Северный Флот

The U.S. Navy destroyer USS Porter suffered significant damage after colliding with an oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday.

 The USS Porter is an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer that is part of the 5th fleet. That particular class of destroyer runs about $1.1 billion ($321.9 million for the ship; an extra $778 million for the weapons systems). They carry about ninety missiles of different types, and carry torpedo, helicopter, and gun weapons systems as well. You’d think a bit more of that money would have gone into adequate navigational systems.

The U.S. Navy destroyer USS Porter suffered significant damage after colliding with an oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday.

The USS Porter was passing through the Strait of Hormuz into the Persian Gulf.

The Japanese-owned, Panamanian flagged tanker M/V Otowasan was coming the other way, just entering the Strait of Hormuz, and the two crashed into one another.

The shipping lanes are very narrow, about two miles wide in each lane.  The crash left a hole in the side of the destroyer but no injuries were reported.

The damage is all above the water-line, so there is no danger that the ship will sink, but likely sustained water damage because the fire control system would have activated.

After the collision USS Porter headed to a port called Jebel Ali in the UAE.