Navy: USS Guardian to be dismantled after running aground on Philippines' Tubbataha Reef

The U.S. Navy minesweeper USS Guardian, top, is seen stranded on the Tubbataha Reef, a World Heritage Site in the Sulu Sea 400 miles southwest of Manila, Philippines, Jan. 25, 2013, in this picture released by the Tubbataha Management Office. / AP Photo/Tubbataha Management Office

MANILA, Philippines The U.S. Navy said Wednesday that it would dismantle a minesweeper that ran aground on a coral reef in the Philippines after carefully studying all options on how to remove the damaged ship.

Navy spokesman Lt. Cmdr. James Stockman said dismantling the USS Guardian was determined to be the solution that would involve the least damage to the Tubbataha Reef, a protected marine sanctuary where the ship got stuck Jan. 17.

He said the Philippine coast guard was reviewing the plan, but gave no other details.

The Navy had said previously that the Guardian would be lifted by crane onto a barge and taken to a shipyard, but apparently the damage was too extensive and it will have to be cut up and removed in pieces. Stockman gave no time frame for the operation.

The grounding caused no casualties to the ship's 79 crew and officers, who were taken off the vessel after it crashed into the reef in shallow waters. The ship began listing and taking on water through holes in the wooden hull. The Navy's support vessels siphoned off remaining fuel and salvage teams removed heavy equipment and hazardous material.

The Navy is investigating the incident, which caused Philippine government agencies and environmentalists to express concern about the extent of damage to the coral reef.

Philippine President Benigno Aquino III said last week that the U.S. Navy must explain how the ship got off course. He said the Navy would face fines for damaging the environment.

Rear Adm. Thomas Carney, commander of the Navy's Logistics Group in the Western Pacific, told reporters last week that the investigation would look into all the factors that may have led to the grounding, including a reported faulty digital chart, sea conditions, weather and the state of the ship's navigational equipment.

The Navy and the U.S. ambassador to the Philippines, Harry K. Thomas, have apologized for the grounding and promised to cooperate with its close ally.

[Schteveo]

Hey, no BFD right DoD? It's ONLY $300M that you're pissing away! As an ex-sailor, I'm having trouble believing that OUR reef maps were wrong in an area of the world where we've been operating for over 100 years. It's the kind of thing that let's me know today, that we'll probably never know everything that's going on. And yes, I do understand military secrecy, I had a TS at one time myself.

Having said that, this is the kind of touchy-feely decision that invariably gets made by Presidents, like Obumble, who hate the military. Screw it, what's one ship more or less, right?

[sam_lowrey]

Raise the sea level so it can float away. Simple.

[CantilangnonAko]

LOL! Just pray the arctic and antarctic glaciers will melt fast so the sea level will rise.

[PourpaixPourpaix]

Exactly why is it necessary to send a minesweeper to the Sulu Sea off the Philippines? A minesweeper is only useful to neutralize mines, but nobody is mining Philippine waters. Even most pirate ships are better armed. I hardly think it could be doing its primary purpose of protecting Japan by flailing around the Philippines. Maybe it was looking for a wayward USA drone illegally spying on the Philippine people?

If the government is so keen on cutting costs by reducing ridiculous programs that serve no useful purpose, why are they trying to do it by tuning our backs on sick people? Maintaining a navy that's bigger than the rest of the world combined serves no useful purpose, especially when basically unarmed ships are sent to patrol foreign waters that have no risk of imminent conflict.

[Greenbaum1]

PourpaixPourpaix - The USS Guardian was in port refueling and taking on supplies to continue its classified mission. Of course, these goods and services were purchased from Filipino businessmen/women who employ many Filipino's as employees, hence enriching their lives.

To answer you second statement; the new military strategy includes $487 billion in cuts over the next decade. An additional $500 billion in cuts could be coming if Congress follows through on plans for deeper reductions. So indeed what you are bellyaching over is being addressed.

Your statement is full of BS and shows your lack of understanding to local as well as international issues.

[sam_lowrey]

Maybe more sacrificial Americans to be attacked by Israel and blamed on the boogeyman-de-jure like the USS Liberty and USS Cole. You know, the "Muslims" who row out to the ocean with a shaped charge and blow up the side of the Cole even though no one could have known they would stop there for refueling (except the Israelis) and that no one would have been allowed to approach the ship. The Muslims have shaped charges on rowboats and 24-hour shifts all over the world just waiting for that opportunity, don't you know?

How about that Korean ship supposedly attacked by North Korea but it was discovered the torpedoes were German - and who gets their torpedoes from Germany...Israel. Funny how that story went away immediately after that.

[rwsmith29456]

The U.S.S Costa Concordia

[bobnjersey]

[The U.S. Navy said Wednesday that it would dismantle a minesweeper that ran aground on a coral reef in the Philippines after carefully studying all options on how to remove the damaged ship.]
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tie a string to the bow ... and fill the ship with helium ... then pull the string away from the reef.

[CantilangnonAko]

I think the navy needs you there. What kind of string are you talking about?