WASHINGTON \u2014 Senators briefed by senior Navy officials Tuesday said judgment and training mistakes were to blame for the deaths of 17 sailors in a pair of collisions with commercial ships this summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the findings, set to be released publicly later this week, have also raised concerns among lawmakers about force readiness issues and whether adequate funding is being given to ever-increasing mission demands on the naval force.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe need to provide our sailors, as well as soldiers and airmen, with the resources they need,\u201d said Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee\u2019s seapower panel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn this case, there were judgment mistakes and training mistakes, and a failure to adhere to procedures. But in general, we\u2019re asking too few ships to do too many things. And that needs to be addressed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wicker\u2019s comments came after a classified briefing for committee members with Chief Of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson and U.S. Fleet Forces Commander Adm. Philip. Davidson on Capitol Hill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The event was focused on the monthslong investigations into a pair of high-profile Navy accidents: the June 17 collision between the guided-missile destroyer <\/em>Fitzgerald and a commercial ship near the coast of Japan that killed seven sailors, and the Aug. 21 collision between the destroyer John S. McCain and a commercial tanker off the coast of Singapore that killed 10 more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wicker and other senators would not offer specifics of the investigation findings, which are expected to be made public later this week. But they did say the incidents raise troubling questions about Navy readiness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s a whole bunch of problems that cause ships to run into each other,\u201d said committee chairman Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., when asked about the briefing. \u201cWe\u2019re putting men and women in harm\u2019s way because we refuse to give them sufficient training, equipment and readiness. It\u2019s a failure of Congress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey\u2019re doing the best they can, trying to do more with little. When sailors are working 100-hour work weeks, they\u2019re not efficient.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Those comments referenced a Government Accountability Office report from September that said reductions in crew sizes have forced some sailors to work more than 100 hours a week, raising the risk of future accidents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lawmakers have also used the spate of accidents in the Navy and ground forces to stump for more defense funding, arguing that training and maintenance funds have been trimmed to dangerously low levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But senators who attended the briefing would not say whether those funding issues are among the major causes of the McCain and Fitzgerald accidents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They did say they are pleased with Navy officials\u2019 transparency on the collisions thus far, but will be closely monitoring both the investigations and corresponding recommendations for months to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pentagon officials are expected to release more details from their findings before the end of the week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Lawmakers said they’re worried that funding cutbacks may have contributed to a pair of accidents that killed 17 sailors this summer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":52869,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":86,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[15,86],"tags":[8580],"coauthors":[3347],"class_list":["post-66048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-pentagon-congress","tag-japan"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"FNNTZCCAENFNJA5SCYY5IOGJ3Y","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2017\/10\/31\/senators-judgement-training-mistakes-caused-ship-collisions\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n