While the Navy has invested heavily in ship-driving training in the wake of two fatal collisions in 2017, surface warfare officer test scores haven’t improved and officials still can’t track whether safety reforms are working, according to a federal government watchdog report released Thursday.
“It is concerning that SWO competency has not improved in the 2 years since the 2017 collisions despite the fleet-wide attention to improving ship-driving skills,” the Government Accountability Office report stated.
Not the Navy or SWO community that I knew in the 70’s and 80’s. Very sad, depressing and frightening.
Sad indeed. When my son did sea year at the Maritime Academy he attended, I told him to steer and make that mate or Captain kick you out of the wheelhouse before you leave. He did trips all over the world, commercial and MSC. He said it was very noticeable the difference of the bridge operation between the two. When MSC had civilian operators (Good) as opposed to Navy(Not as good).
We expect a warship, given the manning and its manoeverabity to keep itself from harm without outside assistance from natural features and other vessels in times of peace.
Now it’s "if it’s gray, keep away. "