Just before midnight on 12 February, the nuclear powered aircraft carrier USS Harry S Truman collided with the bulk carrier Besiktas-M as it approached the Northern entrance to the Suez Canal at Port Said.
The official statement from the US 6th Fleet was thin on detail but clear that “the carrier did not experience flooding, there are no injuries and the propulsion plants [i.e. the reactors] are unaffected”.
As ever at this stage of an accident there are plenty of gaps in the information available but equally unavoidable these days, those gaps are already being filled with conspiracy theories. By piecing together what we do know with what I know of operating at sea in that area, I can hopefully fill in some gaps.
The Truman has been operating in the Red Sea since December as a key part of Operation Prosperity Guardian (OPG), the defensive mission there to reassure shipping in the face of Houthi missile and drone attacks. Based on the percentage of trade electing to go around the Cape of Good Hope rather than run this gauntlet, it is fair to say that despite various warships’ best and sometimes heroic efforts, this mission has not been successful so far.
Of course, right now there is a ceasefire. Whether the Truman used this as a reason, or whether it was pre-planned, she took the opportunity to leave the Red Sea, head through the Suez canal and take some R&R in Souda Bay, Greece. She took the USS Jason Dunham, an Arleigh Burke Destroyer with her for protection. The rest of her group drew the short straw and stayed in the Red Sea.
Just before midnight on 12 February, the nuclear powered aircraft carrier USS Harry S Truman collided with the bulk carrier Besiktas-M as it approached the Northern entrance to the Suez Canal at Port Said.
The official statement from the US 6th Fleet was thin on detail but clear that “the carrier did not experience flooding, there are no injuries and the propulsion plants [i.e. the reactors] are unaffected”.
As ever at this stage of an accident there are plenty of gaps in the information available but equally unavoidable these days, those gaps are already being filled with conspiracy theories. By piecing together what we do know with what I know of operating at sea in that area, I can hopefully fill in some gaps.
The Truman has been operating in the Red Sea since December as a key part of Operation Prosperity Guardian (OPG), the defensive mission there to reassure shipping in the face of Houthi missile and drone attacks. Based on the percentage of trade electing to go around the Cape of Good Hope rather than run this gauntlet, it is fair to say that despite various warships’ best and sometimes heroic efforts, this mission has not been successful so far.
Of course, right now there is a ceasefire. Whether the Truman used this as a reason, or whether it was pre-planned, she took the opportunity to leave the Red Sea, head through the Suez canal and take some R&R in Souda Bay, Greece. She took the USS Jason Dunham, an Arleigh Burke Destroyer with her for protection. The rest of her group drew the short straw and stayed in the Red Sea.