuclear] power plant was not affected in this at all," she said. "We'll be doing a full incident investigation report as well as a [Judge Advocate General's Manual] investigation."
This is third recent collision involving a U.S. submarine in the Strait of Hormuz or the Persian Gulf.
The attack submarine Newport News and the Japanese oil tanker Mogamigawa collided Jan. 8, 2007, in the Strait of Hormuz, a busy strategic chokepoint that runs between Iran and Oman. In that incident both ships were headed out of the gulf at night when the submerged submarine was overtaken by the faster-moving tanker sailing the same route.
The movement of the large tanker caused the smaller submarine to be drawn into the ship's surface wake by the intermingling pressure areas created by their hull washes - a phenomenon known in physics as the Venturi effect.
In a previous incident the night of Sept. 25, 2005, the attack submarine Philadelphia, while traveling on the surface, collided with a Turkish cargo ship off the coast of Bahrain. No one was injured in the collision.
Both Philadelphia and Newport News underwent repairs in Bahrain before returning to their homeports.
Hartford and New Orleans are members of the Boxer Expeditionary Strike Group. Another ship from the group, the dock landing ship Comstock, was in the area at the time of the collision. Boxer remains in the Gulf of Aden on counterpiracy patrol. It and most of the other strike group departed San Diego on Jan. 8.
New Orleans is the second ship of its class to have a rough first deployment. The first ship, San Antonio, spent a month laid up in Bahrain following major leaking in its oil lubrication system that took nearly a month and cost about $1.4 million to repair.

Defense News,
Published: 20 Mar 11:43 EDT (15:43 GMT)

[Lex]

Aanvullende info:

U.S. Navy vessels collide near Iran

(CNN) -- A submerged U.S. submarine hit a Navy warship early Friday in the Strait of Hormuz near Iran, damaging both vessels and causing minor injuries, Navy officials said.
Fifteen sailors were slightly hurt aboard the submarine USS Hartford and returned to duty, a Navy spokesman said. No injuries were reported aboard the amphibious ship USS New Orleans.
There was significant damage to the sail, or tower-like structure atop the submarine, the officials said. The New Orleans lost 25,000 gallons of diesel fuel from one of three punctures to its hull, the Navy said.
"Obviously the Strait of Hormuz is a very active shipping lane," Navy spokesman Lt. Nate Christensen said. "We are trying to evaluate the extent of the spill."
Both vessels were able to operate under their own power, after the collision, which occurred about 1 a.m. (5 p.m. ET, Thursday).
The Navy was determining where the vessels should head for repairs, and the collision was under investigation. The fuel spill has not affected other vessels in the strait, Christensen said.
Both vessels were headed to ports in the Persian Gulf to stock up on provisions and allow for some recreation, he said.
Christensen said there were about 200 sailors in the sub and 1,000 sailors and Marines aboard the ship.
The strait is between the United Arab Emirates and Iran, linking the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf, and is heavily used by oil tankers.
Both vessels are on regularly scheduled deployments to the U.S. Navy Central Command area of responsibility, and conduct Maritime Security Operations.

CNN,03-20-2009

[Cobra4]

U.S. Navy vessels collide near Iran

CNN) -- A U.S. Navy submarine collided with a Navy amphibious ship Friday in the Strait of Hormuz, mildly injuring 15 sailors, according to the commander of the U.S. Fifth Fleet.

The submarine, the USS Hartford, collided with the USS New Orleans about 1 a.m. in the strait, which runs between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula. It is one of the busiest commercial routes for oil tankers.

Fifteen aboard the Hartford were injured but returned to duty, according to a news release.

Both vessels are operating on their own power.

The nuclear propulsion plant on the 362-foot-long sub was not damaged, but "New Orleans suffered a ruptured fuel tank, which resulted in an oil spill of approximately 25,000 gallons of diesel fuel marine," the release said.

The New Orleans is capable of carrying almost 1,100 troops and crew. The Hartford carries about 145

bron: www.cnn.com