Warship Collision: U.S. Navy orders operational pause, wide-ranging review

The U.S. Navy said that it had ordered an operational pause of its fleets globally and a wide-ranging review of the U.S. Pacific-based 7th Fleet after a collision of a U.S. destroyer and an oil tanker near Singapore early Monday.

The examination should seek the root causes of the collision, said 31st Chief of Naval Operations Admiral John Richardson, in a video posted on the U.S. Navy's official twitter account.

Richardson said that the investigation will examine the process by which the U.S. Navy trains and certifies its forces that were forward deployed in Japan, Xinhua reported.

The inquiry team should be a "broad and diverse" one, with people inside and outside the Navy, the senior navy official added.

At least ten US sailors are missing and five others have been injured after the US Navy guided-missile destroyer USS John S McCain collided with a merchant vessel in Alnic MC in waters east of Singapore and the Straits of Malacca, reports CNN quoting US Navy.

The US Navy in a statement said the USS John S. McCain collided with the merchant vessel Alnic MC while the destroyer was making its way to a routine port visit in Singapore. The collision was reported at 5:24 am local time.

It was the second U.S. destroyer involved in a collision in the past two months.

In June, the USS Fitzgerald collided with a container ship in waters off Japan, leaving seven sailors dead.