January 25th, 2013
09:04 AM ET

Warship will have to be lifted off reef

The U.S Navy minesweeper that grounded on a Philippine reef last week has taken on water and sustained too much damage to be towed off, the Navy says.

"It's got hull penetrations in several places, and there is a significant amount of water inside the ship," Rear Adm. Tom Carney said at a briefing Thursday.

The Navy said it will use ship-borne cranes and heavy-lift vessels to lift the minesweeper, the USS Guardian, off the Tubbataha Reef.

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Filed under: Military • Philippines • U.S. Navy
soundoff (16 Responses)
  1. Scottish Mama

    lolololollo. Roflmao. They can find mines but not see a reef with all that equipment. lol

    January 25, 2013 at 9:24 am | Report abuse |
    • banasy©

      It does seem a little unbelievable, doesn't it??
      Somebody has a red face right about now...

      January 25, 2013 at 10:44 am | Report abuse |
    • Robert

      More than a red face. More like a finished career. Navy does not give second chances on grounding ships.

      January 28, 2013 at 8:31 am | Report abuse |
  2. Hide Behind

    Philippines asked for more US military; and now they share a reef or two!

    January 25, 2013 at 10:15 am | Report abuse |
    • Jerome Horowitz

      Maybe the crew shared a reefer or two.....

      January 27, 2013 at 9:44 pm | Report abuse |
  3. Scottish Mama

    @Hide Behind- lol

    January 25, 2013 at 10:23 am | Report abuse |
  4. chrissy

    You guys are hillarious! Maybe they shouid get some Ford technology on those ships eh? The new cars that Ford builds lets you know when youre backing up if your gonna hit something as small as a trycicle or a skateboard so you can assume it would work on the front and notify you of a reef! Time to retire some outdated naval ships same as outdated jets. Put some people to work!

    January 25, 2013 at 11:16 am | Report abuse |
  5. Portland tony

    Really bad seamanship! However these minesweepers don't have forward looking sonar in their non metallic wooden hulls. They can locate mines electronically and disable them...but they need a navigator with a brain to avoid the shore!

    January 25, 2013 at 11:53 am | Report abuse |
    • Scottish Mama

      Tony there you go, getting all logical on us.lol

      January 25, 2013 at 11:58 am | Report abuse |
  6. 1608

    Speed bump.

    January 25, 2013 at 3:11 pm | Report abuse |
  7. John Smith

    America is the root of all terror.

    January 26, 2013 at 6:09 am | Report abuse |
  8. ted

    Gee, maybe we need to spend several hundred billions more so that they get sonar or something that would work to avoid reefs. amazing

    January 27, 2013 at 8:34 pm | Report abuse |
    • AGeek

      You clearly have no idea about the requirements for a vessel to be a minesweeper. But thanks for that rant just the same.

      January 28, 2013 at 8:56 am | Report abuse |
  9. bing

    it's now official: the USS Guardian minesweeper has been renamed USS Guardian reefsweeper.

    January 28, 2013 at 1:53 am | Report abuse |
    • AGeek

      reefpaver. FTFY

      January 28, 2013 at 8:56 am | Report abuse |
  10. Oh the irony

    Let's fill the tanks with seawater so the waves don't play havoc with it. Oh no, it's got too much water in it to tow off!

    January 30, 2013 at 1:17 pm | Report abuse |
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