U.S. Navy issues solicitation to haul damaged Fitzgerald back to United States

The U.S. Navy is looking to haul the warship back to the United States for repairs, following its June collision with an NYK Line containership in Japanese waters that claimed the lives of seven U.S. sailors.    The U.S. Navy is looking to haul the USS Fitzgerald, a guided missile destroyer severely damaged in June during a collision with a containership in Japanese waters, back to the United States for repairs as soon as September.
   “The Fitzgerald may be moved in September, but it could be later than that,” a spokesman for the U.S. Seventh Fleet said, according to a report from Reuters.
   According to the Aug. 4 Federal Business Opportunities solicitation, the Navy is looking for “one U.S. or foreign flag Float On/Float Off (FLO/FLO) vessel capable of transporting an ARLEIGH BURKE-class destroyer from the Far East to the U.S. Gulf Coast or U.S. East Coast.”
   The cost to repair the Fitzgerald could easily exceed $500 million, much of which will be needed to fix the extensive damage of the ship’s electronic systems, USNI News said.
   The June 17 collision between the Fitzgerald and the ACX Crystal containership, which occurred around 2:30 a.m. local time about 56 nautical miles off the coast of Honshu, Japan, resulted in the loss of seven U.S. Navy sailors.
   There were no injuries on board the ACX Crystal, nor any oil spill form the vessel, according to vessel operator NYK.
   The Fitzgerald is 8,315-tons and 505 feet long, while the ACX Crystal is much larger, with a gross tonnage of 29,000 tons and a length of 728 feet.
   According to ocean carrier schedule and capacity database BlueWater Reporting, the 2,858-TEU ACX Crystal serves on NYK’s intra-Asia PX1 service, which operates with three vessels, all of which are operated by NYK.
   NYK’s most recent online service schedules show the ACX Crystal came off the service after the collision, and came back on with the Aug. 7 departure from Laem Chabang.
   Commenting on the collision, back in July, U.S. Navy Chief of Information, Rear Adm. Dawn Cutler said, “We are in the early stages of the investigation process to develop a comprehensive picture of what caused the collision and do not have any definitive information to release at this time. It is premature to speculate on causation or any other issues. Once we have a detailed understanding of the facts and circumstances, we will share those findings with the Fitzgerald families, our Congressional oversight committees and the general public.”
   However, CNN reported last month that preliminary findings suggest the accident was caused by multiple errors by the Fitzgerald’s crew.