Li says:

The “small boat” problem is a major known vulnerability of our heavy naval forces, that, combined with more recent Chinese and Russian hypersonic cruise missiles, makes our big boats into nothing more than massive, expensive coffins. The Millennium Challenge 2002 utterly exposed this weakness to the whole world;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Challenge_2002

After the Millennium Challenge 2002, the navy should have completely reevaluated its strategy, but in the end, the money is in big iron, even if it is strategically and tactically stupid.

John Paradox says:

PT 109?

J/P=?

RTaylor says:

Commercial radars with anti-collision alarms have been available for decades. This ship would have at least three radars, with navigation and weather on constantly, along with lookouts. I’m sure they saw the other vessel, but some confusion in avoidance commands resulted in a collision.

Ron Larson says:

A few points…

1. I find it ironic considering how the US Navy was raked over the coals by Japan when a US sub crashed into a boat of Japanese students, while surfacing, off Hawaii. Remember that? The captain of the sub had to go to Japan and personally apologize to the families in Japan. Then the US Navy threw this USNA grad captain’s career under the bus. He is probably serving fries at a McDonald’s now.
2. My dad was a salmon fisherman in Northern California. He had a 35 foot wood boat. One clear day when fishing off of the Farallon Islands (off of San Francisco), he was hit by one of the SF Bay pilot boats. The guy running the pilot boat was back looking at a fax and ran right into my dad’s boat. This was the pilot, the same guys who are supposed to bring the ships in and out of SF Bay.
3. My brother is currently sailing his boat in SE Asia and he tells that the fishermen there don’t follow any rules what so ever when it comes to navigation lights, traffic rules, radios, or anything. If they have any lights, they simply hang whatever they have (event Xmas lights) and whatever pattern they want. They drop nets in traffic lanes. They build partially submerged platforms to attract fish that you can’t see on radar, but you can smack in to them.
4. It is quite common, in my experience, that small fishing boats often don’t have anyone at the wheel any more. For example, in Australia when they leave port in the early morning, they set the GPS and autopilot and then go down below and go to sleep for the 2-3 hour run out to the fishing ground. If anyone is awake, they are usually in the back working fishing gear. No one pays attention to the traffic around them.

So in summary, this is not surprising considering how most small fishing boats are operated.

Mister Catshit says:

#9, Ron,

Good points. I immediately thought of the American sub vs Japanese training vessel.