Radar woes arise at ‘Fitz’ hearing

WASHINGTON –In an Article 32 hearing last week at the Washington Navy Yard, the defense attorney for two junior officers (JOs) at the controls of USS Fitzgerald, which collided off the coast of Japan last summer with a merchant ship, laid bare the claim that a faulty radar system was a key contributing factor to the collision, and that the U.S. Navy knew about it. The hearing officer must now determine whether there is enough evidence to try the officers at a court-martial; and whether they should be held negligently responsible for the deaths of seven sailors. Prosecutors said the duo failed at their jobs, not using tools at their disposal properly. They claimed the JOs became complacent with faulty equipment, did not seek to get it fixed, and failed to communicate with the bridge. The merchant ship ACX Crystal’s radar was tracking up to 30 ships in its orbit leading up to the collision. Fitzgerald’s radar system was tracking five within that same orbit. David Sheldon, a civilian attorney for one of the JOs claimed that the “blame here lies not just with the (CO) or the (XO), it lies with the Navy … and the Navy is putting its head in the sand and not dealing with a ship that should never have gotten underway. Instead it wants to hold these officers responsible,” he said. The hearing officer has 14 days to make his recommendation on whether all or some of those charges should go forward in a court-martial. (Source: Stars and Stripes 05/11/18) Gulf Coast Note: USS Fitzgerald (DDG 62) is currently under multiple contracts worth well more than $125M with Huntington Ingalls Shipyard in Pascagoula, Miss., to restore the destroyer’s electronic warfare equipment; hull mechanical and electrical systems; power systems; and command, control, communications, computers, and intelligence assets.